Are you meaning 2 or 3 inch dredge...I believe? How was the manager of the claim doing with his dredging?

They were busy working their claim, above the GPAA claim and they had the dreg in the water. They looked a bit cold in their wet suits, I saw Ice on the bridge on the drive up but it was a warm day by noon.  They showed me picture of their clean outs that had gold in them but it was fine like I had found sluicing the bank and the picture they showed me was not as much as thought you'd get for working a dredge. I only saw one picture of a clean out.  So I do not know how well they did.  He did have great stores about being up on the Bering Sea!

I've just seen several sizes of suction dredges and was wondering, what size and brand I should go after.

Thanks for the Comment.

Kevin

 

They were busy working their claim, above the GPAA claim and they had the dreg in the water. They looked a bit cold in their wet suits, I saw Ice on the bridge on the drive up but it was a warm day by noon.  They showed me picture of their clean outs that had gold in them but it was fine like I had found sluicing the bank and the picture they showed me was not as much as thought you'd get for working a dredge. I only saw one picture of a clean out.  So I do not know how well they did.  He did have great stores about being up on the Bering Sea!

I've just seen several sizes of suction dredges and was wondering, what size and brand I should go after.

Thanks for the Comment.

Kevin

 

If equipment is set up correctly a dredge should have as good recovery as a sluice per yard of material moved. A dredge usually takes some form of permit. Many areas have different regulations on dredge size or if it can even be used. If you decide to purchase a dredge make sure it is a size that you can use where you plan on mining. You can see maximum material movable on some of the dredge builder sites like Keene Engineering. Checking out the particular size of dredge should have a description of possible material moved per hour. This is normally under close to perfect conditions and you may not see that much material moved but it does give you an idea of how much more can be moved in comparison to a sluice.

Walter,

Those are very good points to consider. I've been on a couple of GPAA claims in SW Washington and out of Boise. The two GPAA claims I've worked with a A52 after 50 gallons of dirt seemed to be fine gold. I Boise the ground was probably worked with a bucket dredge back in the 1900's and in SW Washington it seemed to be about getting below the water line in bends of the river and cleaning of the bedrock. So it seems to be a issues of how much dirt you can move and wear you get the dirt to get an measurable amount of gold. A suction dredge seems easier to get the gold out of the river beds, work below the water line or move a fair amount of dirt.

So, given the claim permits suction dredge seems the only option to get enough gold to feel successful? As my economics kick in, I'm now using more expensive equipment and burning gas. Would I expect to still loss money on my efforts just working GPAA claims?