I have a hypothetical question ?

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motohed

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I have been classifying my fines through several sieves down to 100 mesh , have'nt gotten around to a 200 mesh yet , but anyway my question is do you retain more fine gold , versus say other minerals or what ? I would think it would all have the same amount of minerals in it . Then I got to thinking [Brain smoking again ] maybe there's , maybe be a higher acumulation of Gold . I was just asking the guys , and what experiences you've had ?:dontknow:
 

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M.H most of the gold i find in N.H Is very fine. So much so that when I first started prospecting. I was missing it. I use a blue bowl with good lighting. And you can barely see it with good eye site. And you need to run it several time for it to seperate. Removing the black sands after the 2nd or third run. 200 mesh should help with the fine stuff.If your panning. And run small batches.You may need a loupe or something like that to see it. It mosly trial and error. Until you find a system that works. But the blue bowl works best for me.
 

I guess , I have to restate this question a little , I was thinking more about the purity of of gold in relation to size versus other minerals in classification prcess ?
 

Most of the gold that comes from the Wild AM. is 22k right out of the ground. Yes it's been tested several times. I wouldn't think size matters in this case as long as nothing is stuck to it.
 

M.H there are a bunch of mines. In the area around the wild A.M that had found. Some silver, lead and copper I believe. And sometimes in these mines gold is a byproduct. Of finding these minerals. But I don"t know if this would change the purity. I read about N.H geology I don"t think it said anything about purity. But I think NH. nugget is right gold in N.H is 22k. And Maine is the same.
 

Generally smaller pieces will be more pure due to having a higher surface to volume ratio...leading to faster erosion of non-noble metals such as iron and brittle minerals such as quartz.

However, results will vary from one orebody to the next. Local conditions rule over generalities.
 

The surface of placer gold particles are gradually enriched with natural weathering. The relatively less stable metal elements like silicon, potassium, calcium, iron, copper, silver and etc. and the non metal elements like phosphorus, sodium, chlorine and sulfur, and the compounds of both groups are leached from the surface of the gold particle leaving nearly pure gold on the surface.

As Kevin pointed out the smaller the gold particle the greater the surface area to volume ratio. This leads to smaller particles of gold with higher purity compared to larger particles in the same deposit.

Check out the recent work by Dr. Erik Melchiorre (Phd Faculty CSU San Bernardino) on this surface enrichment process and how he has developed methods to quantify the enrichment. Knowledge of surface enrichment has enabled him to calculate the relative deposition ages across placer gold deposits as well as distinguishing two intermingled gold placers as to which geological formation produced which gold and when. There is a lot that can be learned from this basic principle of placer particle enrichment.

Heavy Pans
 

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Thanks Guys , that was the kind of answer I was looking for . I'm , Glad I did'nt make my brain start smoking for no reason . LOL I wish , I had some other precious metals , IE , Silver , Platinum ,ETC in their natural state . I would love to do some classification testing too see what size , Mesh they would be the purrest at .
 

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I've often wondered this, great question motohed. As a prospector I would love to find a piece of Quartz with gold in it. I would never buy one even though it is gorgeous. So this fine flour gold we're catching is pretty pure. That's good to know.
 

PurpleGold said:
I've often wondered this, great question motohed. As a prospector I would love to find a piece of Quartz with gold in it. I would never buy one even though it is gorgeous. So this fine flour gold we're catching is pretty pure. That's good to know.
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I was thinking that early on , but I started to question myself . I had a bad head injury in 2003 , that really interuptes my geological thought process . So When In dought , I like to check here . There are a lot of knowledgable people here about all things Gold etc . I don't care what anyone says , the only really stupid question , is the one you don't ask . Even if you think you know the answer .
 

Hey Moto.... Remember that the brain is just like a computer chip. They work much better with the smoke left inside of them!
 

M.H N.H is a good place to look for these minerals. And gems. The only problem is there are only small amounts of most all of them. And also there in the white mountains. Which come with limitations.Thats the only problem with gold prospecting. Most of the time unless your classiflying. We may be missing some nice gems. And possibly other minerals. Which is time consuming. And when were finding gold its hard to look for anything else. And your right M.H tnet is a great place to get answers.
 

A lot of times I bring a few buckets of dirt home with me when I'm out on the river. Some times in the process of classifying in my shop I have found a few nice specimans. And MH. I grew up in the 70's I still have smoking brain cells! :tongue3:
 

nh.nugget said:
A lot of times I bring a few buckets of dirt home with me when I'm out on the river. Some times in the process of classifying in my shop I have found a few nice specimans. And MH. I grew up in the 70's I still have smoking brain cells! :tongue3:
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Yeah , me too . LOL
 

KevinInColorado said:
...and legal here in beautiful Colorado :)
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Legal and highly profitable for your state. I think the sales were in the the 900,000,000 $ range. Damn I wish my state had the tax revenue coming in from it like Colorado does.
Around 75% of people here are for medicinal use. But the 15 people running the local religion are against it. Guess which way our wonderful legislation voted.
 

I think Kevin got a refund last year because they took in so much money. In my state, they have trouble funding schools.



Road trip !!!
 

Rob in KS said:
I think Kevin got a refund last year because they took in so much money. In my state, they have trouble funding schools.



Road trip !!!
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It's true...every adult gets $18 in extra refund this year. It is all due to the state collecting more cannabis tax money than budgeted for. Mostly from tourists btw :)

...and I can think of several reasons to move from Kansas to CO :-P
 

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