One day we were metal detecting on a RRPC claim near Morristown and came across 3 other club members who were dry washing. We had learned a little about dry washing from Steve at A&B Prospecting while he gave us a lesson in gold prospecting, but we had never seen one in action. One of the guys was nice enough to take some time and show us how it worked. The main attraction of dry washing is that while the gold you find is usually very small, you have a much better chance of finding some gold. The more we thought about it the more it seemed like a good idea. After a day in the field it would be nice to have something to show for it!
Before jumping in and buying a dry washer we tried a manual version: we bought several sifting screens and a shovel. It's a cheap way to do it but it's very inefficient. The amount of material you can process manually in 30 minutes would take about 3 minutes with a dry washer. But doing it manually paid off - we finally found some gold! It was only a couple of tiny, tiny flecks but it was gold. Buying a dry washer now seemed to be the way to go. All it took was a trip to A&B Prospecting, a credit card and we were the proud owners of a dry washer!
How it works: The dry washer's basic function is to capture gold and discharge other material. It does this using the principle that gold is going to be heavier than the other material. The dry washer has a fan in the lower box that blows air through a finely perforated screen. A leaf blower (sold separately!) provides the air to run the fan. The lighter material is blown upwards while the gold settles. The fan has an offset counter weight that causes the lower box to shake. This causes the material to move downward. The gold is caught in the "riffles" while the dirt, small stones, etc. (called "tailings") drops off the end. It's noisy, dirty and back breaking work but you can process a lot of dirt this way! There's a lot more involved with actually getting the gold (clean up, classification, panning, etc.) but that's the basic idea.
We've been out with our dry washer several times now and have come back with gold each time. Keep in mind that we're talking about VERY SMALL amounts. All the gold we've found so far would fit on the top of a pencil eraser. We know we aren't going to get rich, but coming back with something to show for our efforts makes it a whole lot more fun!
Below are a couple of pictures showing Karen working the dry washer. Please note that Ross usually does most of the shoveling - Karen is doing it here because she is much more photogenic than he is.
 | The dirt is shoveled into the top box. A "grizzly" (metal screen) keeps the bigger rocks from going into the lower box. Notice the material moving down the lower box and the tailings pile at the bottom. |
 | In this shot you can see the leaf blower behind the white bucket and the hose that provides the air to run the dry washer. Covered in dust and shoveling dirt into a noisy machine - doesn't Karen look like she's having fun? |
Gold is currently closer to $800/ounce. I think you have more gold in that globe that we've found so far. Hang on to it - it may make you rich one day.
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