Conning

The most common one that is used is conning. This is done by first working the sample up into a cone in a random way. As you would expect some of the bigger pieces will be close to the bottom but this cannot be evaded and it will not make a lot of difference in the end results anyway. After you have a somewhat of a symmetrical cone you will then need to flatten it with the back of your shovel. This will make it turn into a disc that is around a tenth as high as it is in diameter. This means that if the diameter of the disc is of sixty inches for example, the height of should be around six inches.

You should make sure the disc is as close to the circle as you possibly can and it should be divided into four parts by drawing out two lines with the shovel that can cut it in half and are vertical to each other. You will then need to take the quarters that are on the other sides out from the pile and these should be thrown off the canvas. You will then need to build the pile back into a cone, flatten it again and then divide it in quarters once again. This technique will need to continue being repeated until the weight of the last two quarters are the same weight that you will be needing for assaying.

One other technique that works just fine if the material needs to be separated is the rolling method, however, this works well if the material that is going to be separated is dry of almost dry. The quantity that can be mixed up by using this method depends on the amount of the sample, the content of the moisture as well as the size of the canvas. If all of these things are positive, then this is one of the best ways of mixing it.

Put the material as close as possible to one of the corners of the tarpaulin and then pull this across to the opposite corner so the tarpaulin shapes out a triangle. You will then need to lay the canvas down flat and the opposite corners then need to be pulled together. This method will need to be repeated until the material has all mixed in well together. In most cases you will need to pull the sheet a little bit over half way to make sure it is rolling the right way and mixing well together.

After the material is mixed well, the four corners need to get pulled together so the material is able to get together in the middle. You will need to flatten out the material just like you would do in the conning method and then you will need to divide it in four and the opposite ends needs to be thrown out. This process needs to be done over and over until the sample has been reduced to the size that is desired.

Once the sample has been brought down to a size that can be managed it then needs to be placed inside a plastic container to make sure that it does not become contaminated. At this point of the procedure maybe as much as one thousand pounds has been brought down to only a few pounds and even a smaller amount of surface soil can change the ending results of significantly.