Black sand question?

[mu50stang]

I started using a magnet to pull all my magnetic black sands out of my pans. Is this stuff worth saving at all? And is the other black sand that remains in the pan worth saving? Not sure if I should toss it or save it.

 

[russau]

i save all of my Black sand to work them further at a latter date.some people that are in a nugget area say this is a waste to time/energy, but if thats the extent of what youll find, the go for it!

 

[Goodyguy]

The black sands are worth saving, for re processing to release and recover the fine and micro gold
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Reference_pages/black_sands.htm


GG~

 

[mu50stang]

I mostly work in Indiana and all the stuff I find is fine gold. So It looks like I should keep it.

 

[Goodyguy]

I mostly work in Indiana and all the stuff I find is fine gold. So It looks like I should keep it.

Keep it at least until you have the chance to separate the fine and micro gold from it.
Once all the free gold has been separated from the black sand it's not worth saving after that.

The only ones who really make money off refining the black sand are the commercial miners who have barrels full left over after recovering the easy to capture free gold and who have missed the ultra fine and micro gold particles.

The micro gold really adds up in that type quantity of accumulation of black sand.
For the less than full time prospector, re processing the black sand on a miller table or blue bowl gives the best results.

GG~

 

[GrayCloud]

Buddy there was a commercial mine just upstream and adjoining a place I use to sluice in CA. The land owner of the property I was working, stated that the the commercial mine had 55 gal barrel after barrel of black sands. He also stated, that the mine owner told him that each barrel was worth around $50,000. Just wonder how much cream they took off the top?

 

[Goodyguy]

Buddy there was a commercial mine just upstream and adjoining a place I use to sluice in CA. The land owner of the property I was working, stated that the the commercial mine had 55 gal barrel after barrel of black sands. He also stated, that the mine owner told him that each barrel was worth around $50,000. Just wonder how much cream they took off the top?

Well that proves my point. They are missing a lot of the fine and micro gold during the processing of their concentrates.
And yes it seems they must be running some very high value material initially.
However, we just don't know how many tons of material they had to run to acquire each 55 gallon drum of their black sand leftovers

GG~

 

[GrayCloud]

That is true. If we ever make it out that way, I will show you that spot. It is in-between Paradise and Orriville. Some of the prettiest country you can lay eyes on.
What I failed to do out there, was to try and locate the old ancient stream bed. Gosh the more I think about it, the more I realize what all I should have done but just did not have the time.

 

[Goodyguy]

That is true. If we ever make it out that way, I will show you that spot. It is in-between Paradise and Orriville. Some of the prettiest country you can lay eyes on.
What I failed to do out there, was to try and locate the old ancient stream bed. Gosh the more I think about it, the more I realize what all I should have done but just did not have the time.

We had better hurry before Kaliphonya outlaws prospecting altogether.

He also stated, that the mine owner told him that each barrel was worth around $50,000. Just wonder how much cream they took off the top?

At today's prices that would mean that they are leaving approx 28 troy oz's of gold per barrel in the black sand.
A barrel of black sand weighs approx 2,294 lbs. not including the 44 lbs for the barrel.

So a 55 gal drum of their black sand has an average yield of approx 27.883 oz. to the ton.
That's about two and a half grams of gold per pound of black sand they are not recovering.

GG~

 

[GrayCloud]

Better re-figure that Buddy. November 2009 Gold Price.

 

[Goodyguy]

Better re-figure that Buddy. November 2009 Gold Price.

Gold averaged around $1175 in Nov 2009
So that comes to 42.5 oz. they missed per barrel
About 4.5 grams of gold per pound of black sand they didn't recover.

They must not of had a wave table

GG~

 

[GrayCloud]

The big money question is, just how many tons of dirt they had to wash per barrel.

 

[Goodyguy]

The big money question is, just how many tons of dirt they had to wash per barrel.

I'm not that good at math

But I am good enough to know that $50,000.00 a drum adds up quick. Just takes 20 barrels to add up to a cool million 8)

 

[russau]

and to think that sand and gravel plants dump this BS back into the tailings race to get rid of it..

 

[GrayCloud]

All the old gravel pits back home in Louisiana are located in the hills of Catahoula, Caldwell and Winn Parishes. These gravel beds are from ancient rivers that no longer exist. When I get back home, I will take post hole digger and get right under where some of the older wash plants stood and dig dig dig. Hopefully I will find plenty of black sand and panning will show some shine.
I use to work in some of those pits as a boy and even helped to build a at the time modern wash plant. The older (1900-1950's) and abandon gravel pits had old wood framed wash plants. For the most part, they have been abandon and unless one knows of them, they are long lost.

 

[Bell]

Ok fellas how fine is this gold that hides in black sand? I'm in NC and all I've found in my spot is very fine like dust particles of gold, the biggest being like maybe a flake of pepper size. Ill pan down to just a couple ounces of black sand and then move it all to one corner of the pan, then take it under a bright light and with just maybe an ounce of water slowly wash it down the pan sucking up the fine gold as it is exposed. Very time consuming, but its what I have to work with. Should I still be worried I'm missing even finer stuff I can't even see, or is the kind of gold I'm recovering already what you guys are talking about getting out of the blue bowl etc?

 

[Alaskan Adventurer]

Keep in mind quite a bit of the black sand is gold encapsulated. Imagine a tiny speck of gold passing through some kind of contaminate like tree sap, or even old missed mercury. One great method is to add the black sand to an old cement mixer and add a couple steel ball bearings. Let it run for a couple of hours and this should fracture the sand and release any gold that might have been trapped. This should ground the black sand down to about -500 mesh. Works best if you have a large quantity of black sand though, like multiple buckets or even barrels. Obviously if it is mercury encapsulating the gold, you would need to clean it up using acid. Probably not worth it unless you know for a fact there is a decent amount of mercury amalgamated with the gold.

AA