Could this clay have gold?

[Zolotov]

Hi All.
I went to a mexican city where gold is produced at massive scale. And in one abandoned mine the watchman said he had a pile of mining waste of about 1 ton of weight. He said it has gold, he thinks I could get about 500 grams of gold out of the entire pile. He offered it to me for sale. I said "but how can I be sure it has gold?" and he answered: "go and take a sample, I know it has gold because I already checked, I just not after the money otherwise I could get it myself". He is very old (75 y/o) and looks like he knows what he is talking about and all of his family were miners, so I kind of believe him.

I took 3.5kg of this stuff, and tried to pan it at home, but I didn't find any gold. Well, I don't even know how gold looks like, it's only my second day of "gold rush". And I would like to ask you, does this clay looks like a matter that has any gold, observing the picture?

Here is a small portion of it before paning:


After that I tried to pan it but I could not find any gold. Probably because it was ground by mining machines so every piece of gold in it is very tiny , this is why I can't see it without microscope.

After shaking a lot and seeing what is on the bottom:



So what do you think? Does it look like clay with gold? And how would I get the gold out of it? What method should I use?

P.S.
btw, with different lighting (this picture was taken without direct sun light) and totally dry, the clay has totally different color:

 

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[placertogo]

Looks like some garnets mixed in with the clay. It very well could have gold but I doubt 500 grams to the ton. The gold may be so fine that mechanical (gravity) methods cannot free it. In that case, cyanide or halogen (chlorine) leaching could recover the gold. I would send 1kg in for an assay.

 

[arizau]

Hi All.
I went to a mexican city where gold is produced at massive scale. And in one abandoned mine the watchman said he had a pile of mining waste of about 1 ton of weight. He said it has gold, he thinks I could get about 500 grams of gold out of the entire pile. He offered it to me for sale. I said "but how can I be sure it has gold?" and he answered: "go and take a sample, I know it has gold because I already checked, I just not after the money otherwise I could get it myself". He is very old (75 y/o) and looks like he knows what he is talking about and all of his family were miners, so I kind of believe him.

I took 3.5kg of this stuff, and tried to pan it at home, but I didn't find any gold. Well, I don't even know how gold looks like, it's only my second day of "gold rush". And I would like to ask you, does this clay looks like a matter that has any gold, observing the picture?

Here is a small portion of it before paning:
View attachment 1416187 View attachment 1416188

After that I tried to pan it but I could not find any gold. Probably because it was ground by mining machines so every piece of gold in it is very tiny , this is why I can't see it without microscope.

After shaking a lot and seeing what is on the bottom:

View attachment 1416192 View attachment 1416193

So what do you think? Does it look like clay with gold? And how would I get the gold out of it? What method should I use?

If you did not already throw away what you have, put it in a 5 gallon bucket with a hose running in it with water overflowing the bucket. Stir while you are doing this until the water pretty much clears up. Since you seem to think that the gold is very small then strain the cleaned remains through a wire mesh kitchen strainer and pan what doesn't pass through the strainer separately from what does. This will make the panning much easier since now the gold, if any, is closer to the size of the material associated with it. With proper panning methods you should be able to determine if there is any gold in what you have. It is best to pan small sands, etc. in small quantities say around a tablespoon or two. Hopefully you have a regular gold pan.

Good Luck

 

[Tuolumne]

pan it out, your question will be solved

 

[placertogo]

If it is as fine as I believe it might be, traditional gravity panning won't work.

 

[placertogo]

The Carlin Trend is a huge deposit of gold that cannot be recovered by panning.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlin–type_gold_deposit

 

[Frank D.]

ask the old guy how they recovered the gold, and how he checked it himself to determine it has gold in it.

 

[winners58]

mining waste? all the free gold has been removed, only way to get more out would be with a chemical process.

some blogs and discussions here https://www.911metallurgist.com/

 

[Zolotov]

ask the old guy how they recovered the gold, and how he checked it himself to determine it has gold in it.

Well, I didn't ask it, but it was implicitly understood that he used panning, because he never said anything about mercury or chemicals. Maybe it's because I am still new to this gold stuff and I don't know how to do pan disseminated gold

 

[Zolotov]

If it is as fine as I believe it might be, traditional gravity panning won't work.

It appears so. Because I used large amounts of water and the clay was filtered out, but when I threw the water away on the bottom of the bucket (supposedly without gold) I can see small yellow shining. But I can not see any particles. So, it looks like gold is very very very tiny there. Practically invisible and floating. I am not sure what to do now, I don't want to throw away "golden water" , so I am researching a lot on how to treat "disseminated gold".

 

[Zolotov]

I have put an old T-shirt into a strainer and I used it to filter the water. I am putting a small amount of dirt (cup size) then I throw a lot of water and stir. Then I wait for 1 or 2 minutes. Then I pass all the dirty water (which is basically dissolved clay) through the strainer with the T-shirt. I am doing it right? Because even after filtering with T-shirt I can see shining small layer clay with shining on the bottom of the bucket

 

[Frank D.]

Here, check these very helpful videos out. https://youtu.be/ZqpxZ9p3hao

 

[Frank D.]

This one is about floating gold, and how to season a new gold pan. https://youtu.be/YIkKL502nIw

 

[Zolotov]

This one is about floating gold, and how to season a new gold pan. https://youtu.be/YIkKL502nIw

Thank you Jay, but I am afraid this won't help me. The gold in this video is huge compared to my gold. Also I don't have any sand, my gold is mixed with clay. It looks like my gold was taken out from milling machine that grinds gold inside processing plant of a big mining company. I think this is the reason of why I was offered this ore , because nobody can pan it. But I think borax will help:



I am going to try it tomorrow.

 

[enamel7]

I think it's mica.

 

[goldenmojo]

Maybe once the watchman is paid he will reveal the secrets.

 

[stephen583]

If you did not already throw away what you have, put it in a 5 gallon bucket with a hose running in it with water overflowing the bucket. Stir while you are doing this until the water pretty much clears up. Since you seem to think that the gold is very small then strain the cleaned remains through a wire mesh kitchen strainer and pan what doesn't pass through the strainer separately from what does. This will make the panning much easier since now the gold, if any, is closer to the size of the material associated with it. With proper panning methods you should be able to determine if there is any gold in what you have. It is best to pan small sands, etc. in small quantities say around a tablespoon or two. Hopefully you have a regular gold pan.

Good Luck

Here's a little trick I learned from the archeology department of Tulane University concerning how to liquefy clay. This is the solution they use. A water mixture containing a free ion of fluoride and a free ion of hydrogen. How do you make it ? Begin by filling a 5 gallon bucket half way full with water. Add to that one large family size tube of fluoride toothpaste (there's your free ion of fluoride). Next pour in one large bottle of hydrogen peroxide (there's your free ion of hydrogen). Stir. The mixture is perfect when the solution turns a pretty blue color. Pour in the clay and give it a stir. Allow the heavies to settle on the bottom of the bucket a few minutes, and pour out the water. In the end, all you should have left at the bottom of the bucket are clean particles of sand, other heavies and gold. If a trace of liquefied clay still remains, just pour the concentrate into another bucket of clear water. Stir and pour off again. The whole process from start to finish takes less than ten minutes.

I've just given you the economical recipe for the mass production of "Clay-B-Gone". My cost ? $2 dollars for two and a half gallons. Same thing. Does it work ? I've tested it myself on clay bearing material and was happily surprised with the result (actually that's an understatement, the first time I was totally gob struck, it's jaw dropping). In fact, I now wash all my raw dirt in this solution after classifying the dry earth, and it has literally quadrupled the efficiency of my sluice. This is so affordable and easy, I don't know why everyone isn't doing it.

What do you think works better in a stream sluice ? Throwing raw unclassified, unwashed earth into it, or sluicing clean concentrate ? I'll go with clean concentrate. You eliminate the need for riffles, miner's moss and gravel guards which are time consuming and aggravating to keep clean when working with raw dirt. All you need are a couple of good mats in your sluice box. That's it.

Gold Hog makes a "Razor Hog" mat which is unbelievably effective (even on the tiniest flour gold). I highly recommend their product. 100 % recovery every time. I tested them repeatedly with the same material, capturing the same amount of gold in each consecutive test. All the sands and tiny gravel and rocks just float over the mats, and the gold is stopped by them. Gold Hog has a very informative website that explains the exact science behind why their mats outperforms their competitors. You should give it a read.

Again. Good Luck., but if you try this mixture.. you won't need it.