ARE BLACK SANDS IMPORTANT...? You Find Out About Yours...

[Klondikeike]

Klondike here...

Just returned from a trip to Arizona...collecting samples and getting assays done on a property I am looking at...

This first set of assays was done to confirm the presence of gold and silver, establish a value for the property, measure the property and determine how much material as well as how much god is present. Further testing will be needed to establish a mining plan. In addition, we did several "grab" samples from many locations, just panning a shovel full here and there, to detect the presence of gold...

But these assays do confirm the property is a valuable resource worthy of a small scale placer operation as you'll see below..

At first we were discouraged due to not seeing much in the way of free milling gold in our clean ups...but an enormous amount of black sands in every pan..... more than I have ever seen anywhere before...and I suspected the assays would point out that a lot of the gold is in a complex sulphide form.

And I was right... the assays show the gold per ton of black sands is at an average of 1.66 ounces (we maybe saw a few grams or so in each sample) and 3.82 ounces of silver per ton of black sands....

From our measurements, this property produces 150 pounds of black sand to every yard of raw native soil. (this was confirmed by a local geologist familiar with the property)... So by running a small plant...at 20 yards per hour, should produce about 2 ounces of gold..most of what you cannot see and about 5 ounces of silver.

I have a long time friend who owns a commercial smelter and is licensed to refine black sands, only about 85 miles away. He'll smelt all my sands for me...

Maybe some of you should team up..collect your sands together..have them assayed.. and send then to my friend..and you all split the gold and silver equally.... just a thought...

So.. how much are your black sands worth?? Twenty years ago I would have walked passed this property... but not now.. there is a lot of gold and silver here...in these black sands...No matter how you mine.. always save your black sands....

just one note.. a sluice box is limited to how much black sand it will capture... it is only maximum effective during the first couple of minutes..after that, it stars to send more over the end than it catches... therefore..if you are really interested in accumulating black sands.. in your operation, use something like Global Mining Solutions equipment.. it does a constant recovery of black sand without ever filling up...

Below are some pics from my trip...

Hope this helps someone and good luck to you all...


Klondike...

 

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[Astrobouncer]

Thanks for the info Ike, I had previously read a similar story here about some black sands that were worth keeping, but its good to hear it from you as well. I really need to send out some of mine for assay.

 

[hmmm]

Ihave a question bout black sand, i have black sand in my pann and there is no gold flecks free of the black sand, but using a mignifing glass , looking at the black sand there is what looks like gold. almost microscopic. could this be extremely fine gold, or am i looking at pyrite.
here is a photo of the black sand to show how small these gold colored pieces are.

 

[Gork]

Klondike here...

Just returned from a trip to Arizona...collecting samples and getting assays done on a property I am looking at...

This first set of assays was done to confirm the presence of gold and silver, establish a value for the property, measure the property and determine how much material as well as how much god is present. Further testing will be needed to establish a mining plan. In addition, we did several "grab" samples from many locations, just panning a shovel full here and there, to detect the presence of gold...

But these assays do confirm the property is a valuable resource worthy of a small scale placer operation as you'll see below..

At first we were discouraged due to not seeing much in the way of free milling gold in our clean ups...but an enormous amount of black sands in every pan..... more than I have ever seen anywhere before...and I suspected the assays would point out that a lot of the gold is in a complex sulphide form.

And I was right... the assays show the gold per ton of black sands is at an average of 1.66 ounces (we maybe saw a few grams or so in each sample) and 3.82 ounces of silver per ton of black sands....

From our measurements, this property produces 150 pounds of black sand to every yard of raw native soil. (this was confirmed by a local geologist familiar with the property)... So by running a small plant...at 20 yards per hour, should produce about 2 ounces of gold..most of what you cannot see and about 5 ounces of silver.

I have a long time friend who owns a commercial smelter and is licensed to refine black sands, only about 85 miles away. He'll smelt all my sands for me...

Maybe some of you should team up..collect your sands together..have them assayed.. and send then to my friend..and you all split the gold and silver equally.... just a thought...

So.. how much are your black sands worth?? Twenty years ago I would have walked passed this property... but not now.. there is a lot of gold and silver here...in these black sands...No matter how you mine.. always save your black sands....

just one note.. a sluice box is limited to how much black sand it will capture... it is only maximum effective during the first couple of minutes..after that, it stars to send more over the end than it catches... therefore..if you are really interested in accumulating black sands.. in your operation, use something like Global Mining Solutions equipment.. it does a constant recovery of black sand without ever filling up...

Below are some pics from my trip...

Hope this helps someone and good luck to you all...


Klondike...

I have seen this way of looking at the value of a claim on these forums. I find it interesting. There is no doubt that there is truth in some of the reasoning. But is there a flaw in the reasoning that if you have 150 lbs of black sands (usually hematite and magnetite) collected from the riffles from your sluice box and saying that the gold content in it is equal to each 150 lbs of black sands that goes off the end are equal in there gold content? Even extremely fine gold (also combined with other elements) is still a much higher density than the black sand (specific gravity 4.9-5.0) so much of it will remain behind in the sluice box and only a limited amount of gold will go off the end.
After thirty-four years of making a profit gold mining (both placer and quartz) in the Klondike, I have observed many successful mining operations and have gained a basic knowledge of profitable operations. These operations sluice up to 400 cubic yards per hour. You have stated that the claim you are interested in will average one ounce per every ten cubic yards. That is considered incredible rich ground that would produce millions of dollars on a 500' claim. This way to make a living is a never ending process of education and much is unknown. Can you give me a little more detail about this interesting process?

 

[Klondikeike]

Thanks for the questions Gork...

Within the post, you'll see where I stated that a common sluice box cannot be used in a commercial setting as you'll loose more black sands than you keep do to the limitations you speak of in a common sluice box.... You must use equipment that continuously captures the black sand concentrates..something like or similar to the equipment that Global Mining Solutions produces, as an example. Even though I used a sluice to recover my samples, I suspect, once in production, NOT using a sluice box, the actual amount of gold and silver will go up compared to the assayed results. And while I used a sluice to recover my samples, not really wanting to invest the time and money involved in submitting a formal Notice of Intent to use mechanized equipment such as the GMS equipment....(as I have already seen several other assays from these specific properties) knowing an amount of black sand went out and over the sluice box end, I worked in conjunction with a geologist who is intimately knowledgeable of these claims, but has no ownership or agenda concerning them. From past and our data from the these properties, it is he who developed the 150 pounds of black per ton of native soils figure. (as a safety precaution, I am, in reality, considering only half that amount of black sand per ton so an to not inflate my own expectations. What I stated within the post was for example only data, but based on real results. As an experiment, we ran a few minutes, less than 5 minutes...cleaned up and ran again, cleaned up...and only after 4 buckets of material developed several pounds of black sands. These sands were not part of the assays discussed here. The posted assays were mainly to confirm what I had already seen from other assays. So far, all who have completed assays in the recent past have moved on due to the very limited amount of material... only about 600,000 tons at best (about 950,000 cubic yards)... to small a project for most commercial mining folks... but for a come out of retirement old miner like me.. it is just right to finish my mining career with.....lol

The Rich Hill and Weaver Mountain areas within the Weaver mining District, is historically known for it's high Sulphide content of several minerals to very large nuggets..some a couple hundred ounces plus.... In addition, the claims lay at the mouth of a canyon in which a good producing lode mine is located above the claims as well as another load mine a long side the claims on a different vein structure, both operated for many years...back into the 1800's. My original assays are of a fire assay process...When one walks the property, one can at any place and time within the claims pick up 5 to 15 pieces of heavily mineralized quartz float (from the aforementioned eroded vein structures) within an arms each of any spot as part of the alluvial debris from the canyon above the claims, along with the remnants of a Pliocene era river bed which covers much of the this area. Other than the large quartz float fields, there is nothing specific to look at that would draw one's attention that these properties could be good producers, however the assays show good results in both free milling and sulphide minerals. ....If you find a copy of "RICH HILL, Arizona's Most Amazing Gold District", by "Katherine Crombie, Phd, Chris Gholson, Bs, Dante Lauretta, Phd, and Erik Melchiorre, Phd..." explain much of the geological history of why this mining district is like it is. Even though I have been doing this for over 30 years as well, I don't consider myself smart enough to figure all this out on my own and will from time to time refer to others who are well informed, especially when I have little personal history of a specific area. Whiled I have mined gold, both load and placer methods in several states, this is my first venture in the Arizona mining districts.

I am not at liberty to get too specific as additional testing is being done as well as purchase negotiations are under way. I do not have permission to share a certified copy of assay reports from neighboring claims, using a leaching assay method, which shows in excess of 34 ounces of silver per ton of black sands and as high as 8 ounces of gold per ton of black sands... The assays I posted were of a fire assay method and am waiting results for the leach method to return, which will most likely show a higher gold and silver content than the fire assay method.

The bottom line in all this, as was the point to my original post, using the results of my trip as some sort of proof, is that black sands can be more valuable than one may think.. I was suggesting some the folks on here team up, pool their black sands and have them assayed and smelted and split whatever they may earn from the values within the black sands, which may be better than watching the black sand bucket and wishing there was something they could do with them.

BTW... using a magnet, and in removing the magnetic material from a small sample of the black sands, I was surprised to see just how small amount of the magnetics were present within the black sand sample from this area...

One more point... there is a reason the Weaver Mining District has such a nickname..."Rich Hill"......and it isn't because any of the original locators were named "Rich or Richard"...


Klondike...

 

[Gork]

Thanks for the explanation.
As you noted at the end of your explanation, not all black sands are magnetic. An old trick is to first remove what ever you can with a powerful magnet. Then heat up the black sands and do it again. More black sands will be removed. For some reason the heating changes the structure and it becomes magnetic.

 

[Klondikeike]

Hey Hmmm..

Nice looking close up picture of your cons...

Not to split hairs over names, but black sands are just that black.. mixed colored sands are concentrates which are made up of black sands and other types of sands and materials....

Once you have removed all the "other" stuff and just have the "black" sands left, look again with a loop and see if these gold colored "things" are still there.... if it is micron gold they will still be. there. If they are not gold, they will be gone....

That doesn't mean this is a final test... this means only, that once you have worked your black sands down, using a pan, jig or a table (a table or jig is preferred) you will have nearly all of the valuable minerals that make up the black sands. It is difficult to pan down to just pure black sands and not loose some of the valuable things that make up the black sands. It just comes down to how much you really want to keep and how much you want to throw away for the effort required to keep the most and best part of the black sands...

But to get back to your original question.. cannot tell what you have there in the picture.. too much "other" stuff in the picture.

Hope this helps ...

Good luck to you...


Klondike...

 

[Klondikeike]

Thanks for the explanation.
As you noted at the end of your explanation, not all black sands are magnetic. An old trick is to first remove what ever you can with a powerful magnet. Then heat up the black sands and do it again. More black sands will be removed. For some reason the heating changes the structure and it becomes magnetic.

Just found out Gork... that after "cooking" just the MAGNETICS.... and using salts for an agent.. the magnatite and hematite produce all parts of the Platenium group... from within these black sands...and rather high amounts at that...

As I have stated before... keep your black sands.. pool together some of you and split your profits from the smelting. if you need a place to smelt them, let me know..have a couple different companies I'll be using.,

Good luck to all....

Klondike...

 

[TerryC]

Very nice pic, Hmmm.
I have a mineral scope with digital camera. Is that what you used for the pic? Look the stuff over good. Micro-meteorites are sometimes in the mix. Always nice to know you found a "piece of the heavens". (Hey Ike) Tnx TTC

 

[hmmm]

Terry
i use a small camera with a magnifying glass over the lens.

klondikeike
i have taken the black sand out with the magnate , but the stuff in the picture is as heavy as the blacksands. when i pann the material after the magnat, this sand still sits at the bottom of the pann.

"you will have nearly all of the valuable minerals that make up the black sands. "
what else would there be other then black sand and gold.


just watchin gold rush alaska, and just watched the brat give granpa attitude. man grandpa is pissed at the kid .

 

[TerryC]

Terry
i use a small camera with a magnifying glass over the lens.

klondikeike
i have taken the black sand out with the magnate , but the stuff in the picture is as heavy as the blacksands. when i pann the material after the magnat, this sand still sits at the bottom of the pann.

"you will have nearly all of the valuable minerals that make up the black sands. "
what else would there be other then black sand and gold.


just watchin gold rush alaska, and just watched the brat give granpa attitude. man grandpa is pissed at the kid .

Tnx, Hmmm. No need to fix what ain't broke! Good system! The contents in the bottom of a pan are always an exciting mixed bag! I am told that the little round deep red things may very well be garnets. Find a source to buy a color geological map of the area you will be panning. The contents of the pan will be a microcosmic example of the surrounding rocks. TTC

 

[Mad Machinist]

Klondikeike,

I am going to PM you my number. I need to speak with you about what you have found. I don't want to know where, just what you found. This could have bearing on my area here and be rather profitable for us.