Gold Ore

[southfork]

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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[southfork]

20 years

Ed T

It dissolves the quartz I give it a week and brush then back in but check it every day not all quartz is the same. Sometimes it starts getting into the cracks and works a little faster. But if you can get the real 30 percent acid it will work over night or sooner.

 

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[desertgolddigger]

It dissolves the quartz I give it a week and brush then back in but check it every day not all quartz is the same. Sometimes it starts getting into the cracks and works a little faster. But if you can get the real 30 percent acid it will work over night or sooner.

No way, as this acid is highly invasive and deadly. Apparently, even the 5% version isn't to br taken lightly. You need a laboratory, and all the proper equipment for handling it. I'll give Whink a try, and use the equipment I now have on hand.

 

[southfork]

No way, as this acid is highly invasive and deadly. Apparently, even the 5% version isn't to br taken lightly. You need a laboratory, and all the proper equipment for handling it. I'll give Whink a try, and use the equipment I now have on hand.

In the past we would take specimen pieces to a jeweler /gold buyer, and they would clean with high concentrated hydrofluoric more cost to us. And trust comes into play we started using Whink it takes a lot longer but is a safer method.

 

[JohnWhite]

It dissolves the quartz I give it a week and brush then back in but check it every day not all quartz is the same. Sometimes it starts getting into the cracks and works a little faster. But if you can get the real 30 percent acid it will work over night or sooner

If I ever come across any more wire gold I will have to give wink a try…

Ed T

 

[southfork]

I finally got around to cleaning the concentrates from my burn pile finds. I had around 4 grams of black sands with pyrites and gold used a magnet to help clean the black sands. I poured the concentrates with a little borax and flour on to a red-hot melting dish. The mixture quickly melted enough to keep from blowing off the dish. I carefully placed the melting dish back into the furnace to melt the concentrates. It took two melts but I ended up with 2 grams of gold. I guess I need to buy a little commercial flux for the next batch.

 

[southfork]

None stop rains our chain mill is outside because of dust we have it covered until better weather. A little hand crushing with a mortar and pestle on small samples from the new claim. We melted the panned gold in a graphite crucible without any flux in our propane furnace it resulted in a nice clean button 26 grams. So far most of the samples are metal detector finds quartz with free gold little to no pyrites. Break in the weather tomorrow four of us are going out and hit it hard raking a few piles to see what the Oldtimers left us. I'm waiting on a small jaw crusher to be delivered it should help the processing breaking the ore down for the chain mill.

 

[southfork]

I was getting tired of breaking rocks with a sledgehammer so I bought a new toy. A jaw crusher made in China waiting on a switch to try it out plugging and unplugging is not the safest way to operate. It didn't have a plug either. I just wired it up with a 220 volt plug to make sure it worked. Big rocks into little rocks then into the chain mill

 

[desertgolddigger]

I was getting tired of breaking rocks with a sledgehammer so I bought a new toy. A jaw crusher made in China waiting on a switch to try it out plugging and unplugging is not the safest way to operate. It didn't have a plug either. I just wired it up with a 220 volt plug to make sure it worked. Big rocks into little rocks then into the chain mill

It looks like the maximum input sized rock is 2 1/2 inches (60 mm). If you get rocks larger, you'll still have to break rocks with a sledge hammer, unless you get your son on that manual hammer. :-)

 

[southfork]

It looks like the maximum input sized rock is 2 1/2 inches (60 mm). If you get rocks larger, you'll still have to break rocks with a sledge hammer, unless you get your son on that manual hammer. :-)

But it eats those little rocks like their made of sugar. And makes them just the right size for the chain mill to powder up there's thousands of little rocks I'll just have to be more selective or let the youngsters bash the big ones. I just gave it a test run it just eats rocks and very little dust needs a bungee cord to keep the drawer from rattling and opening. A few adjustments and anchor to the concrete floor in the barn and some electrical so I can play when it's raining. It's a lot faster than the chain mill at reducing the rocks down to size should make the whole operation run smoother.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

How many grams of gold did you trade for it?

 

[JohnWhite]

I was getting tired of breaking rocks with a sledgehammer so I bought a new toy. A jaw crusher made in China waiting on a switch to try it out plugging and unplugging is not the safest way to operate. It didn't have a plug either. I just wired it up with a 220 volt plug to make sure it worked. Big rocks into little rocks then into the chain mill

Why not just switch your breaker on and off Unless you have a lot of stuff running on 220…

Ed T

 

[southfork]

Why not just switch your breaker on and off Unless you have a lot of stuff running on 220…

Ed T

Safety is the reason I want an on / off switch on the machine. the panel is twenty feet away.

 

[JohnWhite]

True…I do know quite a few people in Mexico who use teamwork to turn the breaker to their well pumps on and off…I thought you and your son could handle it quite handily…

Ed T

 

[southfork]

Break in the storms so I ran some samples from different areas of the new claim. Just a handful from four different spots first through the jaw crusher then the chain mill. The ground concentrations were run on the ribbed sluice then panned all four samples have flour gold. one sample was loaded that's where my son was yesterday filling some bags and buckets with ore. None of the samples run yesterday had any visible gold and totally different type of ore? less quartz more black shale and some pyrites. They did make a soft tone on the detectors will need to take a slow easy approach to clean the concentrates. I save all the tailings for future concentrating and maybe a regrind. And the jaw crusher worked great little to no dust I was able to run all the samples separate and in a matter of minutes.

 

[southfork]

I crushed some black shale / slate maybe five pounds then ran it through the ribbed sluice. I was surprised at the amount of micro gold / flour that showed but real messy to work. The slurry reminds me of what they seal parking lots with lol my hands looked like I cleaned a wood stove. Water was black and hard to see anything until clean up ultra-fine gold in the pan. I used mercury to clean up got nice little amalgam ball. I now have my own retort to reclaim the mercury and keep this environmentally clean. The crew is back behind the house today looking for treasure the storms uncovered last report they all found gold.

 

[southfork]

I used the jaw crusher on a couple pounds of quartz from the new claim then the chain mill. Classified then ran some though the ribbed sluice and the Blue Bowl then panned the concentrates. A good pinch and it tells me to chase the quartz the shale is too much work. The water stayed nice and clean on this batch of quartz. Photo is from my camera first picture I also had a pic of the fines but can't find it. We're not getting rich or making wages but were having fun.

 

[southfork]

Maybe you wonder why we haven't been working the old mine. I'll tell you why it's flooded all this rain filled it up big time. Maybe that's one of the reasons it was abandoned in the first place too much water unlike the rest of this area. But all this rain and ground water may be a blessing at the new claim. I hope there's enough water to sluice in the near future.

 

[southfork]

Sunny day so I'm cleaning ore these were small bits that toned out the detector. Hand crushed in the steel mortar and then panned the blue pan has a few pickers in it. The fines I made a nice amalgam ball with. As soon as I figure out what to seal the pipe cap with, I'll try the retort. Some of the pickers have a bit of quartz on them this is from the old, flooded mines tailing pile. This ore was real dirty made red mud when washing and panning.

 

[southfork]

Playing with the jaw crusher ran a few samples, sure makes mining fun. I put new chains on the chain mill but thing's went downhill fast a lot of noise opened the mill broken bolt missing bolt and nut. All was not lost 6 grams of gold under the screen cover parts on the way. Can you see where the gold smeared? on the cover.

 

[Assembler]

Playing with the jaw crusher ran a few samples, sure makes mining fun. I put new chains on the chain mill but thing's went downhill fast a lot of noise opened the mill broken bolt missing bolt and nut. All was not lost 6 grams of gold under the screen cover parts on the way. Can you see where the gold smeared? on the cover.

You likely know that the gap in the screen metal can be filled in or better patched by welding.
It looks like the screen may not last to much longer as it wears out with some more material being processed.

One can tack weld the nuts and bolts to help from getting loose etc.