Dewatering

[fastgold]

Hey guys am in desert environment,using act mining wave table and wondering about any ingenious ideas for dewatering and reusing and got to be able to fit on large tray top

[Hoser John]

Dewatering takes heat-pressure or time. To recirculate water a few barrels and paint filter sacks do the deed. BUT if your desert has caliche-worlds worlst nastiest clay-then a real filter is needed or you get jello. To dry cons a simple sheet of black plastic works wonders-John

[fastgold]

Thanks john.but probably too small.I have 22ft. tray with front section having 8t action mining primary 8ft above tray with that feeding 2 off 1t units under approx 18 in above deck with aisle down middle. This feeds a 1t unit across in part of centre section GENset and fire fighting pump are in front of the bottom table. I have a submersible pump that can run off gen set. So at moment I have 16 off 275 gal stackable water containers that sit alongside and feed a small slurrier that winds up in centre section to feed the 8t table. W hen i had heaps of water I'd use the submersible to pump into 50 gall in middle of kids pool and use fire fighting pump to fill from pool to containers with the 50 gall keeping most of the groobies out but as you can see it will last only about 2 1/2 hrs and then bingo which is a right royal pain in the backside when doing tailings. Yeh! U'm talking ultra fine gold and silver in carlin trend muck which takes forever to settle. Would if I did a cut and shut with something like the screw dewaterer that golddredger had on sale list work,regards mark

[Hoser John]

Your op is larger than initialy thought. What are your specific water needs in gpm for a much more accurate analysis-John

[fastgold]

About thirty galls/min,ie max about twenty for large table and probably 10 for spray bars on other tables ie 1800galls /hr.Probably a little less as that is at max prod for a straight quartz material.Now you see how the 2 1/2 hrs approx is made up as total water supply is 4400 galls. Just wondering if I could use a flocculant like bentonite to settle the gunk but don't like the thought of freezing my short and curlies off shovelling the gunk out and dozens of holes in the pool,thanks mark

[Hoser John]

Good sized op usually needs a auger for scrap but yor leavings are microfine so yet a much bigger problem. A auger will just turn your pool into a big bowl of thick pea soup and the motion will not let anything drop out of the solution.All those nozzles must be kept clean and clay slowly sticks to them and plugs'm up. Running wet in the desert is indeed problematic. I much prefer drywashers in the desert and we used to manufacture a BIG one fed by a 2 cf backhoe bucket. Water treatment floculant is good stuff BUT removal is a real pain and sticky beyond belief. Finished water through a good old fashioned pool pancake chamber filter will keep them nozzles clean. You should use a suction nozzle to clean the pool like dredging. Are you static or moving around?? A water treatment tank with multibaffles works fine. Baffles staggered up ,down,up,down so water must go over and under baffles sure assists in floculant settling and sucking the pool clean through 5 gallon paint filter sacks will work-the do make them bigger. A series of 55 gallon barrels works also so when when #1 is full you move to the next empty barrel and push it over/haul away with tractor or. Many MANY ways to engineer but much more who,what and how in equipment needed. Hope your getting tons a au as much $$$$$ in them Action tables,good stuff as when in biz was a dealer also for over 10 years. John

[fastgold]

Yes,this a love job that is causing the pain but is a long term project to be able to be mobile and handle a heap of other peoples tailings as well as my own which are spread all over the state.The idea is to keep plan of op bonding to a minimum. Yes have a case 680 backhoe/loader with 600mm bucket,sorry 2ft in your terms. How big would you suggest the baffled tank would have to be as I was thinking if baffles were on frame which could be lifted out and let backhoe bucket scoop out slime.. Just trying to upscale your original thoughts and wonder if the tank fed into say washing machine on spin dry lined with say something like big dust filter bags which had rope sewn under and around so it could be lifted out with chain to bucket without splitting everytime. Just trying to think outside of the circle as space is critical Do you think the screw dewaterer would work for other type of material given that it probably be minus 40 mesh and more likely minus 80 mesh for the tables. Thanks john for your imput as its hard trying to sort out while I am in australia and the rest of the gear is in nevada If the dewatering screw had a lid with abentonite feeder do you think that would work or would you think it might end up like sticking faeces to a blanket.,regards mark

[Hoser John]

I spent winters building and contracting to the printed circuit biz and waste water treatment was my project always,in 2 states. I still have many designs and pics in my library. This forum requires extremely small pics reduction so posting is a no go as just takes way too much time and then they don't post right anyhow for my old computer. If you'd care to pm a real email I can then scan and send pics ,names,types of flocculant and answer much better. Tore up my shoulder, up a tree trimming it ,so stuck sedentary and have a bit a time to kill. There are many styles of continuous flow floc removers. My favorite was a 4' x 8' circle of filter cloth on rotating drums that the water was forced through and had a scraper blade to remove slime as it rotated . Anyhow utilizing others mistakes is great as some ops sure wasted quite a bit of gold trying to be fast,cheap and dirty. You say mobile so harder with size reductions but just makes the mind work a bit harder. Your project indeed sounds like fun in the sun and Nevada is amongst the only somewhat miner friendly states left.Tons a au 2 u 2-John

[golden optimist]

This forum requires extremely small pics reduction so posting is a no go as just takes way too much time and then they don't post right anyhow for my old computer.

-John

I bumped the picture size to 500kb just for you John. Well, everybody else can use it also.
Leonard

[russau]

Leonard , wont that make our buts look fat?