Simple solution to fine gold recovery

[johnedoe]

This was developed by Randy Clarkson, an expert in gold recovery designs.

A simple gizmo to help miners snag lost gold..... New gizmo could help placer miners snag lost gold | Yukon News

Also this by Randy Clarkson on fine gold recovery which is somewhat misleading in that this is mostly about commercial ops and 1" minus classification is considered fine....... The Clarkson Study Fine Gold Recovery

Here is a PDF presentation of the process....... http://www.geology.gov.yk.ca/pdf/141114_Nov1014_Grinding_for_Gold_Presentation.pdf ....... Thank you arizau for finding that PDF

Enjoy the learning.

 

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[Goodyguy]

Well who'd a thunk it...... Never considered anything like that ...... Thank's for the info, will look into that closer.

Just be careful not to contaminate any of your other equipment with the petroleum jelly. Also do not use any surfactant around the process as it would prevent the gold from adhering.

What he was using as a slick plate was a piece of aluminum about 10" x 10" with two sides turned up so it looked like a 10" section of a sluice.

I use a similar process only thicker and mixed with other ingredients to capture diamonds from classified material as diamonds are oleophilic as well.

GG~

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Just be careful not to contaminate any of your other equipment with the petroleum jelly.
What he was using as a slick plate was a piece of aluminum about 10" x 10" with two sides turned up so it looked like a 10" section of a sluice.

I use a similar process only thicker and mixed with other ingredients to capture diamonds from classified material as diamonds are oleophilic as well.

GG~

Oleophilic and hydrophobic...diamonds and gold both! Not that i've ever tried the Vaseline slick plate trick myself

 

[arizau]

This is from a post on another forum from "Alex D" who must be the author of the ICMJ article.

Re: OLEOPHILIC ADHESION "ICMJ'S
#37944 by Alex D
Sun May 11, 2014 8:00 pm
I am always curious to hear how well oleophilic adhesion works or doesn’t work with different ores and or concentrates, as I don’t have the time to experiment or have access to all the different gold concentrate/ore scenarios possible.

The most difficult gold I have found to recover with this particular method is gold with a really high silver content, say gold that is 60% or less gold and 40% or more silver. It will still recover electrum (silver/rich gold) but the recovery rate suffers some. Gold associated with a higher copper content adheres just fine though. Also ores with a high content of certain sulfides or metals can hinder the process some as they can cover the grease or petroleum jelly coating by adhering and taking up space for the gold to adhere, gold ores associated with a high amount of molybdenum are really bad for this.

In the article a few methods are mentioned about getting the gold out of the Vaseline or grease coating. Another method to add that works really well and is not mentioned is, scrape off the oleophilic media (Vaseline or grease) with the gold cons, place the globs of gold rich Vaseline into a small pot, pour hot water (not boiling, say around 120-175 degrees) over the material. The Vaseline will float to the surface in a liquefied form (consistency of vegetable oil) leaving most of the gold concentrates on the bottom. Some gold my float up with the Vaseline, stir the surface a few times, this will drop the remaining gold, and the water depth in the pot should be 3” or 4”. As the water cools the Vaseline will start to solidify on the surface, as it starts to solidify it can be skimmed off and eventually be reused if so desired. Once most of the Vaseline is skimmed off take a snuffer bottle and suck up the gold rich concentrates in the bottom of the pot. There may be a small amount of dark sands, zircon, garnet and possibly diamond (if associated with the deposit) to be panned, but it should be a very high gold content with less than a tea spoon of cons to go through. I don’t recommend using heat methods when there is visible mercury in the cons or adhered to the Vaseline. If mercury is present, using charcoal lighter fluid and mean green cleaner and degreaser will slowly dissolve the Vaseline into a non-sticky liquid form. Using heat and hot water is the overall best way to get the gold out of the greasy media though.
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I am really interested on how it works with Oregon beach gold and I will try it with some of my cons.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Goodyguy--you continue to be an amazing source of information. You also reminded me that I need to renew my subscription to ICMJ! Thanks for both.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Hmm. I think I am right here. If your tumbler operates with the container resting between a powered roller and an idler roller then you can increase rotational speed by simply reducing the diameter of the cylinder (think peanut butter jar, hiking type plastic water bottle, etc.).* If the increased speed tries to eject the cylinder you may want to improvise with a couple of loose straps to keep it in place. You also may need to add something to the outside of the bottle to increase friction so the bottle keeps up with the rollers. The old style rubberized cloth plumbers tape comes to mind for this.

I know. I'm a pest. Just jealous that I don't have the equipment or the concentrates to play with this myself.

Good luck.

* You will need to re-do calculations as to critical speed and the amount of charged material.

You are correct; two rollers, but only one turning. I will be looking for a smaller diameter container to try to increase the speed. Thanks for the reminder on recalculating values; that should be easy since I stored them in an Excel program.

 

[KevinInColorado]

If you use a loose strap to hold the container on the rollers,,be careful...that's how I burned out my first motor!

 

[arizau]

You guys may also want to try a process utilizing Oleophilic Adhesion. I learned this technique from a fellow prospector that I met at one of my favorite gold bearing creeks.

It's a very simple cheap, fast and fun way to recover fine and micro sized gold from your -30 and smaller concentrates.

Simply smear a thin smooth layer of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) onto a flat smooth slick plate.
Hold the slick plate under water in a tub or if in the creek with a safety pan underneath it and shake the slick plate back and forth while pouring your wet concentrate through a sieve above it.

The gangue will not stick to the petroleum jelly however the gold will stick due to its oleophilic nature.

To remove the gold imbedded jelly from the slick plate use a body filler spreader to swipe off the petroleum jelly and then swipe off the spreader into a small jar.
To recover the gold from the jelly just use charcoal lighter fluid in the jar and shake it to dissolve the petroleum jelly. Simple as that!

The prospector I met was using this technique at the creek and my curiosity got the best of me so I had to ask what he was doing. Turns out he is a contributing writer for ICMJ's Prospecting and Mining Journal along with other publications. His name is Alex Dolbeare and the ICMJ issue that this technique was featured in detail was Volume 83 Number 8 April 2014

Go for the Gold
GG~

Goodguy,

You said the author uses a "thin coat" of the Vaseline and I take that to be about 1/16" or so. Is that enough? I assume he evenly adds the classified material then kind of shakes to spread the material so the gold can settle then does an end to end motion to further spread and ultimately flush the gangue before reloading. Is that the technique?

Most of the concentrate I work with is ocean beach black sand and it is all minus 100 mesh (pain in the as. to pan). If I see any success with the method I will be Happy, Happy!

Thanks for bringing this method to the forum.
arizau

PS: Thinking outside the box, a batea shaped pan seems to be almost purpose made for this method for minus 30 mesh cleanup.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

If you use a loose strap to hold the container on the rollers,,be careful...that's how I burned out my first motor!

I will watch that. I am getting a friend's junked printer to also experiment with in addition to the rock tumbler (for which I am looking for smaller diameter barrels.

 

[Duckwalk]

I will watch that. I am getting a friend's junked printer to also experiment with in addition to the rock tumbler (for which I am looking for smaller diameter barrels.

As stated in a previous phone call with you, i went to Sherwin Williams and requested a pint paint can which they gave me for free.

 

[KevinInColorado]

As stated in a previous phone call with you, i went to Sherwin Williams and requested a pint paint can which they gave me for free.

That's my kind of frugal!

 

[Goodyguy]

Goodguy,

You said the author uses a "thin coat" of the Vaseline and I take that to be about 1/16" or so. Is that enough? I assume he evenly adds the classified material then kind of shakes to spread the material so the gold can settle then does an end to end motion to further spread and ultimately flush the gangue before reloading. Is that the technique?

Most of the concentrate I work with is ocean beach black sand and it is all minus 100 mesh (pain in the as. to pan). If I see any success with the method I will be Happy, Happy!

Thanks for bringing this method to the forum.
arizau

PS: Thinking outside the box, a batea shaped pan seems to be almost purpose made for this method for minus 30 mesh cleanup.

It's less than 1/16" more like 1/32" and that is plenty. You have the technique figured out. Just make sure that the slick plate is under water, he used a large strainer filled with wet concentrate and slowly swished it in the water directly above the slick plate by about an inch or two allowing the black sand concentrate to fall onto the plate while he rocked the slick plate back and forth under the falling concentrate. The gangue would just wash away while the gold would stick to the petroleum jelly.

I like your batea idea. An old gold pan or even a dinner plate would work.

Do this in a mixing tub while you are perfecting your technique so your tailings can be checked.

GG~

 

[arizau]

It's less than 1/16" more like 1/32" and that is plenty. You have the technique figured out. Just make sure that the slick plate is under water, he used a large strainer filled with wet concentrate and slowly swished it in the water directly above the slick plate by about an inch or two allowing the black sand concentrate to fall onto the plate while he rocked the slick plate back and forth under the falling concentrate. The gangue would just wash away while the gold would stick to the petroleum jelly.

I like your batea idea. An old gold pan or even a dinner plate would work.

Do this in a mixing tub while you are perfecting your technique so your tailings can be checked.

GG~

I just did a quick and very very very basic test with about a teaspoon of material and on inspection I did catch some tiny gold (all feed was minus 100 mesh) from previously pretty carefully panned material. I never get it all even panning in 1/4 tablespoon quantities. Like I said before, panning that stuff is a pain ITA and I keep it around just to fool with. Each time I pan it I find another barely visible color or five worth only a tiny fraction of a cent.

Testing further I noticed that I also could lose some of the previously caught gold. I'm sure that it was scrubbed off and out by overloading and then aggressive motions. That size gold is almost totally weightless under water so it probably does not adhere tightly. Further tests will closely follow Goodguy's instructions which I read after the test. Got a plastic food storage dish at dollar store and will cut the ends out of it to use for the test.

Thanks Goodguy!
arizau

 

[mytimetoshine]

As stated in a previous phone call with you, i went to Sherwin Williams and requested a pint paint can which they gave me for free.

Brilliant!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

As stated in a previous phone call with you, i went to Sherwin Williams and requested a pint paint can which they gave me for free.

Yes, I am looking for something even less diameter, though that is my fall-back option. I was thinking of PVC of a large enough diameter to fit into the area between the two rollers. Need to cap both ends and see how that works as far as RPM's.

 

[Duckwalk]

Nice, to make RPMs easy to count I take a sharpie and mark a straight like from the middle to the edge on one side, the I count the spins when I have a stop watch set

 

[arizau]

Yes, I am looking for something even less diameter, though that is my fall-back option. I was thinking of PVC of a large enough diameter to fit into the area between the two rollers. Need to cap both ends and see how that works as far as RPM's.

Maybe some algebra? X rpm/diameter(fill this in with sizes you are looking at)* = known rpm/known diameter (what you have now). I think this will work and give you guesstimates as to what will happen with different sizes. In any case the rods you already have should work better in a smaller diameter container since they may stack.

*Or vice versa

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yes, I am looking for something even less diameter, though that is my fall-back option. I was thinking of PVC of a large enough diameter to fit into the area between the two rollers. Need to cap both ends and see how that works as far as RPM's.

As a plumber's son I am embarrassed I didn't think of this! Go Dave!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Nice, to make RPMs easy to count I take a sharpie and mark a straight like from the middle to the edge on one side, the I count the spins when I have a stop watch set

Yep, that works. On my black rock tumbler I used a white sticker. On white PVC, a black marker would be great. Thanks.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

I just posted this request for information on "PVC cap size information needed, please" in the Panning Section (where this thread is)

I want to use 3" PVC pipe to make a tumbler for the rod mill for gold. The barrel for the rock tumbler I am using has outside diameter of 4 and 3/8" The rollers are 3 and 5/8" apart. So if I use 3" PVC pipe, the outside diameter is 3.500 inches. When I cap both ends, anyone know what the OUTSIDE diameter of a 3" PVC cap is?

Also, other than sliding the cap on over Teflon tape, anyone got a good idea of how to keep it from leaking. Only one end can be glued on, so I am looking for a neat way to seal the other end. TIA.

The rubber tumbler barrel is so much larger in diameter, that at least the rods I am using will work better in a 3" inside diameter vs about 4.5" for the current setup. And perhaps the speed will increase some, though I may have to do something else about that part.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Just go to the store to measure the cap diameter silly...you know you're going to buy em anyway just to try this! Also it'll fit tight enough that you don't need to worry much about leakage with just a press fit assembly.