Not big time fluffy news but better than nothing i suppose
Graystone Company Mining Operations Update A9:15 AM ET 3/28/13 | GlobeNewswire
The Graystone Company (OTCQB: GYST) announced today that the Company's mining crew has completed setting up the new equipment and has begun using it for the company's mining operations. The Company has uploaded photos on its Facebook page of the new equipment.
Previously, the Company used a 12-foot sluice box that did not contain riffles. The Company now is using a 30-foot sluice box with Hungarian riffles. The Company's CEO, while in Peru last week, tested the tailings from our mining operations and found fine gold in the tailings. Even though the Company has only been using the new equipment for few days, the new tailings contain a significant less amount of fine gold. Therefore, the Company expects the amount of gold recovered will significantly increase now that the new equipment has been set up and is in use.
The company will be adding additional photos from Peru along with videos on its Facebook page.
We have received questions on how a sluice box works in gold mining. Essentially a sluice box is like a long tray which is open at both ends. Most will have riffles, spaced evenly along the length of the sluice perpendicular to the length of the sluice. Riffles cause small barriers to the water flow which creates eddies in the water, giving the heavier material (black sand and gold) a chance to drop to the bottom, behind the riffles. The longer the box is and the better the quality of riffles correlates to the amount of gold that will be recovered.
The reason that riffles work is twofold. First, there is an eddy created behind each riffle, causing a temporary lull in the water flow. The material that is flowing is in a liquid state. This causes the heavier material (a/k/a heavies) to be at the very bottom of the flow. As the flow passes over a riffle, the heavies will fall to the bottom behind a riffle. Second, the riffles are spaced a couple of inches apart, and act as a series of small dams, stopping the creep of the heavy material down the sluice. Without them, there would be a slow, but sure creep of gold out the end of the sluice.
Normally most of the trapped gold will be behind the first couple of riffles. This is because the heavies fall fast. Small flour gold may extend several riffles further, and, hopefully, the last few riffles have zero gold. The longer the sluice box is the more gold the Company can capture. Typically there will be a 3/16th inch layer of material called miner's moss or carpet laying on the surface of the sluice. It is a loose weave matt with lots of air space. It traps and holds the smallest gold particles. On top of that can be a layer of expanded metal. This creates a criss-cross pattern of spaces, each with their own eddies. Then the riffles, that resemble a ladder, with each riffle a rung, when swung up, is lowered into place and latched down.
Each time you clean up, you raise the riffles, and remove the moss. You then wash down the sluice, wash out the moss, and put it back together.
