Gold Dust

[molucca]

I wanted a gold dust tile. A macro shot and pattern maker.

Rich

[Soquili]

Looks very good Rich. Reminds me of the sand around Folsom Lake. A lot of gold dust mixed with the sand there.

[raynerj1]

Rich,

I will take a couple pounds of that dust anytime...

Bill,

It must be fools gold (iron pyrite) in that lake or else there would be someone mining it right now.

[Soquili]

John it is actual gold that is brought down from the mountains by the American river. The cost of separating it from the sand makes it non-profitable.

[raynerj1]

I have seen profitable mines with a couple tons of hard rock/per ounce. Sand with a water source at hand should be cost effective. The gold content must be pretty low for it not to be worth recovering.

[Soquili]

It was not cost effective 36 years ago when gold was only $50 USD per ounce. For all I know today the gold has already be harvested from the sand.

[raynerj1]

Now that makes sense. Nowdays, every bit of that sand would have been sluiced.

[molucca]

Bill,

Today, gold varies in value by the minute. It has been ranging fron about $700 to $900 an ounce. Of course the cost of processing has change in 40 years, too. I went to that area many years ago to sluice gold. I met a guy that had been there about a month. He showed me a couple of flakes in the bottom of a tiny glass bottle. He seemed very excited with his find. Depends on your view of things. That was a very long way form an ounce.

Now the streams are too contaminated.

Rich