Mineral Cone

Another type of panning device that is not used for gold but can be mentioned is the mineral cone. This device is something that has been used for some time on rock hounds in the United States. It is thought that it was either the development of the batea or that the batea was the development of the mineral cone. Either way it is used in various gem localities in South East Asia and South America and in other countries of the world as well.

This device consists of something that looks almost exactly like a batea but it was made out of woven reeds, cloth, a thin screen, canvas etc. It has a conical shape that is similar to that of the batea and has a sharp point as well. When materials that are not stable like cloth or screen are used, the mineral cone is supported by a heavy-duty wire mesh screen. These devices are not made or sold commercially but they are not a complicated thing to make. Mineral cones can be made in different sizes and vary in diameter from fifteen to twenty four inches. They have a height of around one third of the diameter or around six inches in depth for the eighteen inch one.

The main purpose of these mineral cones consisted in concentrating the bigger stones that were a little bit heavier or even the same specific gravity as the sand they were in. this device used to be used for recovering lots of precious stones such as diamonds, sapphires, rubies, as well as other semi precious gem stones. Due to the fact that it is porous enough to where it will allow some of the material that is lighter and finer out, it cannot be used for recovering gold or metals that are similar to gold.

This device is very similar to the batea and using it is almost the same as well. The person that uses one just has to make various downward strokes every once in awhile and tilt the cone occasionally from side to side. This action causes the material to suspend in the cone and let the materials that are heavier to go down to the bottom. Even if you are looking for stones that have the same weight as the sand, they usually have a tendency of going down to the bottom and although it is something that goes against the rules of physics, it apparently works and used to work well enough for recovering gems. The concentrating action, just like in the case of gold panning, seems to work better when it is done under water, however it used to be done as well.

Different from panning, there is not work in having to wash a lot of the material over the side. Whatever floats is allowed to float away but the person that is working just suspends his material several times, the time of this work depending on various trial efforts since different types of sands and soils will take different amounts of times to concentrate.

After the operator is satisfied that the material he wants is concentrated enough in the lower part of the cone, all he has to do is turn the cone around and dump it on the ground with care. Then the top part of the cone of sand is sorted by hand to see if there are any gems in it.

Mineral cones work and used to work well for finding gemstones and many rock hounds use them as part of their basic equipment. The reason we mention them is so that if an amateur prospector runs into an area that has gems, sapphires, garnets, etc, he or she can try doing this kind of panning as well. If a person is able to do well with gold and has learned how to use a gold pan, he can definitely learn how to use a mineral cone.