ALBANY, Ore. (AP) — G-O-L-D!
The Bible tells us it’s so valuable that it was one of three gifts the wise men offered to the baby Jesus. For centuries its allure drove mighty nations to war, and the discovery of its shiny flakes sent men and women on round-the-world quests for riches.
Today, it remains a vital part of world trade and daily life.
But for Albany inventor and machinist John Richmond, the lure of gold wasn’t fostered by dreams of riches, but through his lifelong ambition to solve mechanical problems. Now, gold has him traveling to mining shows in Arizona, California and Washington.
In an effort to help his brother and brother-in-law — both gold-hunting hobbyists — Richmond invented the Sluice Goose, a water-driven machine that separates minute gold particles from dirt and other minerals with what he claims is 100 percent accuracy.
“I was never involved until now,” explained Richmond, the owner of Industrial Rebuilders in Millersburg. “My brother needed my help in building some equipment and told me about the problem of recovering gold from paydirt.”
Richmond said current methods, including sluicing, classifying and using special water-driven rings which separate heavy metals — including gold from paydirt — still require panning to recover gold from the other materials. But all of those systems are slow, as far as he’s concerned.
“I’m not that patient,” he said. “There seemed to be so little reward for so much effort expended.”
With 40 years of experience as a machinist, Richmond couldn’t shake the notion that there had to be a better way to get the job done. The solution came to him while he was the behind the wheel of his pickup, where he likes to do his deep thinking.
“It came to me like a daydream,” Richmond said. “It was like an animated scene where I was under water and saw nature at work separating gold from dirt.”
The basic concept, he said, involves gravity. All of the current systems rely on gravity, but in a horizontal fashion. Richmond’s new Sluice Goose uses water pressure to create a swirling tube of water and also relies on gravity to separate the lighter dirt and mineral particles from heavier gold particles.
The difference is that Richmond’s device does so in a vertical fashion. It requires only a steady supply of water and a small pump that can generate 100 pounds of pressure.
“There are no moving parts,” Richmond said proudly.
Paydirt is placed in a large funnel at the head of the machine. A long tube is filled with swirling water. The paydirt feeds into the tube and is mixed by the swirling action. The heavier gold falls to the bottom of the tube and is caught in a jar. The other lighter materials move upward suspended by the water, and eventually move out of the system and into catch buckets.
Richmond said the machine can process 50 pounds of paydirt in five minutes and will gather all of the gold within the sample.
By changing the water jets, which alters the water pressure, the device also can be used to separate lead, copper, bronze, steel, stainless steel and other minerals. And, Richmond said, the process works simply because gold is so much heavier than dirt.
Richmond is now on his seventh prototype of the Sluice Goose, but he has no desire to manufacture the device.
“I really just want to license the technology,” he said. “I have no ambition to carry this into a business.”
Richmond, 65, has owned his own shop for 35 years. He said he has five employees who specialize in fixing mechanical problems for local farms and businesses.
Richmond said that to his knowledge, his Sluice Goose is the only one in existence. He’s in the final stages of patenting his work.
Richmond chose the name Sluice Goose in part to honor the Spruce Goose airplane and the fact that the machine “gooses” materials upward and away from the gold.
He estimates the machine can separate up to two yards of materials per day.
Richmond believes the system could be scaled up for larger gold mining operations, simply by adding more machines all working in unison.
Although he hasn’t gotten any bites from companies that want to license his machine, Richmond said the response from gold show participants has been overwhelming.
“Everyone says, ‘wow!'” he said.
Information from: Albany Democrat-Herald, http://www.dhonline.com
