Gold Ore

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
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A little sample that was found with a metal detector. Crushed by hand then panned to wash away some of the dirt and clay? The photo is macro so real small particles, but the quartz shows and what looks like iron and free gold. I think we need a small smelter to retrieve the values trying to speed up the recovery what's your thoughts ?
 

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alloy_II

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The top image is XRF, the ore sample is ground into a powder then compressed into a solid button by hydraulic ram.

The operator takes three separate shots of the sample, you'll note that the assay confirms a high content of platinum along with a host of other minerals.

The platinum is so finely divided you can not see it by the human eye, to process this ore economically a flotation cell would be required.

The placer gravel comes from a pit located in a nearby mountain range, brought into the Ready Mix plant where its washed.

Every prospector in town has dipped a pan into the settling ponds at the wash plant in hopes of finding some color. One fellow even told me there was no gold, he was right, had he taken a sample then had it assayed he would have discovered 17 ppm platinum.

Prospecting is tricky business, you can not rely on sight alone.

The bottom image is an ICP full element analysis of a local clay sample, was hoping for rare earths of significant quantity.

The top row on the ICP assay is for the elements used by the machine as references.

pit.png

onep.png

two.png

three.png
 

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alloy_II

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An assay will inform you of many things, if your report comes back in PPB ( parts per billion ) time to look for new ground.

Many mines operate at a profit working an ore with only a couple of PPM ( parts per million ) of gold.

When an assay shows the metals content in percentages, break out the champagne.

Recently gold tramp asked me if I was a hard rock miner, No not specifically, I'll go after any thing of value that's what prospecting is all about.

Below is one of my assays from Catalytic converters, given is personage of an assay ton.

When your looking at the comb do you see these metals, no only under a microscope or by assay.

Palladium is the prominent metal, followed by platinum, rhodium then rhodium.

The operator took four shots.

Screenshot from 2022-05-01 22-32-30.png
 

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alloy_II

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If southfork is in fact smelting his milled ore and it contains some sulfides, stick some scrap iron into the melt and the sulfur from the sulfides will react with the iron during the heat.

The reaction creates sulfur dioxide a gas which in turn reacts with gold ions.

Flat bar, angle iron or even rebar, you'll be surprised how much of the iron is consumed during the smelt.

Sulfur dioxide one of the many precipitants used to precipitate gold from solutions.

The apparatus below has nothing to do with smelting, just shows how to produce the gas.

Screenshot from 2022-05-02 08-17-38.png
 

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arizau

Bronze Member
May 2, 2014
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3,854
AZ
Detector(s) used
Beach High Banker, Sweep Jig, Whippet Dry Washer, Lobo ST, 1/2 width 2 tray Gold Cube, numerous pans, rocker box, and home made fluid bed and stream sluices.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
If southfork is in fact smelting his milled ore and it contains some sulfides, stick some scrap iron into the melt and the sulfur from the sulfides will react with the iron during the heat.

Flat bar, angle iron or even rebar, you'll be suroprised how much of the iron is consumed during the smelt.
Are you aware that smelters, copper in particular, scrub the emissions/smoke and recover the sulfur in the form of SO2 then convert it to sulfuric acid? Some of the acid is, in turn, used in leaching low grade copper oxide ores.
 

Tesorodeoro

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Jan 21, 2018
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An assay will inform you of many things, if your report comes back in PPB ( parts per billion ) time to look for new ground.

Many mines operate at a profit working an ore with only a couple of PPM ( parts per million ) of gold.

When an assay shows the metals content in percentages, break out the champagne.

Recently gold tramp asked me if I was a hard rock miner, No not specifically, I'll go after any thing of value that's what prospecting is all about.

Below is one of my assays from Catalytic converters, given is personage of an assay ton.

When your looking at the comb do you see these metals, no only under a microscope or by assay.

Palladium is the prominent metal, followed by platinum, rhodium then rhodium.

The operator took four shots.

View attachment 2024316
Im the one that asked you if you were a hard rock miner.
You are giving someone advise about gold mining, when in fact your area of expertise appears to be scrapping catalytic converters, computer boards, and jewelry.

By the way, the industry of recycling of catalytic converters needs to be heavily regulated by the government in my opinion. More so than it already is. I’m about done with the tweakers stealing parts off of parked cars to feed their addictions. The buyers of catalytic converters should be required to have a chain of custody that goes back to the title of the vehicle it came off of in my opinion.
 

gold tramp

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Dec 30, 2012
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Im the one that asked you if you were a hard rock miner.
You are giving someone advise about gold mining, when in fact your area of expertise appears to be scrapping catalytic converters, computer boards, and jewelry.

By the way, the industry of recycling of catalytic converters needs to be heavily regulated by the government in my opinion. More so than it already is. I’m about done with the tweakers stealing parts off of parked cars to feed their addictions. The buyers of catalytic converters should be required to have a chain of custody that goes back to the title of the vehicle it came off of in my opinion.
It not just tweekers, pot heads are doing it also...
 

alloy_II

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Dec 24, 2021
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Im the one that asked you if you were a hard rock miner.
You are giving someone advise about gold mining, when in fact your area of expertise appears to be scrapping catalytic converters, computer boards, and jewelry.

By the way, the industry of recycling of catalytic converters needs to be heavily regulated by the government in my opinion. More so than it already is. I’m about done with the tweakers stealing parts off of parked cars to feed their addictions. The buyers of catalytic converters should be required to have a chain of custody that goes back to the title of the vehicle it came off of in my opinion.
I agree 100%, even catalytic converter thefts in our rural area has become epidemic.

I had purchased a 3 ton International flat deck with a folding crane then bought up most of the derelict vehicles from the surrounding Indian reservations. Just so that I could get the cat.

With the crane truck could double deck the wrecks making my trip to the scrap yard profitable.

Due to a long ago back injury, L1 and L2 even with the air ride seat, my upper body mass became my enemy. I ended up selling the truck.

I would cut the cats open then ball mill the comb taking samples for assay before putting the milled powder into a drum for shipping to a refinery in the US.

In my youth four compound fracture to my left leg which had laid up in the hospital for a month when I was released. for the next month could not eat, sleep or shit.

I had become addicted to the hospital pain killers, I suffered through withdrawal and even now refuse to take any type of pain remedy.

.
 

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alloy_II

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Long ago the placer miners would pick the moss from river rocks then burn it to recover the gold.

It's now illegal to pick the moss but no harm comes to it passing your Milwaukee battery operated vacuum of the bed of moss.

My interests go far beyond working with catalytic converters, e-waste, jewelry and now black placer sand.

The cost of chemicals was breaking the bank, for a bit of financial relief decided to study the art of smelting.
 

Tesorodeoro

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Jan 21, 2018
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I agree 100%, even catalytic converter thefts in our rural area has become epidemic.

I had purchased a 3 ton International flat deck with a folding crane then bought up most of the derelict vehicles from the surrounding Indian reservations. Just so that I could get the cat.

With the crane truck could double deck the wrecks making my trip to the scrap yard profitable.

Due to a long ago back injury, L1 and L2 even with the air ride seat, my upper body mass became my enemy. I ended up selling the truck.

I would cut the cats open then ball mill the comb taking samples for assay before putting the milled powder into a drum for shipping to a refinery in the US.

In my youth four compound fracture to my left leg which had laid up in the hospital for a month when I was released. for the next month could not eat, sleep or shit.

I had become addicted to the hospital pain killers, I suffered through withdrawal and even now refuse to take any type of pain remedy.

.
That’s tough. I have a friend that had steel rods placed in his back to stabilize things. He lost some range of movement, but suffers no pain now.
Long ago the placer miners would pick the moss from river rocks then burn it to recover the gold.

It's now illegal to pick the moss but no harm comes to it passing your Milwaukee battery operated vacuum of the bed of moss.

My interests go far beyond working with catalytic converters, e-waste, jewelry and now black placer sand.

The cost of chemicals was breaking the bank, for a bit of financial relief decided to study the art of smelting.
It’s much easier to move to a location where gold can be recovered without using heat or chemicals.
 

alloy_II

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Dec 24, 2021
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This is some quartz I had brought back from BC, does this qualify me as a hard rock miner. :dontknow:

Still not the sharpest knife in the drawer and wont live long enough to reach my full potential.

I milled the quartz in my home made ball mill then used lead as a collector.

Q1.jpg

Q2.jpg

Q3.jpg
 

alloy_II

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That’s tough. I have a friend that had steel rods placed in his back to stabilize things. He lost some range of movement, but suffers no pain now.

It’s much easier to move to a location where gold can be recovered without using heat or chemicals.
This ultra sonic tank with four 28 mhz transducer mounted on the bottom did just that.

From this project I had learned a lot about transducers, parts cleaners operate in the 30 / 35 mhz range. Makes smaller bubbles no cavitation damage to soft metals like carburetors and the like.

The 28 Mhz makes large bubbles which are aggressive towards the softer metals. I thought it would destroy the soft catalytic comb but as it turned out the soft comb acted as an acoustics tile would.

Ultra sound used to scan the unborn child operates in the ultra high frequencies.

The soft comb absorbed the destructive sound waves, only the precious metals wash coat was released.

Things really became interesting with the addition liquid dish soap, the precious metals adhered to the soap bubbles.

It was a funny situation, the tank was producing so much foam I was running out of buckets to store it in when an idea struck me.

Using my heat gun the bubble would collapse instantly. As the foam collasps you can see the color change.

From the research and my own experiment learned about Ultrasonic mineral recovery.

Source.

sonic2.png

sonic3.png
 

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southfork

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
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This is some HyGrade after cleaning mostly Gold with a little quartz. This was found with a metal detector then cleaned there could be a lot of gold out on the mine waste dump. But if it doesn't beep it can stay there were not carrying it out on our backs. Over a hundred grams in this pan this is what my son is digging for in his spare time. He has a day job that makes him way more money in the long run.
 

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desertgolddigger

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May 31, 2015
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Southfork, a question. You use a metal detector for your ore prospecting. I imagine you use a gold dedicated, high end detector.

You or anyone, could you possibly be familiar with my detector, a Bounty Hunter Time Ranger. It came with a 4 inch coil supposedly for gold hunting, and is supposed to ground balance, though I read somewhere that you may frequently have to reset the balance. Anyone provide a guess as to whether my detector is worth trying to find little gold nuggets with.

Or should I just try to sell the machine. Any idea on one that can find little nuggets? I just can't afford thousands of dollars.
 

alloy_II

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This is some HyGrade after cleaning mostly Gold with a little quartz. This was found with a metal detector then cleaned there could be a lot of gold out on the mine waste dump. But if it doesn't beep it can stay there were not carrying it out on our backs. Over a hundred grams in this pan this is what my son is digging for in his spare time. He has a day job that makes him way more money in the long run.
Day job with a regular payday with a pension, hard to beat that.

These days I rely on the latter.

The attached document is about the various reagents used as flux's and how they react in the smelting process.
 

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alloy_II

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To mill your quartz you might consider the Clarkson Rod mill.

Screenshot from 2022-05-02 10-48-10.png


The plans for the mill attached.
 

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southfork

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
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Southfork, a question. You use a metal detector for your ore prospecting. I imagine you use a gold dedicated, high end detector.

You or anyone, could you possibly be familiar with my detector, a Bounty Hunter Time Ranger. It came with a 4 inch coil supposedly for gold hunting, and is supposed to ground balance, though I read somewhere that you may frequently have to reset the balance. Anyone provide a guess as to whether my detector is worth trying to find little gold nuggets with.

Or should I just try to sell the machine. Any idea on one that can find little nuggets? I just can't afford thousands of dollars.
All metal detectors have a learning curve that being said we have several whites and Minelab detectors. My son has been finding all the gold with a Minelab 2300 and a Nox 800 working the tailing piles he digs all signals. I like the Nox it's light weight and finds Gold with practice. I have a friend that loves detecting Dry washer piles Happy Mining.
 

Assembler

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May 10, 2017
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All metal detectors have a learning curve that being said we have several whites and Minelab detectors. My son has been finding all the gold with a Minelab 2300 and a Nox 800 working the tailing piles he digs all signals. I like the Nox it's light weight and finds Gold with practice. I have a friend that loves detecting Dry washer piles Happy Mining.
Yes there is a place for any type of metal detectors just need to learn the limitations some in order to start getting results.
 

alloy_II

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Dec 24, 2021
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I have a gas powered cement mixer with river cobbles or big ball bearings does a good job works good on clay also with soap and detergent.
We have to have spark arrestor installed on any gasoline engine used on crown land.

Once they carbon up they rob power from the engine, I have no love of them but the law here requires them.
 

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southfork

southfork

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California
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Playing with the gold concentrates that I washed and dried. Today I reground the concentrates in the mortar then back into the test pan. I covered the ground gold and ore with household hydrogen peroxide stabilized 3 percent. Definite slow reaction bubbly red muddy solution after an hour it appears half the volume of solids are liquefied or off gassed? Anyone like to count the particles per square inch of the micro gold? I going to leave it awhile longer then add soap and water and pour it off.
 

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