Final Concentration

The final concentration method used has a lot to do with the process that was first used to concentrate the river sands. Panning and dry washing concentrates are very alike, with a lot of gold with little amounts of black sand. With this kind of concentration the person will usually change immediately to either the chemical or the magnetic technique.

If the concentration came from a sluicing or dredging operation on the other hand, the odds are good that there is still an amount of black sand in comparison to the amount of gold. Or if there were fine values like gold inside the concentrate, the amount of black sand would also be a considerable amount.

If the amount of black sand that has been concentrated is of a cup or more the first thing to do is to pan it again. The process would be the same as if you were panning in a stream. Nonetheless you should use a pan that is smaller in size. A well experienced prospector normally uses a eighteen to twenty four inch pan so that he is able to work more gravel at one time, however, in the case of an amateur you should change over to the pan that is no larger than twelve inches. There are some reasons why this should be done.

To begin with is the fact that the concentrate has now turned into high grade ore. Even though it only a little bit inside of it, the value could increase tremendously. Then you will be working with smaller amounts of sand and it is not as difficult and more efficient to work with a smaller sized gold pan.

If you are going to be working in the field, you will need to make sure you find a nice and quiet area in the stream where you will not lose as much sand to the current of the stream. What you are going to be doing is trying to get as much gold as you possibly can before moving on to the next step. In order to separate the black sand and gold you will need to do exactly the same thing as you did in the original stream panning but when you do get to this point none of the black sand is going to be thrown away because it all needs to get processed one more time. 

If after you have done this last concentration, you see that the particles of gold are now down to a powder fine, the little left over particles of black sand can then be separated and this can be done by using a magnet. Obviously for this, you will need a magnet as well as some wax paper and some rubber bands.