Baking black sands

[ProspectorALEX]

Wondering if I should bake our black sand cons from the kern river. ( lots of ultra fine gold). Anyone recommend that I do it. Thanks. Alex

 

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[mxer47]

It would he helpful if the moderators could setup an icon on the personal header indicating the posters minor status. I know I would be more careful with instructions, more patient, and not near as cynical.

 

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[goldenIrishman]

Well it sounds to me like you should be getting something out of all this. I think "Dad" owes you a new skillet at the very least as well as a good cleaning of the kitchen. (Robi keeps telling me that a mans place in in the kitchen. Guess that's what I get for being a good cook) Give the old skillet to them for future use. There may not have been any mercury in those sands, but it's better safe than sorry. I'll hold off on the french toast till ya get the new skillet.

Like I said in the PM I sent you.... Have them call if they have questions! With a little luck we'll be able to prevent any more bonehead moves.

 

[sidvail]

this is a good site about gold, this is the black sand page.

Basement Chemistry for the Prospector - Black Sand, Tellurides and Sulfides

mike

Love the article. And the site.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Love the article. And the site.

agreed as long as you do most of that "basement" chemistry outside with full safety gear. Otherwise we all get to pay for your mistakes (one downside of Obamacare I suppose).

 

[goldenIrishman]

Yeah... I've been to that site before. I feel he's a little light on stress safety at times but there is a lot of good info. We just gotta figure out how to block Alex so he don't get Dad into more trouble!

 

[TerryC]

It's sad, but apparently Alex was being smart and told his dad outside. His dad apparently decided vent fan would suffice.

Also, I check his emails, but I failed to check forums until yesterday. That's how I found out half the story of the baking black sands. (Alex was asleep) I thought it smelled funny when I came home from the movie theater. When I was posting about Alex being 11 years old, naive & not understanding sarcasm, I was referring to the people who were being impatient with him. On a forum about old dimes, someone got annoyed with him because he said "wow cool" I guess they didn't understand why he would say this and got offended. He really finds that stuff "cool"

Trust me...Alex is responsible & even if he wanted to bake black sands, he wouldn't ever plan it to be sneaky without me knowing. This was just an instance of "dad, you can bake black sands" and my husband being like "ok fine lets try it" completely failure on their part & I knew that right away after seeing all the warning posts about it from you guys. lol I want to be mad about it, but part of it is so completely ridiculous, it's kind of funny (minus the dangers)
He woke up the next day eyes hurting, not sure if it was related, but it could've been. I thought that was quite odd but figured maybe he had a headache and didn't sleep well.

I appreciate the warnings, even if they failed to heed. Sometimes...parents mess up. Once I thought it would be fun to fill a soda bottle with vinegar and baking soda and throw it behind our house to hear a little pop. This was after doing a volcano activity or another similar activity. This was at ft Carson, Colorado. Ummm I had no idea it would sound like a sonic boom. My husband was so mad at me and I thought for sure the military police would come. I would totally do it again, just not on a military base or in the middle of crowded housing. lol I don't think I would've baked black sand on a iron skillet on my stove though. But military guys do crazier stuff all the time, I'm sure. my husband should've did a simple search, instead of just being like let's do it.

lol @ aliens. There's a lot of sightings round here.

I haven't seen any aliens since I wrap my ankles with tin foil now!! TTC

 

[two bear]

I like to keep all my black sands till I fill a five gallon bucket. I then dry the material out, which will take a few days. Just keep moving it around and set it in the sun and it will soon be dry. I then place the sands in a tumbler with ball bearings and other heavy steel items and crush it up. Then remove the magnetite with a magnet. Then I add all the left over sand to mercury in a container and put it in the tumbler for several hours. After this process I find that the fine gold has become encapsulated in the mercury and the mercury goes from a watery form to a pasty form. I then use cheese cloth and put the mercury ball into it and squeeze out the excess mercury. After this you will be left with thick compressed ball of mercury. I use a solid brick and drilled a hole in the top about the size of a golf ball. Place the mercury ball in the brick hole (outside) and I use a torch to burn off the mercury. What I have left is a beautiful ball of gold. I do this over the winter when the prospecting isn't as abundant due to the cold air and water. A lot of people will tell you to stay away from mercury. Look, just use nice protective rubber gloves and burn the mercury off outside and stay upwind from the fumes. The gold I recover is well worth the effort and time it takes especially if done in the winter when I don't go in the streams as often.

 

[Sticks]

I like to keep all my black sands till I fill a five gallon bucket. I then dry the material out, which will take a few days. Just keep moving it around and set it in the sun and it will soon be dry. I then place the sands in a tumbler with ball bearings and other heavy steel items and crush it up. Then remove the magnetite with a magnet. Then I add all the left over sand to mercury in a container and put it in the tumbler for several hours. After this process I find that the fine gold has become encapsulated in the mercury and the mercury goes from a watery form to a pasty form. I then use cheese cloth and put the mercury ball into it and squeeze out the excess mercury. After this you will be left with thick compressed ball of mercury. I use a solid brick and drilled a hole in the top about the size of a golf ball. Place the mercury ball in the brick hole (outside) and I use a torch to burn off the mercury. What I have left is a beautiful ball of gold. I do this over the winter when the prospecting isn't as abundant due to the cold air and water. A lot of people will tell you to stay away from mercury. Look, just use nice protective rubber gloves and burn the mercury off outside and stay upwind from the fumes. The gold I recover is well worth the effort and time it takes especially if done in the winter when I don't go in the streams as often.

Glad your not my neighbor, no offence. You should get some nitric, I like every thing about your process though. I have lots of native HG that I have to deal with. I don't keep it in my house, I just keep adding to the bottle till I get enough to treat once I figure out how. I have treated some with nitric and a hot plate outside, and the merc dissolved pretty quick, I saved that acid solution and will treat it some how to get the merc back and the silver out of solution. Best of luck to you.. Rob

 

[Doitlaynstyle]

I found a much safer way of dealing with mercury. Where we mine is mostly old tailings and we run into allot of Merc. If you do it the way shown in my video you can reuse the mercury and you'll never be in danger of breathing it. To be safe though do it in a well ventilated space. I don't use my garage anymore. Process takes around an hour of baking and another hour of cooling to keep safe.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Those are cool Layan. Be sure to store the whole apparatus in a container of water - the inner chamber witll end up with a bit of merc in there and you don't want that to evaporate. Very good tool, that's what I use too btw.

 

[Sticks]

Can you guys point me toward the plans to make one of those retorts or tell me where to get one?First time I've seen that style. I could weld it. That setup is pretty cool. I really liked that dry land nozzle, first time seeing one work, pretty slick and that classifier was sweet. I have a couple of old nozzles I might modify now. Not trying to hijack thread but neat vid thanks.

 

[Doitlaynstyle]

Thanks. The retort is simple. Cut 1.5 inch pipe at about 10" with a 45 degree angle. Find some 10 Gage material and weld the cap on the 45. Next you cut two 1/4" notches in the pipe at the open end 180 degrees from each other. The notches are where the water should ride just above in the pan and allows the expanding air to bubble out of in a small space so that the Merc cools and drops out. Next for your tower you will need some round stock about 3/8" and you'll want to cut it at about 7". Then for the base you'll want some more 10 Gage material cut just large enough to fit in your pan. Weld the tower stem in the center of the 10 Gage. Next for the cup I used a 1/2" pipe coupling and I wish I had used 3/4" so I could fit more amalgam. Slide the coupling about halfway down the length of the coupling over the 3/8“ round stock and seal the bottom. Next plug weld the the inside of the coupling to the round stock. Make sure that you don't get a center pit (suck hole) in the weld. Now drill the coupling to remove the threads and penetrate the plug weld slightly to smooth it up on the inside and you have a retort.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks. The retort is simple. Cut 1.5 inch pipe at about 10" with a 45 degree angle. Find some 10 Gage material and weld the cap on the 45. Next you cut two 1/4" notches in the pipe at the open end 180 degrees from each other. The notches are where the water should ride just above in the pan and allows the expanding air to bubble out of in a small space so that the Merc cools and drops out. Next for your tower you will need some round stock about 3/8" and you'll want to cut it at about 7". Then for the base you'll want some more 10 Gage material cut just large enough to fit in your pan. Weld the tower stem in the center of the 10 Gage. Next for the cup I used a 1/2" pipe coupling and I wish I had used 3/4" so I could fit more amalgam. Slide the coupling about halfway down the length of the coupling over the 3/8“ round stock and seal the bottom. Next plug weld the the inside of the coupling to the round stock. Make sure that you don't get a center pit (suck hole) in the weld. Now drill the coupling to remove the threads and penetrate the plug weld slightly to smooth it up on the inside and you have a retort.

Good stuff Only a few bucks in materials and some welding and you are set. If you don't want to make your own you can probably find someone who can from these instructions...or I have a friend here in Denver who makes and sells them. Too heavy to ship tho I'd say...so only helpful if you live in the area or are passing thru. As I mentioned to Layn earlier, once you've used the setup you have to treat it as contaminated with mercury, this means storing it in water so the merc can't evaporate for you to breathe. All that said, this seems to me to be the smart, cheap way to use and recapture merc, or to remove it from wild gold...or even to purify liquid merc you find in a creek, etc.