Suppose to be great for fine gold recovery, Is anyone currently using this mat in their setup
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Tomorrow I try out 500mm of the gold cube mat in the side sluices…I have some full size stuff to fit to the main sluice just not sure how I will do it yet…
Will report on how it performs in the near future.
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The Vortex mat looks really promising
Here is the gold cube Dream mat … right after (in the following order)… Miracle Mat, Razorback, Moss under expanded, Yukon under expanded, Motherload and Bedrock 2.0.
The first aim is to see if the dream mat will catch any of the fines I am still losing after the above series of traps.
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Waiting in anticipation will definitely trial this mat in my 4" and 2" dredges as an addon to the sluices end part. But If trailing is promising as all the videos I’ve watched, then maybe full conversion???
Okay…
The finer gold cube mat is too fine for regular coarse material… even the classified material sub 10mm is too coarse however I have a section of the gold cube mat in the cleanup sluice where the material is sub 5mm and it works a treat.
The regular mat work well with the classified material sub 10mm… I cannot say how well it works with coarse material because I have not tried this… yet.
I think Dream mat should look at a size between the fine cube and the std coarse mat… I think it would work well ( If you were not aware, the fine mat cells are 1" across and the std is 2" across… I would like to see a 1.5" cell for material sub 10mm
I see the full conversions… and they may work great however I am a strong advocate of mixing up the media, If the gold is not caught in the first 400mm of one type of media, it will not get caught in another 1400mm of the same media.
One observation, the mat came with an oily mould release agent… needs a good warm water and soap scrub before using.
Superglue worked okay to join the mats although I am told there is a better adhesive polyurethane tape available… I need to find this …
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Thanks for the info LBD. I bought a 10’ by 36’ inch dream mat. Will pop the mat in my 2’ Dredge do a little experimenting, then in my portable sluice. Will get back to yah with the results.
Where did you get yours from and does it have an oily coating?
I believe Dan… Dredge NZ may soon be selling some…
Have seen this vortex in a 6 and 8 inch dredge and can say it doesn’t work well. This was in a over under setup and a triple arrangement as per photos above by previous poster The issue with it is when your running it in a dredge the water column is deep which causes a collapse of a lot of the vortexes you need for gold to be caught. This is why dredges have large riffles that require a lot of flow and water depth to work well.
Fine gold recovery requires 3 things to work well and that is classification, low turbulence and stratification of heavies. This is why over under setups and and 3 stage work very well in a dredge.
I’ve found the same thing with the hog mat after doing trials of it in dredges from 4 inch through to 8 inch. Gimmick marketing by the manufacturer. Id be game to say the vortex mat is in the same camp.
For a high banker or river sluice the use of traditional gold recovery techniques such as raised expanded metal over deep v matting or carpet work really well on fine gold. I see the point of gold hog matting working well more in a traditional cleanup sluice where you can really control a lot of the parameters such as pitch, water flow and classification.
Overall the recovery of gold in river sluices and high banker has usually been very good with traditional recovery media. Why change what aint broke
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I would not argue with any of your comments…
I think that I have a place for a section in either of the side sluices where I mix up the different capture media and only run classified material…
There is no circumstance I would rely on 100% dream mat… or 100% gold Hog mats or 100% expanded mesh.
I still have 450mm of side sluices left… think I will add a different profile expanded mesh… unless someone has any other suggestions?
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Yeap different sized expanded metal in a sluice is a great idea. Mixing it up as you have pointed out above really helps capture different types of gold.
Ive come across some really good raised expanded that works really well on fine gold. Ill take a photo of it and send post it here for you LBD. You can get it pretty easy from scrap metal yards etc I might even have a spare piece depending on your sluice width.
Have you tried using deep v Matting underneath medium sized expanded. Dave McCraken uses it in his dredges for fine gold and I can attest this combination works really well. Heres a link to it
Also check out this vid, its a bit of a keene wank feast but it shows you some of the cool ideas going into fine gold recovery
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Well said pirch385, I found that in a dredge, hog mats only captured 80% with standard keene sluice mounted at the end of the sluice run capturing the remaining 20%, assuming 100% capture.
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My vortex mat is in transit from Australia, Just came out of Maori gully last night, set up camp, prepped 10 metres of the creek, Ready to dredge later on today.
Thanks, LBD appreciate your feedback on the Dream mat and staying on topic as well.
Any technology larger than a 4" dredge is beyond the scope of my claim.
At Slab Hut, the 4" Dredge can handle the main creek, The 2" Dredge is at home in Maori Gully. But some of the side gullies further down is where a portable sluice/pump with alkathene piping to get water to where I need it will shine, so please keep us up to date.
Nice vids, Yep I’ve watched every Dream mat vid there is, that’s what tweaked my interest, fluid dynamics and all that.
Hi Pitch… yes, that is the profile I use some in the side sluices and much in the main sluice.
I am unsure of the size you have pictured, mine is quite large and heavy… and I think it is doing a good job.
Most of that matting is just a gimic , its best suited for running con,s over iv got a section in the top of all my dredges 4,6,8 but most of the gold is trapped with the rest of the heavy’s which is behind a good set of steel riffles with miners moss underneath of it , must say iv never seen a dream matt though certainly looks different .
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