Gold Ore

southfork

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southfork

southfork

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I had this button soaking in muriatic acid to clean some pig iron off. The iron must have been all the way though it left a nice hole ready to hang. I'm not using collector metal, so the iron just floats on top when it cools, I have a layer of iron to remove. Even when I smelt/melt again it's still there but the muriatic removes it overnight. 11 grams and nice and shiny.
 

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southfork

southfork

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I hope everyone had a good 4th. I'm trying to smelt / melt some slaggy dirty ore it takes about 3 different cupels and flux to get a black metal button like this. I'm not sure what the grey/black layer is for sure? but the muriatic acid removes it before the final melt. Hopefully we will have a nice gold button in a few hours. We still don't have a steel cone mold, so I have to sacrifice a bunch of cupels lol.
 

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southfork

southfork

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Today's button was putting on fireworks display well at least a weak sparkler. One more melt to finish this button it went from a mass of slag all of a sudden to a bright button. 17 grams of gold the other half of this slaggy mass is sitting in the furnace in another cupel in 4 or five pieces. I spilt the concentrates into two samples there was little balls of bright metal floating in the slag when it gets hot enough it drops into a gold button. I reached in with the tongs to lift out to add more flux and the cupel just crumbled. Waiting for it to cool and add the rest of the concentrates maybe a couple more grams of gold all from a five-gallon bucket of rocks.
 

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Tesorodeoro

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Today's button was putting on fireworks display well at least a weak sparkler. One more melt to finish this button it went from a mass of slag all of a sudden to a bright button. 17 grams of gold the other half of this slaggy mass is sitting in the furnace in another cupel in 4 or five pieces. I spilt the concentrates into two samples there was little balls of bright metal floating in the slag when it gets hot enough it drops into a gold button. I reached in with the tongs to lift out to add more flux and the cupel just crumbled. Waiting for it to cool and add the rest of the concentrates maybe a couple more grams of gold all from a five-gallon bucket of rocks.
I’d grab an old shear top, aqua colored, pontil marked, wide mouth pickle/sauce jar and start filling it up with those buttons.
 

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southfork

southfork

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Today's button was putting on fireworks display well at least a weak sparkler. One more melt to finish this button it went from a mass of slag all of a sudden to a bright button. 17 grams of gold the other half of this slaggy mass is sitting in the furnace in another cupel in 4 or five pieces. I spilt the concentrates into two samples there was little balls of bright metal floating in the slag when it gets hot enough it drops into a gold button. I reached in with the tongs to lift out to add more flux and the cupel just crumbled. Waiting for it to cool and add the rest of the concentrates maybe a couple more grams of gold all from a five-gallon bucket of rocks.
The other button weighed 13 grams fairly clean but not as bright needs a little cleanup. And I still have a blob of slag with gold to smelt could be a couple of grams all from the same bucket of rocks. The cupels have gold showing in the slag at the bottom I will
smash and regrind and see what I can recover. I used about twenty cupels over the last couple of weeks some crack and fall apart others I can get a couple of smelts before they give up the ghost.
 

Reed Lukens

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I hadn't looked at that one because of the price... lol
I had seen this one and lots of others down the page in the link above.


Or this $10.00 special
 

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southfork

southfork

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I hadn't looked at that one because of the price... lol
I had seen this one and lots of others down the page in the link above.


Or this $10.00 special

I have the small graphite molds, but I need a steel cone mold I can beat with a hammer to knock the slag out.
 

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southfork

southfork

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No rocks to crush so I smelted some slag in the bottom of a crucible. I filled the crucible about halfway with borax and some silica sand to try and get the slag fluid enough to water drop. I'm still waiting on a steel cone mold, so I poured the molting slag into a bucket of water. It fractured into small bits that I panned to recover any precious metal it was covered with iron/manganese? I smelted that material again and recovered a 1-gram button of gold. A lot of steps but gold is where you find it. I had to pound on it a little to knock the shell off.
 

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desertgolddigger

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Hey southfork, to get that gram of gold, about how much did you invest in resources (propane, chemicals, etc.)? I've always wondered if it's worth processing something that will actually cost more than the end value.

Of course I'm thinking this is just fun for you, and maybe cost is irrelevant.

Anyway, way to go. I enjoy reading about your exploits.
 

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southfork

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
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Hey southfork, to get that gram of gold, about how much did you invest in resources (propane, chemicals, etc.)? I've always wondered if it's worth processing something that will actually cost more than the end value.

Of course I'm thinking this is just fun for you, and maybe cost is irrelevant.

Anyway, way to go. I enjoy reading about your exploits.
Cost was minimal a couple of bucks for propane and borax is cheap I'm still on the first box. My time is worth beans lol electricity for the crusher is nothing I have solar. Time wise it's a couple of hours per smelt I need to stand watch with an open flame, but I have a chair shade and music the muriatic acid I reuse until exhausted I pour it back and forth. It just takes a little acid to cover the button and leave overnight. Sometimes I use a toothbrush to scrub then back in the acid around 24 hours per soak seems to clean nicely. This is just a great hobby for me between gold arrowhead hunting and old cars I don't leave the property often. The Gold will pay for everything if we sell it.
 

RTR

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southfork
How does one melt extremely small gold , any tips ? I've tried it and The flame keeps blowing the small gold away :icon_scratch:
 

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southfork

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
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southfork
How does one melt extremely small gold , any tips ? I've tried it and The flame keeps blowing the small gold away :icon_scratch:
When melting flour gold, I place it in a cupel, or small crucible then place inside of a large crucible just for insurance and place in the furnace.
 

desertgolddigger

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Weeeellll! It certainly sounds like maybe 5 bucks to get 50 bucks. That's worth it.

I guess the initial investment on equipment and chemicals eventually gets paid for, and then pure profit.

I certainly wished Gold Tramp had shown me his setup. I always love to learn, even if I can never afford all that equipment. Besides, 29Palms probably has an ordinance forbidding such activity in a residential area. Wish, when I moved out here I had purchased that fixer upper house and garage on 15 acres east of 29Palms. Never knew about gold mining back then. Was just trying to survive financially. Sorry southfork, not meaning to drift away from this threads subject.

Thanks for you answers and this thread.
 

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