gettin gold out of black sand

warsawdaddy

Gold Member
Nov 23, 2004
5,595
69
Edwards,Missouri
Detector(s) used
MXT - DeLeon - Gamma 6000

rainmaker3555

Tenderfoot
May 26, 2005
8
0
Iv'e been doing this 15 years or so, and have tried everything mentioned by all the other posts. The "Blue Bowl" work fairly well, but not great. I run mine thru a homemade device to remove the magnetic black sand first, then process it with CLS equipement from www. axctionmining.com works really well. Fast and not too dangerious. I avoid the use of Mercury and Nitric Acid at all cost. Mercury is absorbed thru the skin as well as the fumes when heated, and Nitric Acid fumes are deadly also. If you have a lot of black sand, I would suggest you check out action mining, they will run it over one of their "micron wave tables" for a reasonable price if you are in the area,
 

dudes2112

Hero Member
Jan 25, 2005
572
4
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
The problem with the magnet idea is that some of the gold can go with the magnet as all the magnetite rushes by. It can be affective if done very carefully.

Dudes
 

nebraskadad

Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2005
287
9
BTW All, I did find a source online for Hg and Nitric Acid if any one doesn't have those items in their supply drawer.

http://www.nasco.com Nasco is an educational supply house. have a lot of scientific supply probably a bit pricey if running a 55 gallon drum of black sand.
 

goldenboyofwa

Jr. Member
Jun 12, 2005
28
1
Mountlake Terrace
Hey I am a Young prospector who doesn't like to use Mercury either my favorites are The gold Miser Mini sluice and the Keene Concentrator Bowl and those are all under 100$! if u wanna spend more the have Spiral concentrators from $200-close to $500
 

nebraskadad

Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2005
287
9
Golden boy,
if you are running a lot of concentrates with black sand liberating micron gold from the sands is not going to happen without a chemical process of some sort.. H20 only goes so far. Your may be missing about has the AU if you've got rich concentrates.

I was watch an old boy on Gold fever this weekend that did the classify, classify, classify, classify, classify, classify, classify, and classify, again, using a magnet at every step keeping every thing and still after that he had about a oz of water/gravity from his 6 buckets and he ran about 5 oz of amalgam to the smelter. Hg with AU. I can see with caution this process more useful then a DAM bowl..

I thought like you too, but the more I read, the more I realize a lot of minute particulate stuff is lost in the stream or in the overflow of the damn bowl or sitting in the garden pile. Think about it.
 

nebraskadad

Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2005
287
9
I found a process that uses a modified Aqua Regia process with pulling gold to an electrolytic panel.

see http://www.goldco-mining.com/ It uses a Cyanidic replacement and electrolytic process to draw the metal to the cathode plate. Accordingly your recovery using this method is just another step in the process. It can be used to recover metals from electronic scrap too. For Plats you need to vary the temp of the solution from room temp.

It makes more sense, I've not ruled out using Hg, but Acid oxy/redux process has it's drawbacks.

I have the AR stuff and it is fairly available from the Ace Hardware store, where Mercury is a bit more of a stretch to obtain.
 

donb0078

Full Member
Feb 24, 2013
141
39
Detector(s) used
atm, whites sl II classic
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I'm in the process of scraping computer parts atm...what i'm using is muratic acid and hydrogen peroxide it seems to be working fairly well its sitting outside I watched someone on you tube you can find several there to watch idk how well its gonna work but the aqua regena sounds like probably the best it will dissolve everything metal then you can extract all the different metals with different processes the fumes from the method i'm using now is chlorine gas super bad to breath. and the leftover acid is toxic as well it can be treated though.
 

donb0078

Full Member
Feb 24, 2013
141
39
Detector(s) used
atm, whites sl II classic
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Whats the odds...

Hey all, I'm located in Ohio...were supposed to have glacial placer gold here. There was a unspecified place here in warren county that someone found a pea size nug. I researched it a bit and decided to try find some for myself in a local creek no luck so far but I've checked several places here in southern Ohio and I found a creek last year that had massive amounts of black sand if it had gold in it I couldn't see any, I scooped up a bucket of sand off the bottom just to see what it was like turned out...it was mostly black sand. I figure I didn't go deep enough but what do you think the chances are that I might be in a good spot??? Also what would be the best way to work it since there is so much of it? Idk there's a spot down from there that has a corridor of shallow bed rock might be better to see if I can get permission form the guy that owns it try there first...

Thanks, Don
 

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