Where's Ray ????

I gotta message tonite, he's in his swag playing  

And I won't say anymore      

Ya gotta look out for them Pilbara boys  

Ray!! In a swag!! Gimme a break! He's only 15 kms from his own bed at home! 

Cat

yep only 15 ks from town dryblowing on Burnies Patch over on the West side and yep all camped up out there--too far to come home every night --mind u the mrs comes and visits every odd occasion.

if anyone wants to come out come after 4.30pm as I usually start shutting the machine down and generally takes about an hour to stop completely--5.30 all done.

I drink 3.5 super dry and don't forget the ice..

regards
oneday

only come home to check on the Mrs and the dog and to get another 200 litres of diesel then back out to hardship alley..

regards
oneday

Ray, there is no need to explain why you're out at Mt Regal (only approx 20 kms from town) full time.  
We understand if the Mrs has kicked ya outa the house   
Does Eagle Boys or Dominoes deliver to you  

Bignuggs wrote:Ray, there is no need to explain why you're out at Mt Regal (only approx 20 kms from town) full time.  
We understand if the Mrs has kicked ya outa the house   
Does Eagle Boys or Dominoes deliver to you  

Good one, Cliff!

"20 kms and too far from home",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Jeez, Ray, you are really something.

Cat

Caterpillar wrote:

Bignuggs wrote:Ray, there is no need to explain why you're out at Mt Regal (only approx 20 kms from town) full time.  
We understand if the Mrs has kicked ya outa the house   
Does Eagle Boys or Dominoes deliver to you  

Good one, Cliff!

"20 kms and too far from home",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Jeez, Ray, you are really something.

Cat

Maybe that's all the distance the Troopy will go with all the gear on it for a 20k trip. 

It's a bit rough to need 200 litres of diesel for that trip. 1000 litres per 100 k's. Hmmmmm. must be hilly:.12:   

 

Robert

The diesel will be for the loader. From what I've seen of it, it'll be about 10 litres an hour to run. Mine's about the same.

Cat

Caterpillar wrote:The diesel will be for the loader. From what I've seen of it, it'll be about 10 litres an hour to run. Mine's about the same.

Cat

Ahhh ya missed the point Cat. I meant 200 litres to travel 20k's:P   

Robert

goldnomad wrote:

Caterpillar wrote:The diesel will be for the loader. From what I've seen of it, it'll be about 10 litres an hour to run. Mine's about the same.

Cat

Ahhh ya missed the point Cat. I meant 200 litres to travel 20k's:P   

Robert

Nope - didn't miss it at all Robert. I push for gold just like Ray and it can get very expensive. Then people wonder why we get ropeable when "poachers" detect on our leases.

Cat

quick trip home again --broken down again--now I know how u feel CAT...glad i'm only a short distance and its only a couple of bearings needing attention plus a bit more welding on the vibrating screen..but alls good..

Bad news is my dog had to b put down today and I told the mrs no more dogs--I'm over the heart break when confronted by the pointy end of the stick..
RIP STORMY..

Hopefully I will have another ounce and a bit with all the concentrates that I have accumulated in the past week.

7.00pm at night and I nearly p*ssed on a snake about 5' long --think it was a python but got out of there and grabed the steel rack just in case...don't they know its winter--go to sleep.

anyhow back out there 2night again ready for the repairs in the morning..

regards
oneday

Ray,

I heard you had poachers out there? With a scraper and a truck?

Did the dog take a bait or was it the snake?

Breakdowns!!! My Cat had so many in the last two season it was me that was gonna have the next one!!

Good luck with it,

Cat

hi Cat
I had to put old STORMY down due to kidney failure..she went from 45kgs of muscle to 15kgs of skin and bone..i did manage to take her bush a fortnight befor we had her put down and its funny u know ---how a dog senses that something is not all OK.. she got out of the mrs car and came and sat between us for about 2 hours befor the mrs had to go back home for work the next morning--sorry getting glassy eyed--she still has an effect on this mere mortal...

generally she puts her head in the spinny looking for lizards and raises her tail like a bloody flag pole..ah well those were the memories...

And please no more dogs, i'm getting to old for the heart break.

regards
Ray

Home again for the night this time with a gear box of the dry blower that has shite itself--new bearings and fresh drop of oil and hopefully back out there sometime 2morow..by the time we r finished we would have replaced or rebuilt most of the moving parts..
took a link out of 1 off the chain drives coz it was jumping off the cog--all good then something else goes astray--these things r meant 2 test us--u only have to ask the Cat--

well at least we have managed to hit 4 ounces so far--the Mrs is starting to smile--

The black sands is a permanent problem--some is magnetic but a lot isn't and the gold has a tendency to stick to the magnet as well --just another small problem to deal with..let alone the dust..

the life of an idiot trying to have a go..

regards
oneday

At least your having a red hot go mate.
Even with all the equipment dramas your having,bet it still beats doing the 9 to 5 daily grind.

CrustyGus wrote:At least your having a red hot go mate.
Even with all the equipment dramas your having,bet it still beats doing the 9 to 5 daily grind.

Gus, I can empathize with Ray and I can tell ya, it IS a grind when everything is going wrong and you're up to your chin in some heavy repair work with no workshop to back you up. It was so bad for us last year that me and the missus gave up and came home early. If yer finding an "ounce a day" or better then that will probably keep you going at it. But any less, and like us NOTHING for a two months, and it's easy to become disillusioned with it.

I hate the weather we're having in Perth right now but I'd rather be here than spend another minute with the dozer's tranny in bits, covered in hydraulic oil and red dust.

It's good while the gold lasts,,,,,,,,,,,,, 

Cat

Gday Cat,
I understand that you full time blokes are taking a massive risk. Worse odds than putting a few grand through the slappers at the local club. But look at it this way.....
People take big risks with small business every day in the big cities. You could mortage your house for a business loan,make a few bad decisions along the way and go bankrupt in a year or two and lose the lot. Happens every day.
The other end of the stick is you could make some good business choices and power on and the same could be said for push and detect small scale miners like yourself.
I drive a 3hr round trip every day,and sometimes barely cover my rent and stock costs,let alone make a wage. Thats 14 hr days,six days a week. Thats the daily grind in the big city

CrustyGus wrote:At least your having a red hot go mate.
Even with all the equipment dramas your having,bet it still beats doing the 9 to 5 daily grind.

I'm sure I don't have to tell ya's the 9 to 5 or whatever hours ya do can be soul destroying.  I know where I'd rather be and it ain't working in the bloody city Monday to Friday.

Oneday: re your black sands problem.
Where I live was once very big in alluvial tin and many of the old plants remain rusting away in the bush.
Was talking to a mate who sluiced tin in the day and we got talking about black sands. He said that when they had a sufficient amount of fine tin/black sand concentrate they took that to one of the plants which used Wilfley tables in the separation process.
These plants had primary trommels followed by pulsating jigs and Wilfley vibrating tables for final separation.
He reckoned that gold being so much heavier than tin would separate from black sands very successfully over a Wilfley table. However it is a wet process so would need a water supply plus settlement.
Just a thought from outside the square.
Mike

Think i saw an youtube pic once where the fella used his magnet on the black sands while it was in water, also with glad wrap over the magnet for easy removal of the sands, may help.
This was from his gold pan.

the underflow sluice seems to separate black sand and flour gold. there is a good vid showing the combination of a rare earth magnet and the underflow cystem. still needs water but recirculates it. this vid shows black sand vs tungsten dust that has an atomic weight similar to gold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii-RSw-nyHY

around the 2.00 min mark this gets interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUvPEwKWZgo
may be a slow way but looks very clean gold after.

Mike,
Wiffley tables are excllent. I saw one in operation under a 5 head stamper in NZ and it was a real sight to see the seperation. It was huge table about 4 mtrs long and 2 wide. Then the gold dropped off the end onto an amalgam plate. Wiffleys are expensive though and only if I was treating tonnes of concentrates would I consider buying one. My mate just bought one cheap from Queensland, about $3500.00. It's not a huge one, about half the size of a small car bonnet in area. Very efficient.

I do the best I can with a Keenes sluice or a pan and then just smelt the fine gold to a "bush blob" with borax as a flux. I then leave it up to the refiners to get it to what they want - 24 carat, 99.9 pure. I get whatever they say the assay is.

Anything that's left over from the panning/sluicing that looks like it may have gold remaining in it, then goes into my "poverty pot". Then when I get another load of fine stuff to do, I chuck the last lot in with that. The "poverty pot" never seems to increase so I must be recovering most of it - slowly.

Cat

geez back in town again but not after repairing the dry blower again..my welding skills have definitely improved--this time welded flat bar across the break on the shaker screen..

3 hours later and she is still together--down to the hardware shop to get some more bolts and nuts...I reckon I could build one of these machines in my sleep--

tried out my new shower from primus--the bloody idiots didn't make the pump small enough to go into a 20 litre container--but it worked after a few xtra buckets to the rescue..cant complain $30 for the setup...

used a tea strainer to separate gold out of the black sand--97% success but the fines is slowly adding up be it all small...the tea strainer is on old fashion thing that is in 2 halves spring loaded in the middle...very fine mesh --- works a treat.

heading back out shortly to get a head start in the morning again.

another 100 litres of water and 6 blocks of ice and all sweet.

regards
oneday

Cat I had to come back in to get a new pair of jeans --even they have broken down.
More ice, a new table and a new gazebo to erect for a bit more shade and comfort...and maybe the girls will come out and stay for a day ot 2 and keep me company..well at least the mrs will b happy she now has a brand new fold out swag..they don't look too bad just quietly...but don't tell her that..

regards
oneday

Hmmmm,,,,,,,,,,,,,shower pump and bush shower set ups. I must start a thread on that and tell ya what I do. Some other ideas as well.

BUT - if ya didn't keep insisting on getting the females out there, ya wouldn't need the shower!! Next you'll be having a satellite TV out there and ordering Pizza deliveries from KTA shopping centre! The delivery boy could park on the bitumen and throw 'em over Mt Regal. You could catch 'em on the other side.

Gawd, it must be rough out on that patch, Ray.

Cat