How can I safely remove leftover gold from old crucibles?

[treasurehuntr2]

Hi all
I came upon about 25 crucibles while digging for bottles ( my first love ). I dont do alot of metal prospecting, and obviously dont have alot of knowledge where it's concerned. Thus my question regarding the crucibles. A friend told me he was sure the crucibles had probably done some melting of gold at some time because he could see the colors and leftover stuff in them, and that I should check in to getting them "cleaned out" to see if any gold was left. He spoke of doing this and doing that and I really didnt pay attention as I should have because it sounded so complicated.
I did remember he talked about using "flux" and also "borax". I have purchased both and have tried a couple of methods on a couple of the crucibles with a BIG fail, so I was wondering if any of my good friends here at Tnet would have any insight on the subject or could offer up any hopefully simple ways to do it.

I did retrieve the crucibles from an area on the San Francisco waterfront and they are definitely from the turn of the century when gold was a very popular topic around here! SO.... I THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE for anything you have to offer on this.

Blessings and Best of luck!
Th2

 

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[EagleDown]

TreasureHunter2,
Here's my 2 cents worth;
To me, not that I know squat, those look like older ceramic cupel/crucibles items that were used for assaying not the current type used for crushing with a pestle. As such they could contain various chemical residues used in assay work, those could include arsenic. Heating, ingesting or getting any of the solids, dust from them into ones eye, lungs, etc. could be harmful so treat them with care.

63bkpkr and kugar are absolutely correct in their advice. These crucibles "could" contain several different chemical residues. i.e.: Mercury, Arsenic, Cyanide, Nitric Acid, Hydrocloric acid, and probably others that I've never been involved with.

Old chemicals, like old dynamite, should be handled with caution.

 

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[Goodyguy]

hi again yall. sounds to me like I'll be considering ebay. Any suggestions on what I might ask for them?

From the research I've done ....... I'd say $25-$35 each
Oakview2 had a great idea for selling on e-bay, I would start off with just one and see what it brings.

 

[Mr.T]

Mercury perhaps