Storing Placer Samples

Frequently put your samples in clean containers. Be particularly careful that you do not get oil or graze in with a sample, since if small particles are caked with these essences, they tend to float and this makes a gravity division very complicated. If a small particle of gold is oil encrusted it may jump to the exterior of the water and be carried into tail rather than going into the concentrate. The best containers in which to carry placer samples is metal or heavy cardboard container with lids. A five gallon container will hold seventy to eighty pounds of material. Large oil sample bags or burlap sacks lined with 2 plastic trash bags one inside the other, may be used.

While you sampling use a gold pan to collect extra information .With your gold pan you can decide the size ,range and shape of most of the gold particles. Visually stratified deposits can be checked to see which carry value and which carry little or no value .This information will be essential if the deposit is mined but it may also be chief to know before the samples are concentrate .For in case before the samples are concentrated they are divider or screened to a certain size. If you have found particles of gold as large as 10 meshes this information must be known to the person concentrating your samples so he will know that he must screen the sample no smaller than 10 mesh. If the particles of gold are very smooth and flakey they will be harder to divide than more substantial particles. Once more the person concentrating your samples must know this so he can run the samples consequently.

Before sample can be concentrated they must be organized. This research includes weighing the sample, drying the sample, and selecting the sample. The sample will be weighed earlier than it is dried and then over after it is dried to find the percent humidity in it. Occasionally the percent wetness is found by weighing and freshening only a small part of the sample and then using that percent for the entire sample. Previous to an acceptable gravity division can be made; the material in the sample must be selected or sized. Rocks the size of apples and fine sand can not be determined mutually with any consistent results. Bigger particles act like the heavier small particles and may even pack them out of the concentrate. The best concentration happen when the particles are all related in the size. The material in the sample will be screened to a size that will contain all of the particles of gold if they are not larger than can be effectively concentrated. The massive material from the screening will be cautiously investigate to see if any gold is nearby .If some is found it will be selected out and saved and later added to the concentrate. Screening can be done either wet or dry, frequently depending on which type of material the concentrating gear must have.

A laboratory utensil is made so that it can be simply washed. This is a very essential aspect, when trading placer samples. If a few particles of gold are lost from a sample or if a few particles of gold are launch to a sample the results may be very confusing. This gear should be constructed so it is visually open and so it does not have breaks or corners or other places where material will collect .For example wooden rifles, which are frequently used on concentrating tables, will enlarge and disappear as they turn into wet and then dry and will eventually break. Tiny particles of gold may develop trapped in this Case as the wood expands, and then later freed as the wood dries. The quantity of gold in a normal placer sample is so small that any gold lost or further to the sample will damage the result of test. The same care is also taken in arranging the sample. Containers and screens which are used are cleaned before and after use to guarantee that none of the sample is lost and that nothing unfamiliar are introduced. The small laboratory concentrating table is possible the best appropriate device for concentrating placer samples. It can be simply cleaned if the deck and riffles are one piece, or if the riffles are secure to the deck in such a way that there are no cracks or other places where material can be gone.