Black Sand Samples

[alloy_II]

Samples from two different areas, once the weather improves - smelting will begin the top sample certainly shows promise, both by weight and microscope image.

For those interested in smelting the attached file is about the various flux's used and their purpose.

 

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[alloy_II]

With southfork's mercury these are the elements one would expect as contaminats in his gold button..

Gold is very malleable, I'm sure that if southfork were to take a hammer and flatten one of his gold buttons he would learn that it's not very soft.

A to me his gold is not .999. The Canadian Mint produces four nines gold and is most sought after world wide by investors of gold bullion.

 

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[alloy_II]

Being totally new to smelting,I'm finding the process a bit more complicated than first anticipated.

No use explaining what measures I've taken to purify the lead button as your ore type may differ from mine.

Getting closer, this is that ugly lead button from the 100 grams of black sand after a remelt.

When the button was cooling down some beautiful colors in motion, damn camera has the video in the wrong orientation.

 

[southfork]

What's next for the lead button? Is there gold or silver in the button?

 

[alloy_II]

What's next for the lead button? Is there gold or silver in the button?

The gold was a very thin layer, in the molten state if floated on top of the heavier platinum as the platinum cooled down it sucked the thin layer of gold into itself.

After i hit the button on the wire wheel will post a picture, as for the button I'll mail it to Rod in Hedley B.C.

 

[alloy_II]

The bottom side of the button is very hard, and the wire wheel did not make any scuff marks.

If you enlarge the bottom image you'll see the pock marks from the oxygen being expelled. This a a real problem with pure palladium.

This is far from pure and I'm not interested in the platinum group. So we'll have to see that Northern BC has to offer in her black sand.

 

[alloy_II]

I once ball milled 200 pounds of gold fingered ram with the chips intact, shortly after events took place that required a move.

Loaded all the ram powder into a large Tupperware tube and loaded it onto my truck, what happened after traveling several thousand mile was amazing.

Reaching my destination and finally getting around to that tub I had discovered all of the gold powder had settled onto the bottom of the tub, like cement. Just as it would have done in nature.

This is how I intend to concentrate the gold from the ball milled quartz, only this time add a bit of water. if you ever been to the beach and the sand under your feet is dry. You wiggle your feet enough and the sand turns to quick sand under your feet, yea that much water.

Just enough to give the gold some mobility, gravity will do the rest.

That cemented layer will give me some decent concentrates to smelt.

Ya gotta love mother nature.

 

[alloy_II]

Vuggy quartz loaded with sulfides, after milling then roasting before loading into the Tupperware tub.

After a week or so of driving to shake the tub the gold will be cemented to the bottom of the tub like a concrete slab.

Just like treasure hunting with your metal detector you always have to dig, somehow them darn coins never stay on the surface.

 

[alloy_II]

First load milled quartz out of the mill, two more to go. On the next post I'll show how I close up the mill to keep the contents inside.

 

[alloy_II]

Seconed load,, two pans full.

The plate with the three bolts welded onto it, is larger than the opening once the plate is in position the strong backs secure the plate. When I'm doing a wet grind, I'll use all three of the strong backs.

The mill can handle large chunks.

 

[alloy_II]

This is the last ball mill load. this ugly quartz full of gold bearing sulfides with pockets of the stuff..

Doing a road trip tomorrow, I've put some o the milled ore into a clear coffee carafe which I'll but onto the truck and by the end of the day all the heavies will be on the bottom.

 

[alloy_II]

The quartz makes the Noxx 800 sing.

The specific gravity of sulfides makes this a favorable material for the centrifuge which is almost completed.

Centrifuge, Home Built Equipment post #2

sulphide, any member of a group of compounds of sulfur with one or more metals. Most of the sulfides are simple structurally, exhibit high symmetry in their crystal forms, and have many of the properties of metals, including metallic lustre and electrical conductivity. They often are strikingly coloured and have a low hardness and a high specific gravity.

 

[alloy_II]

Tomorrow I'm going to purchase a small HF type small gasoline engine to make the ball mill more portable..

We;re going prospecting in British Columbia.

 

[alloy_II]

The milled ore in the coffee carafe has a Ph of 8 which leans towards alkaline , so I'll not have to add very much base to bring it up to cyanide specs.

 

[alloy_II]

A gold mine nearby where this quartz came from lost gold to tailings, these sulfide ores must be roasted first to efficiently recover the gold.

All because I made some soap from wood ash, I have a plan.

Potassium Hydroxide is a base and the best part is it's free. End results of roasting sulfide ores in a wood fire ya end up with a shit load of free base.

Soaking the ashes in water converts the K2O to potassium hydroxide by the reaction: K2O + H2O -> 2KOH The term "potash" refers generally to all manufactured water-soluble potassium compounds since they were first derived from ashes soaked in a pot of water. When first discovered in 1808, the element was named potassium after the term potash.

 

[alloy_II]

Kinda got off track from the original topic, a very informative pdf file related to gold recovery from Black Sand.

 

[alloy_II]

The already milled quartz will go into the stainless steel pan with the larger stuff into the firebox below.

Once the larger stuff has met the fire it will be easier to mill.

On my road trip tomorrow one of the landfills has a pile of scrap lumber, some of which I'll use for fuel.

 

[alloy_II]

Long day but Jennifer made for very enjoyable company.
In the bottom image your actually looking at visible gold, just not what your used to seeing.


Tomorrow is the big roast, the price for activated carbon went through the roof as an alternative I'll use zinc to cement out the values.

 

[alloy_II]

The roast, larger quartz in the firebox got some nice colors after they heated up enough to expel some volitiles as gas.

In the short video you can see the small eruptions after raking.

Attached file: Cyanide Leaching.

 

[alloy_II]

An unexpected event.

As the milled quartz was being roasted the stuff in the stainless steel pan as I raked it with the hoe was very fluid. This allowed to heavies to settle to the bottom.

Dragging my fingers on that bottom one inch layer I can feel the difference in density.

 

[alloy_II]

The small engine I had purchased hasa 5/8" crankshaft the only centrifugal clutch they had was with a 3/4" bore. I bought it, then yesterday went to Vern's AG a buddy who lets me use the shop lathe.

While I was there Kerry a shop hand gave me a heads up on a older woman going into a care home wanting to sell for $5,000.00.

Below is the house I purchased yesterday evening.

This event changes my current plans, just need to finish up milling and roasting the last of the ore, then that project will be completed at a latter date.

Too good to pass up.

As for cyanide leaching it's the most economical method known to man, just adhere to Dr. Williams instructions in the attacted document and you too can recover gold so fine it's invisible to the human eye.