black sand clean up

[M3R1IN]

I was out prospecting in Montana last weekend
and there was this old guy who just showed up and started sluicing upstream from me a ways
He seemed friendly so i decided to go chat with him
he gave me a lot of useful info and let me pick his brain about the local geography and different techniques
he saw that i had a large amount of black sand and said i should take some nitric acid to that and i would be amazed at how much gold would release from the lot. I explained that i am canadian and that nitric acid and mercury are very difficult to obtain here without a business licence
I am wondering on procedure for cleaning black sands with nitric acid and if anyone knows any industrial applications for nitric acid
whereby i could obtain it with less difficulty?
thanks

 

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[Goldwasher]

We don't get much black sand off our claim the river is a different story. On the claim we have A LOT of sulfides....We don't really stock pile it.. if we wanted to we could there are pieces up to like 2-3 mm I'm sure a rod mill would be sweet. I know several guys locally who are converting the sulfides in their hard rock ore using the "patio" method as Chris Ralph suggests...it lets bacteria do the converting then you can leach.... Roasting ores is finicky and ILLEGAL where we live.... and the neighbors wouldn't appreciate the smell.

I heat all the b.s. and quench...if I had a rod mill I would run it through that....then magnetically separate it.....I'm in an area with numerous serpentine intrusions there are pgm's. That is all stockpiled. The non magnetics even though they may, still hold a little value after cooking goes to the garden. Looking at the b.s. through a microscope is cool you can see the small gold crystal attached and encrusted in the pyrites and manganese oxide. When fresh here its reddish pink...once oxidized its black or dark rust red. Nuggets have it on them sometimes and in the quartz when still attached. Heat a chunk of ore with it present...then look at it with a microscope and you can see small beads of gold.....

Mechanically treating or quenching to fracture the grains most definitely liberates gold...and cleans up gold that has oxidized material attached or encapsulating it.

 

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[nh.nugget]

I don't know, Mercury, acid's, peroxides, sulfides, this stuff is all pretty nasty. I'm no rocket scientist,[even though been called one LOL!] I hope no one is having any kids? I think I'll keep to my adage if I can't see it I don't care about it. Fly poop is close enough for me!

 

[Jeff95531]

Excellent advise!

"Luckily almost everyone on these forums is prospecting for visible placer gold. No chemicals of any kind are needed to process productive placer deposits."

"Crush and pan. Safe, clean, works every time and cheap."

Throw in a magnet and that's me. KISS!

 

[goldenIrishman]

The K.I.S.S. methodology is usually the best way for the small scale miners to go. Dig, sluice or dry wash to concentrate your materials, pan out the gold and if you're really REALLY bored and need a mining fix grind/crush and do the "Shake and Bake" on your black sands. (Outside with lots of ventilation while heating of course.) The more involved you get with chemicals, the more chance you have of drawing attention to yourself from our least favorite of those three letter government agencies known as the E.P.A. If they catch you playing with chemicals and doing it wrong (or in some cases without the proper permits) you're in for a HUGE fine as well as possible jail time if they're really feeling froggy. Once they get their claws into you... YOU'RE TOAST!!! Fines form the B.L.M or U.S.F.S. are nothing compared to what the E.P.A. can and will nail you with.

 

[blacksand]

Nice, but I really want to know who Wallace J was and his exact formula.Proportion of ingredients equipment.I am looking at technique.Not interested in Blacksand values just yet.

 

[reptwar1]

I have 10 five gallon buckets of Black sand if anybody would like to buy some,$1.00 a pound plus shipping.All dredge cons panned and spiral wheeled once

Very old thread, but I you still have any black sand, I will buy it. 70 lbs will fit in flat rate shipping box for $15 then, I will give you $70 for the sand as well. Let me know

 

[KevinInColorado]

Very old thread, but I you still have any black sand, I will buy it. 70 lbs will fit in flat rate shipping box for $15 then, I will give you $70 for the sand as well. Let me know

Sounds good, I'm in. I've tested mine and know there's gold in it but I live in an apartment now and don't have space to process stuff like this anymore. PM on the way!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Very old thread, but I you still have any black sand, I will buy it. 70 lbs will fit in flat rate shipping box for $15 then, I will give you $70 for the sand as well. Let me know

I recently read that in one of our mining districts, after years of mining, miners figured out that much of their "pesky black sands" was actually gold telluride.
There used to be a 55 gallon drum of black sands along one of our rivers. I think the claim owner filled it up and figured out it was too heavy to move.