Treasure Hunt - Kathy Sykes' diary
Taking the challenge
See how the scientist tackled their Rough Science challenges by reading their diaries:
Day 27 - Extracting Gold
A really nice, mellow day - apart from sand flies and diesel. Our challenges this time: Jonathan and Ellen - lucky things - are finding 'treasure' from a map. What a nice idea! Mike and Mike are trying to extract gold from the hunks of rock they found on the mountain. Mike B is 'making' (extracting) mercury from a beautiful pink rock (cinnabar) to help. Rather him than me! Don't fancy working with mercury!
I'm working alone - trying to get gold from black sand. Began by going to Gallespie Beach to seek black sand. It's a beautiful black beach littered with crazy, twisted hunks of tree - gnawed by the sea and spat out onto the beach. From the beach, looking inland, there is an amazing range of textures. Beyond are smooth pebbles and then there's a layer of those crazy twisted gnarled tree trunks. And further beyond, old, majestic trees with beautiful trunks. And snowy mountains as a backdrop. Just gorgeous that we get to work here!
But, it was hard to find the black sand. We'’d come here two days ago to check that it was here and it was so easy to find that time. Great lashings of it - strewn down the beach. But today - where there was sand - there are now pebbles. The whole character of the beach has changed! Astonishingly so! But we did manage to find some black sand eventually.
Filmed what we needed - while being eaten alive by sand flies. They were monstrous! Relentlessly finding their way through layers of clothes to bite your most tender flesh. Amazing how such a beautiful beach can be spoiled by such small creatures!
Back at the saw mill I tried out a few things.
Tried using a magnet to cohert the iron ores from the sands. A few bits of sand leapt onto the magnet but so few it was pathetic. I then tried another approach - whipping up the sand in water and diesel. The idea is to get the gold flakes to stick to air bubbles formed by the diesel. Don't know yet if it worked but felt so sick from breathing diesel fumes - don't think I want to use this method! So, I'll probably try make a sluice box tomorrow designed to catch my gold flakes.
Meanwhile still feeling sick from the diesel!
Day 28 - Extracting gold
Felt really grumpy today. A cold began in the night. Throat is sore, limbs feel heavy, joints feel still worse and nose is snotty. Joy! Everyone seems to have been sick or is fighting off sickness - Mike L feels foul and is getting shakes in the night; Ellen has had sinusitis and had to take day off; Jonathan just feels really tired; Mike B is the worst though and stayed at home after much persuasion. So a very subdued day - people quiet or coughing. I was working alone - which is quite nice. I just amble along, getting things done. But was feeling so pathetic - I really was not very fast.
This morning, the stuff I'd skimmed off the liquidised diesel and black sand actually contained a fair bit of gold! Only had a tablespoon of stuff in my bowl and yet there were 40-50 bits of gold. I was very excited. It was the most I've seen in a pan yet! So the liquidity worked really well! But after feeling so sick with the diesel fumes - I just am not prepared to do two full buckets using it!
So I built another sluice box but this time purpose built for sand. Instead of punga wood, I'm using corduroy and fleece material. There's a 'splash board' to tip the sand onto, a bit of narrow pipe with holes to squirt water out of, and a board to 'catch' the gold in draped in black corduroy and black fluffy fleece material. Just about got it finished today so tomorrow I have to get to work pretty hard and do the final tweaks.
So my plan is: finish it off (and get it filmed) in first two hours, get all sand down it before lunch, after lunch dismantle it and wash the material (and pan out), and get help maybe burning off the material.
Jonathan and Ellen are just about ready for their treasure hunt so I can get them to help again tomorrow.
But now I am very, very, very tired. It's only 9.20 pm - but I think I need to sleep!
Day 29 - Extracting Gold
Slept about 9 hours - and still felt shattered. Sore throat, headache and achy back. I don't feel miserable, just dreamy and off in 'Kathy Land'. Not 'with it' at all, almost hypnotically attracted to horizontal surfaces, to curl up on.
But I knew I had to get a lot done. Tested out the sluice box. I fitted the pipe with holes in and watched, in satisfaction, water gushing down evenly. Kate scooped the first sand onto the tray and it seemed to go down nicely. Then I played around with it - changing water flow and angles until the flow seemed stable.
We then began the slow process of pouring on the sand. Too much sand in one go and the layer of 'sludge' gets too thick and the gold just tumbles down across the top of the sludge without getting the chance to get trapped in the fibres of the fleece. So it was a very slow process. And it's such an act of faith!
It poured with rain all day. Jonathan and Ellen were meant to find treasure after being dropped off by helicopter but no chance. Cloud cover was too low and there were thunder storms. They had to find it in a river valley instead. I managed to stick to my plan (with help from Kate and others) and got it all working in the first two hours. We got all the sand down before lunch.
After lunch, we cut up the material and washed down the box. It was very exciting! The fleece directly under the splash pan was sparkling in gold! We washed out as much as possible then dried off the fleece and corduroy in preparation for burning. I began panning what we washed out. It's so hard! The gold flecks are so tiny and the black sand is so heavy. Kate and I were losing gold in the sand. It just takes forever and you feel like you're losing it all.
But then the joy of seeing a speckled patch of gold at the bottom is quite special. I got other people to burn the corduroy and fleece. I really should have thought about the burning for more than just a millisecond. Up 'til now we've been burning wood and sacking. Fleece is a plastic: it melted and stuck into a gooey mess. Even the corduroy, which I thought was probably cotton, must have contained some other polymer. It melted too. It all melted - and trapped the gold. I'm just mad not to have thought about this. I'm just so used to "let's burn it all to get out the gold". Ah well!
So, I got quite a lot of gold but not as much as I might have got. The Mikes got an amazing chunk from the potato. Quite mad! A brilliant technique. And Jonathan and Ellen's wicked treasure was - a gorgeous, huge chunk of gold. Hurrah! Now we just have to work out what to do with it!
A really nice, mellow day - apart from sand flies and diesel. Our challenges this time: Jonathan and Ellen - lucky things - are finding 'treasure' from a map. What a nice idea! Mike and Mike are trying to extract gold from the hunks of rock they found on the mountain. Mike B is 'making' (extracting) mercury from a beautiful pink rock (cinnabar) to help. Rather him than me! Don't fancy working with mercury!
I'm working alone - trying to get gold from black sand. Began by going to Gallespie Beach to seek black sand. It's a beautiful black beach littered with crazy, twisted hunks of tree - gnawed by the sea and spat out onto the beach. From the beach, looking inland, there is an amazing range of textures. Beyond are smooth pebbles and then there's a layer of those crazy twisted gnarled tree trunks. And further beyond, old, majestic trees with beautiful trunks. And snowy mountains as a backdrop. Just gorgeous that we get to work here!
But, it was hard to find the black sand. We'’d come here two days ago to check that it was here and it was so easy to find that time. Great lashings of it - strewn down the beach. But today - where there was sand - there are now pebbles. The whole character of the beach has changed! Astonishingly so! But we did manage to find some black sand eventually.
Filmed what we needed - while being eaten alive by sand flies. They were monstrous! Relentlessly finding their way through layers of clothes to bite your most tender flesh. Amazing how such a beautiful beach can be spoiled by such small creatures!
Back at the saw mill I tried out a few things.
Tried using a magnet to cohert the iron ores from the sands. A few bits of sand leapt onto the magnet but so few it was pathetic. I then tried another approach - whipping up the sand in water and diesel. The idea is to get the gold flakes to stick to air bubbles formed by the diesel. Don't know yet if it worked but felt so sick from breathing diesel fumes - don't think I want to use this method! So, I'll probably try make a sluice box tomorrow designed to catch my gold flakes.
Meanwhile still feeling sick from the diesel!
Day 28 - Extracting gold
Felt really grumpy today. A cold began in the night. Throat is sore, limbs feel heavy, joints feel still worse and nose is snotty. Joy! Everyone seems to have been sick or is fighting off sickness - Mike L feels foul and is getting shakes in the night; Ellen has had sinusitis and had to take day off; Jonathan just feels really tired; Mike B is the worst though and stayed at home after much persuasion. So a very subdued day - people quiet or coughing. I was working alone - which is quite nice. I just amble along, getting things done. But was feeling so pathetic - I really was not very fast.
This morning, the stuff I'd skimmed off the liquidised diesel and black sand actually contained a fair bit of gold! Only had a tablespoon of stuff in my bowl and yet there were 40-50 bits of gold. I was very excited. It was the most I've seen in a pan yet! So the liquidity worked really well! But after feeling so sick with the diesel fumes - I just am not prepared to do two full buckets using it!
So I built another sluice box but this time purpose built for sand. Instead of punga wood, I'm using corduroy and fleece material. There's a 'splash board' to tip the sand onto, a bit of narrow pipe with holes to squirt water out of, and a board to 'catch' the gold in draped in black corduroy and black fluffy fleece material. Just about got it finished today so tomorrow I have to get to work pretty hard and do the final tweaks.
So my plan is: finish it off (and get it filmed) in first two hours, get all sand down it before lunch, after lunch dismantle it and wash the material (and pan out), and get help maybe burning off the material.
Jonathan and Ellen are just about ready for their treasure hunt so I can get them to help again tomorrow.
But now I am very, very, very tired. It's only 9.20 pm - but I think I need to sleep!
Day 29 - Extracting Gold
Slept about 9 hours - and still felt shattered. Sore throat, headache and achy back. I don't feel miserable, just dreamy and off in 'Kathy Land'. Not 'with it' at all, almost hypnotically attracted to horizontal surfaces, to curl up on.
But I knew I had to get a lot done. Tested out the sluice box. I fitted the pipe with holes in and watched, in satisfaction, water gushing down evenly. Kate scooped the first sand onto the tray and it seemed to go down nicely. Then I played around with it - changing water flow and angles until the flow seemed stable.
We then began the slow process of pouring on the sand. Too much sand in one go and the layer of 'sludge' gets too thick and the gold just tumbles down across the top of the sludge without getting the chance to get trapped in the fibres of the fleece. So it was a very slow process. And it's such an act of faith!
It poured with rain all day. Jonathan and Ellen were meant to find treasure after being dropped off by helicopter but no chance. Cloud cover was too low and there were thunder storms. They had to find it in a river valley instead. I managed to stick to my plan (with help from Kate and others) and got it all working in the first two hours. We got all the sand down before lunch.
After lunch, we cut up the material and washed down the box. It was very exciting! The fleece directly under the splash pan was sparkling in gold! We washed out as much as possible then dried off the fleece and corduroy in preparation for burning. I began panning what we washed out. It's so hard! The gold flecks are so tiny and the black sand is so heavy. Kate and I were losing gold in the sand. It just takes forever and you feel like you're losing it all.
But then the joy of seeing a speckled patch of gold at the bottom is quite special. I got other people to burn the corduroy and fleece. I really should have thought about the burning for more than just a millisecond. Up 'til now we've been burning wood and sacking. Fleece is a plastic: it melted and stuck into a gooey mess. Even the corduroy, which I thought was probably cotton, must have contained some other polymer. It melted too. It all melted - and trapped the gold. I'm just mad not to have thought about this. I'm just so used to "let's burn it all to get out the gold". Ah well!
So, I got quite a lot of gold but not as much as I might have got. The Mikes got an amazing chunk from the potato. Quite mad! A brilliant technique. And Jonathan and Ellen's wicked treasure was - a gorgeous, huge chunk of gold. Hurrah! Now we just have to work out what to do with it!
