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Gold Propspecting Manual
Dredging Prospecting: After you have learned all about your dredge you should be quite familiar with how it functions, how to get it working inside the water, and what the best ways of launching are. All that is left is to then begin the actual work of dredging for gold. It may seem a bit weird that a great deal of different things about a dredge needs to be looked over before actually getting into the process of dredging or to be more precise, how to get the suction nozzle to work. The truth is that almost everybody is able to focus on dredging if the rig is functioning the right way. So once you have that part down and you know your dredge is working correctly and how to anchor it, it is time to start with the actual dredging part of the job.
During the explanation we will give you a lot of suggestions for dredging, and we will every once in awhile add in a little bit of the theory side of things so that you will be able to get to the bottom of the problems that could arise that we will not be able to cover here.
For the first dredging operation you will need to search for an area in a stream bed that is classified correctly or that consists mainly of light gravel or sand. We have already explained that the current that is created around the nozzle by the pressure that forces the water inside the tube. There is a pretty known of rule in hydraulics that says that pressures in a fluid function in all directions equally and this means that the current that is around the nozzle of the dredge’s suction nozzle is going to be pushed to the intake in a sphere that is a few inches bigger in diameter than the diameter of the suction nozzle.
To begin with hold the suction nozzle from one inch to several inches from the sand that is getting sucked up and watch how much sand and gravel will be moved around. Another thing you can do to test it is to place the nozzle closely to the sand and hold it down there. You will be able to tell gravel is sucked out in a half circle shape. When you hold it this closely it does not work as effectively and will not pull out as much water and gravel in it. If the nozzle continues being pushed in this little depression, the hole will get more reduced in size and eventually close around the suction nozzle and this will not allow any sand or water to get sucked in since the gravel turns literally in a “dam” that does not allow the water in.
