Extractor and separator apparatus

An extracting and separating apparatus to be used for collecting and separating a desired material from an undesired material comprising:

• a front portion, a middle portion, and a back portion;
• said front portion is attached to a driving means for propelling said separating apparatus on a surface which contains said undesired material having said desired material, and for activating said separating apparatus;
• said front portion includes an extraction mechanism for collecting said undesired material containing said desired material, and said extraction means collects said undesired material having said desired material while propelling across said surface for enabling collecting and separating to occur simultaneously;
• a transport apparatus located between said front portion and said middle portion, said transport apparatus being adapted for receiving said undesired material containing said desired material from said extraction unit and to transport said undesired material containing said desired material to said middle portion;
• said middle portion includes at least two cylinders which are mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis, said at least two cylinders include a first cylinder having an inlet end and a last cylinder having an outlet end, to provide for said outlet end to be an opened end of said last cylinder;
• each cylinder includes a first contact end and a second contact end and each second contact end of a preceding cylinder is in close proximity to a first contact end of a succeeding cylinder and at least one cylinder includes an encompassing wall with a screen that is perforated for progressively and selectively filtering said desired material from said undesired material from said inlet end to said outlet end and said outlet end extends into said back portion, and said outlet end extends into said back portion;
• a receptacle for receiving said desired material is located in said back portion;
• and
• said second encompassing wall flares outwardly for providing said outlet end to be larger in size than said inlet end.

A method of separating desired material from an undesired material comprising the steps of:

• (a) propelling a separating apparatus on a surface which contains said undesired material having said desired material, activating said separating for extracting and retrieving said undesired via an extracting device;
• (b) transporting said undesired material containing said desired material via a transport apparatus to a separating area for separation of said desired material from said undesired material;
• (c) passing said undesired material through a rotating cylinder, said rotating cylinder includes a plurality of sections, each section includes an encompassing side wall, and at least one encompassing side wall is perforated;
• and
• (d) transporting said desired material to a back portion for collecting and storing said desired material into a receptacle.