Gold & Platinum Problems

HappyTrails55

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Sep 30, 2005
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Paso Robles
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Gold & Platinum Problems

Okay well I got problems, the Good Kind...I'm in a creekbed getting small flour gold with some pickers..and I definitely got what seems to be Platinum..They way I get it is by using a 1/8 inch screen on top of a bucket then I run it through my Gold Exorcist Drywasher, then I pan it down past the black sands to the gold. Mixed in with the gold are these flour to chunky size grains of a dull grey metal. I've in the past been throwing or getting rid of the grey metal stuff as much as I can cause it's a hindrence (wish I could spell, hee,hee). For some reason I kept on thinking that it was lead shot or some other kind of lead, but separating the gold away from it is truly a problem cause it won't pan out and actually seems heavier than the gold. Using my Blue Bowl is no help at all either and I built a Miller Table out of an old School Chalkboard and it works phenomonly well for the separation of the black sands, remaining blonds away from the gold, but the heavy grey metal remains. This grey metal, well I 1st used a pen knife to see what kind of shattering clevage it had or to just shatter it, the knife just sticks to it and it can cut it clean (like gold), I did a scratch test on a blank piece of paper and it streaks greyish white and is all different from the lead scratch test which is pencil grey. These are just the general tests a prospector like myself can use without getting an assay of it or going to any other extreme like using nitric acid on it (which I may still do), but, my main problem is the separation of these 2 metals without expelling more money out there for other separators..(the grey metal is NOT magnetic)...I know that there's alot more Professional Feller's here that could give me word's of advice and I'm seeking it right now, cause quite frankly I'm stuck, I can't get my gold in my vials with all of this other metal amongst it. Any Suggestions?...Thankyou...Darrell....I'll put pic's up when I can..
 

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mrs.oroblanco

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Jan 2, 2008
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Black Hills of South Dakota
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Re: Gold & Platinum Problems

That's where I was - at the wastewater treatment plant. They had this thing called an "evaporator", and with wood pulp and byproducts going through it, it would condense it, make an end product that looked like dog poop, and then it would get dried, and made into pellets to burn in the boilers for pulp making. That stuff builds up on that equipment every day. Every compartment gets washed every shift (with regular water and brine), but, every few months, it has to have that nitric acid wash to take the hard stuff out - if you don't, the output capacity drops every day until eventually, you are not making enough to run the driers and pellet maker.

I'm glad, if it had to happen, that it happened in the pulp wastewater, rather than the Imhoff system (one of the "other" biological waste spots).

We were down for quite awhile after that, and all the boilers had to be run with an alternate fuel.

We also had one guy who got it on him one year - arsehole didn't put his chemical gloves on. I love the sight of finger bones. (he lost 3 fingers).

Beth
 

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