I need black sand concentrates

[reptwar1]

Thanks to both of you. And John, very thankful for your advice. I will definitely read the eBook that you mentioned. Last night I came across another method that if my memory serves me correctly was "murphy flux" method? I don't know if you are familiar with it, but it seemed way less risky and lacked the need for mercury. I ran my blue bowl yesterday for an hour and after running 25 lbs of hardware play sand, I was left with a very thin streak of micron gold. (Gold in Arkansas!) I know that the sand came from a local a and and gravel plant. Seriously thinking about setting up 5 or 6 blue bowls side by side on Nome beach, as the blue bowl is very time consuming. I have also heard somewhere that in south America, saliva is used on saruca pans in place of mercury. Just may try that today lol Thanks again for the advice, and I will post updates with my findings. Ron B

 

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[jcazgoldchaser]

Great reading material Sluice Willis, thanks for sharing that! Now I really want to try making iron from some magnetite!

You inspired me to look for more info on this: The Rockbridge Bloomery

They're about $1 here at goodwill

 

[Duckwalk]

Cracking the sands is a myth that never seems to go away. The applied heat removes any sulphide coating that stops the mercury from holding the gold. Hydrogen peroxide will remove the coating. Skip the gold cube and the blue bowl and the cement mixer. Put the sands in a pan with peroxide and mercury. The peroxide will clean off the sulphide coating and keep the mercury clean. Then use a retort to get the gold from the mercury and recover the mercury.

If you put the sands in a cement mixer with mercury you will have to pan ever so slowly to try to recover the tiniest little balls of sickened mercury that didnt absorb the gold.

I disagree with your statement. I have personally cracked sands before and have come out with more fines than i had in repeated panning of the same material. Myth or truth, i call it confirmed either way.

 

[reptwar1]

Kind of wondering what the outcome would be if I cracked a 55 gallon drum of black sand...

 

[KevinInColorado]

Depends where it's from I expect.

 

[reptwar1]

Been dreaming about getting some Nome beach sand but it looks like I'm going to have to wait until spring when I can fly up there for a week or two. Kevin, I'm sure you've seen the paint can shakers at hardware store...imagine if there was a way to apply that to a 55 gal drum. Seems as though the fines would all settle at the bottom but that is a lot of weight to shake vigorously. Wish there was a way though

 

[chlsbrns]

I disagree with your statement. I have personally cracked sands before and have come out with more fines than i had in repeated panning of the same material. Myth or truth, i call it confirmed either way.

The gold that you are finding after heating is not encased in sand particles it has a dark sulfide coating that burns off due to heating. The quenching in cold water does nothing except cool the heated sands. Its much easier to just soak in peroxide.


Roasting (metallurgy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[chlsbrns]

Been dreaming about getting some Nome beach sand but it looks like I'm going to have to wait until spring when I can fly up there for a week or two. Kevin, I'm sure you've seen the paint can shakers at hardware store...imagine if there was a way to apply that to a 55 gal drum. Seems as though the fines would all settle at the bottom but that is a lot of weight to shake vigorously. Wish there was a way though

If you want to get gold fron Nome beach sand get a magnetic locator and a tank or 55 gallon drum and a basic bore hole dredge.

Use the mag locator to detect thick deposits of black sand, usually near the high tide line, sink the suction pipe deep into the sand, sink three or four smaller pipes in a circle around the suction pipe to pump water down into the sand. The suction pipe will suck up and dump into the tank/drum creating a vortex that will keep the gold dead center in the bottom of the tank/drum while the lighter sands flow out the top of the tank. If you think that you are losing gold put a drain hole/pipe near the top of the tank that drains onto a beach box/sluice.


Magnetic locator: https://www.google.com/search?q=mag...8XTygOEp4DwAg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=960&bih=600

 

[Sluice Willis]

I have roasted and cracked black sands, I know there was no free gold as I had panned them numerous times. I also classified them so I know the roasting actually broke the grains. Out of all the times I tried this I liberated some gold once. Gold can be trapped in the black sands, it can also be trapped in pyrite. Some of the most productive gold mines are actually copper mines and the gold in eastern PA is associated with the iron. When these veins of mineral formed from magmatic water the comingled.

 

[Sluice Willis]

If you want to try your hand at making and pouring Iron here is some info for you. you will need some lime stone and oyster shell. you can find more info on the net just google coupla or pouring iron.

Oh and it will give you a whole new idea of what hot is.

http://materialrulz.weebly.com/uploads/7/9/5/1/795167/cupola.pdf

Thanks, I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and I have never heard of them using oyster shell in the early iron furnaces. They used charcoal as fuel and source of carbon and limestone as a flux to remove the impurities. They would put a layer of charcoal, them ore then limestone and repeat this over and over until the furnace was full. Then they would light it from the bottom and force air through the mass from the bottom. When it was ready they would tap the furnace by breaking a clay plug or opening a gate. The molten iron was then channeled into molds in the floor, it resembled piglets feeding off a sow or from a trough so the nicknamed it "pig iron". To create steel they added more charcoal and ran the blast to burn off the excessive carbon. They tried using coal in place of charcoal and these were called anthracite furnaces but the coal didn't do well until they realized how to produce coke from it. Coke is far superior to charcoal and it's still used in modern steel production, along with limestone.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Depends where it's from I expect.

 

[reptwar1]

Awesome idea. Racking my brain as to how I can make my time count up there. I will be putting in 14 hour days and am not returning to Arkansas without gold lol

 

[specksandflecks]

If you want to get gold fron Nome beach sand get a magnetic locator and a tank or 55 gallon drum and a basic bore hole dredge.

Use the mag locator to detect thick deposits of black sand, usually near the high tide line, sink the suction pipe deep into the sand, sink three or four smaller pipes in a circle around the suction pipe to pump water down into the sand. The suction pipe will suck up and dump into the tank/drum creating a vortex that will keep the gold dead center in the bottom of the tank/drum while the lighter sands flow out the top of the tank. If you think that you are losing gold put a drain hole/pipe near the top of the tank that drains onto a beach box/sluice.


Magnetic locator: https://www.google.com/search?q=magnetic%20locator&client=tablet-android-google&espv=1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sboxchip=Images&sa=X&ei=ExTZVIypO8XTygOEp4DwAg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=960&bih=600

Have you actually done this or know someone who has? Love to see something like that.

 

[Oregon Viking]

Been dreaming about getting some Nome beach sand but it looks like I'm going to have to wait until spring when I can fly up there for a week or two. Kevin, I'm sure you've seen the paint can shakers at hardware store...imagine if there was a way to apply that to a 55 gal drum. Seems as though the fines would all settle at the bottom but that is a lot of weight to shake vigorously. Wish there was a way though

Nome you say? I hear great things about these.
BRAWN SUPER CONCENTRATOR | Prospectors Plus LLC

 

[chlsbrns]

Have you actually done this or know someone who has? Love to see something like that.

Yes, we do it. It isnt much to look at. We pump water thru each pipe to jet each pipe into the ground on an angle in a circle about 15' apart with the suction pipe in the middle. The 4 pipes are all connected to one pump that pumps water into the ground, the suction pump/dredge sucks up to a 8" pipe with a 6" perforated tube inside. Kind of like a trommel that doesn't spin.

 

[reptwar1]

That is awesome and probably is indeed something to look at lol if it works, who cares how it looks Not sure exactly how the setup is arranged though... still trying to picture it. Per ton, how much gold would you say it would recover in beach sands similar to Nome Ak?

 

[chlsbrns]

That is awesome and probably is indeed something to look at lol if it works, who cares how it looks Not sure exactly how the setup is arranged though... still trying to picture it. Per ton, how much gold would you say it would recover in beach sands similar to Nome Ak?

No one could tell you how much per ton. The heaviest black sand deposits will be far from the water. Using large high volume pumps and a large tank you can process a whole lot of tons of sand fast! You will be getting to the deep stuff that very few if any can get.

I've always wanted to go to Nome but probably never will. I would buy all new stuff. Keenes largest volume dredge pump is about 650 gallons per minute? And a higher volume trash pump to pump into the sand with a 500 gallon tank. AWESOME!

There is a guy in Mexico that tried it and loves it! His land is all waterfront sand.

 

[reptwar1]

Well, I am looking for a partner for my springtime Nome trip. If you have the know how, I have the work ethic ( and airfare lol)

 

[reptwar1]

Seriously....if I can find someone that can put me on some gold, I will pay their way round trip. Kind of like takin the coonhounds in the woods lol show em the coons and let them do their thing. I get laughed at in Arkansas for talking about prospecting/ mining, but everyone I've ever known that was determined to accomplish something within reason, eventually succeeded!

 

[chlsbrns]

It's a lot of work, planning, shipping and money to go to Nome. Everything is expensive there. Off the top of my head buying the pumps, tank, hoses, pipes, shipping the stuff there, getting myself there, money to rent a place to stay, eat, live and to get everything home has to be about $30k?