Need help to leach ores

Eldorado USA

Jr. Member
Mar 16, 2022
27
37
Mexico
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Hello Dear Friends.
Some of you might remember Me as DistribuitorUSA.I lost access to my old account and had to make a new one. Some of you might remember Me talking about a gold deposit so big it could be the richest deposit on the continent. It's not exaggeration. I'm already close to this place and getting ready to visit it after 15 years since I was There.
There's lots of visible gold on the creeks and I want to collect it with a shaker table. But my goal is to process the oxidized ore wich the whole mountain is composed of.
I saw videos of this chinese lixiviant and seem pretty effective and cheap.
I would have to buy it by the ton.
My question is.do anyone here knows the conposition of this leachant?
I think is Thiosulfate based.
Anyone with experience with this could share the exact process? I have a pretty good idea as to the steps to be taken. I just need help as to the conponents of the formula to make this lixiviant.
Wich work better..sodium thiosulfate?
Ammonium thiosulfate?
And with what other chemicals and what concentration.
Any help is really appreciated.
Stay tuned because I'll be sharing videos and photos of this amazing site.
God bless everyone.
 

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arizau

Bronze Member
May 2, 2014
2,485
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AZ
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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
Hello Dear Friends.
Some of you might remember Me as DistribuitorUSA.I lost access to my old account and had to make a new one. Some of you might remember Me talking about a gold deposit so big it could be the richest deposit on the continent. It's not exaggeration. I'm already close to this place and getting ready to visit it after 15 years since I was There.
There's lots of visible gold on the creeks and I want to collect it with a shaker table. But my goal is to process the oxidized ore wich the whole mountain is composed of.
I saw videos of this chinese lixiviant and seem pretty effective and cheap.
I would have to buy it by the ton.
My question is.do anyone here knows the conposition of this leachant?
I think is Thiosulfate based.
Anyone with experience with this could share the exact process? I have a pretty good idea as to the steps to be taken. I just need help as to the conponents of the formula to make this lixiviant.
Wich work better..sodium thiosulfate?
Ammonium thiosulfate?
And with what other chemicals and what concentration.
Any help is really appreciated.
Stay tuned because I'll be sharing videos and photos of this amazing site.
God bless everyone.

Hello Dear Friends.
Some of you might remember Me as DistribuitorUSA.I lost access to my old account and had to make a new one. Some of you might remember Me talking about a gold deposit so big it could be the richest deposit on the continent. It's not exaggeration. I'm already close to this place and getting ready to visit it after 15 years since I was There.
There's lots of visible gold on the creeks and I want to collect it with a shaker table. But my goal is to process the oxidized ore wich the whole mountain is composed of.
I saw videos of this chinese lixiviant and seem pretty effective and cheap.
I would have to buy it by the ton.
My question is.do anyone here knows the conposition of this leachant?
I think is Thiosulfate based.
Anyone with experience with this could share the exact process? I have a pretty good idea as to the steps to be taken. I just need help as to the conponents of the formula to make this lixiviant.
Wich work better..sodium thiosulfate?
Ammonium thiosulfate?
And with what other chemicals and what concentration.
Any help is really appreciated.
Stay tuned because I'll be sharing videos and photos of this amazing site.
God bless everyone.
Visible gold is usually recovered by means other than leaching. Just my opinion but, I would seek advice from metalurgical experts before I would even consider any other means of gold recovery.
 

Clay Diggins

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2010
4,883
14,251
The Great Southwest
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It's a waste of money and time to buy a leach that isn't right for your minerals. FIRST define the deposit extent and nature THEN make a profitable plan to mine it THEN if your deposit might be mineable at a profit hire a mining engineer and let them design your benification line - and the chemicals needed to extract the gold.

As arizau pointed out you don't need a leach to mine the free milling gold. One step at a time develop the deposit. Jumping to decisions on a leach before you even know if you will need one or what minerals are in your ore will run a miner broke.

Heavy Pans
 

OP
OP
E

Eldorado USA

Jr. Member
Mar 16, 2022
27
37
Mexico
Detector(s) used
Minelab
Visible gold is usually recovered by means other than leaching. Just my opinion but, I would seek advice from metalurgical experts before I would even consider any other means of gold recovery.
Yes.I stated I'll be using a shaker table for that gold.
It's just that the whole mountain is composed of oxidized ore.
Mainly decomposed sulfides.
 

OP
OP
E

Eldorado USA

Jr. Member
Mar 16, 2022
27
37
Mexico
Detector(s) used
Minelab
It's a waste of money and time to buy a leach that isn't right for your minerals. FIRST define the deposit extent and nature THEN make a profitable plan to mine it THEN if your deposit might be mineable at a profit hire a mining engineer and let them design your benification line - and the chemicals needed to extract the gold.

As arizau pointed out you don't need a leach to mine the free milling gold. One step at a time develop the deposit. Jumping to decisions on a leach before you even know if you will need one or what minerals are in your ore will run a miner broke.

Heavy Pans
Thank you so much for your response.
I saw videos on YouTube about this leachant. Most are made by a Russian fellow. And the company guarantees it work with all kinds of ores even arsenic ones.of course I got a long ways to learn and longer to get the economical freedom to start this project as it should.
In the next weeks I'll be starting a new thread called "richest deposit?"
Or something similar.
Stay tuned.
 

augoldminer

Sr. Member
Jan 7, 2013
328
324
high desert goldfields
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gold master V-sat
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thank you so much for your response.
I saw videos on YouTube about this leachant. Most are made by a Russian fellow. And the company guarantees it work with all kinds of ores even arsenic ones.of course I got a long ways to learn and longer to get the economical freedom to start this project as it should.
In the next weeks I'll be starting a new thread called "richest deposit?"
Or something similar.
Stay tuned.

For oxidized ore the best leachant is simple chlorine gas. Cheap and easy to buy in one ton tanks used in water treatment plants.
If you are going to be primary, using a shaker table for free milling gold and then leaching with chlorine and removing the gold from the pregnant solution with charcoal.
Then the gold can be removed from the charcoal with Gold cyanidation process.in a very small batch plant and the gold plated onto steel wool and the steel wool removed with hydrochloric acid and then fired in a smelter and poured into dore bars ready to be sent to a refiner.
 

OP
OP
E

Eldorado USA

Jr. Member
Mar 16, 2022
27
37
Mexico
Detector(s) used
Minelab
For oxidized ore the best leachant is simple chlorine gas. Cheap and easy to buy in one ton tanks used in water treatment plants.
If you are going to be primary, using a shaker table for free milling gold and then leaching with chlorine and removing the gold from the pregnant solution with charcoal.
Then the gold can be removed from the charcoal with Gold cyanidation process.in a very small batch plant and the gold plated onto steel wool and the steel wool removed with hydrochloric acid and then fired in a smelter and poured into dore bars ready to be sent to a refiner.
Thank You so much..
I'm open to any route. Some might take longer but recover higher percentage of gold.
I would like someone with experience to maybe come over and help us .
 

alloy_II

Hero Member
Dec 24, 2021
629
1,028
Heard through the grapevine your planning to use a shaker table to recover some gold.

A centrifuge is faster while being more efficient, I have a do it yourself build on the go.

You can see the parts I've used for the one I'm building here on this thread. Centrifuge build
 

OP
OP
E

Eldorado USA

Jr. Member
Mar 16, 2022
27
37
Mexico
Detector(s) used
Minelab
Heard through the grapevine your planning to use a shaker table to recover some gold.

A centrifuge is faster while being more efficient, I have a do it yourself build on the go.

You can see the parts I've used for the one I'm building here on this thread. Centrifuge build
Thank you so much.
Very much appreciated. If you want to visit Us in Southern Mexico you're welcome.
It doesn't hurt to have people with knowledge around. We can pay you handsomely for services provided..
(Once we're producing of course)
 

gold tramp

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Dec 30, 2012
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Visible gold is usually recovered by means other than leaching. Just my opinion but, I would seek advice from metalurgical experts before I would even consider any other means of gold recovery.
I never actually done leaching my self, my ores have visible gold.
I'm pretty sure leaching would increase my recovery,
I can only talk of what I see n learned about milling, there's much involved in recovery of gold from rocks...
Maybe some one who has actuall hands on can explain why the leach would be more productive or not..
Gt...
 

gold tramp

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Dec 30, 2012
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It's a waste of money and time to buy a leach that isn't right for your minerals. FIRST define the deposit extent and nature THEN make a profitable plan to mine it THEN if your deposit might be mineable at a profit hire a mining engineer and let them design your benification line - and the chemicals needed to extract the gold.

As arizau pointed out you don't need a leach to mine the free milling gold. One step at a time develop the deposit. Jumping to decisions on a leach before you even know if you will need one or what minerals are in your ore will run a miner broke.

Heavy Pans
Why did they leach in the old days, I'm confused here I thought you made concentrates and leached those, I'm gonna go back reread my leach manual, maybe I'm wrong about the whole leach issue.
Gt...
 

arizau

Bronze Member
May 2, 2014
2,485
3,869
AZ
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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
Why did they leach in the old days, I'm confused here I thought you made concentrates and leached those, I'm gonna go back reread my leach manual, maybe I'm wrong about the whole leach issue.
Gt...
These are my understandings. Concentrates of milled metallic ores are usually smelted then refined* to a pure state. A gold refining process often includes silver and other precious metal recovery.
Leaching puts the target metals, contained in bulk ore, into solution. The solution goes through a process of electrowinning to recover the target metal(s).
Good luck.

*Sometimes electrowinning is used.
 

Last edited:

gold tramp

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Dec 30, 2012
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These are my understandings. Concentrates of milled metallic ores are usually smelted then refined* to a pure state. A gold refining process often includes silver and other precious metal recovery.
Leaching puts the target metals, contained in bulk ore, into solution. The solution goes through a process of electrowinning to recover the target metal(s).
Good luck.

*Sometimes electrowinning is used.
What if you have hundreds of pounds of concentrate how does one go about smelting that much...
I fully understand refining metallic product silver, gold, ect..
I'm talking leaching concentrates to recover precious metals not smelting to recover ...
Gt...
For all I know I'm doin it all wrong I'm self taught Miller...
 

Last edited:

Clay Diggins

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2010
4,883
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The Great Southwest
Primary Interest:
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Leaching is done on raw crushed ore or, in more modern mines, it's done in situ while the ore is still in the earth.

With surface leaching the mined ore is piled on a sealed surface and the leach is sprayed over the heap continuously. The pregnant leach is drained off from the bottom liner, the dissolved metals are recovered through a resin or carbon bed then refined. The leach, resin and carbon are all cleaned and reused. Modern mining is very efficient.

In the in situ mining method leaching wells are drilled into the ore body and the leach is injected right into the ore body without removing any rock. The pregnant liquid leach is brought back up to the surface through extraction wells and processed the same as surface leach products.

I just finished work on one large in situ mining project. These mining operations, along with block caving have removed many modern mining operations from the public view. One of the largest copper mines in Arizona is right next to a major freeway very near a major city and 99% of people driving by think it's a park because they maintain a nice grass lawn over the flat, undisturbed mining area. All you see are a little wellhead plumbing and a small office building. :thumbsup:

Heavy Pans

p.s. I heard a couple of 8 year olds giggling in the back of the forum. A leach is "pregnant" when it becomes saturated with dissolved metals.
 

gold tramp

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Dec 30, 2012
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Still doesn't answer my question.. I know all about big company heap leach. I'm talking small scale miner.
I'm not ready yet to attempt the whole leach process, so I just keep at the process I use now save my washed table tails till I get my leach system built....
Good conversation though .
Gt ..
 

Last edited:

arizau

Bronze Member
May 2, 2014
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3,869
AZ
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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:
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Still doesn't answer my question.. I know all about big company heap leach. I'm talking small scale miner.

Gt ..
The 2nd paragraph in Clay's post above is how some small miners in Australia do it.....an Australian gold prospecting tv series had a couple of segments that I saw about a year ago. They dug and plastic lined a shallow impoundment/ranch stock tank. Their arsenic leach solution was pumped through a carbon filter for gold recovery. One probably has to comply with MSHA regulations here in U.S.
 

gold tramp

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Dec 30, 2012
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The 2nd paragraph in Clay's post above is how some small miners in Australia do it.....an Australian gold prospecting tv series had a couple of segments that I saw about a year ago. They dug and plastic lined a shallow impoundment/ranch stock tank. Their arsenic leach solution was pumped through a carbon filter for gold recovery. One probably has to comply with MSHA regulations here in U.S.
I don't watch gold shows or utube.
Only forum I view is tnet...
Will geter figured one day ...
Gt ..
 

Clay Diggins

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2010
4,883
14,251
The Great Southwest
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Why did they leach in the old days, I'm confused here I thought you made concentrates and leached those, I'm gonna go back reread my leach manual, maybe I'm wrong about the whole leach issue.
Gt...
Okay I'll try to answer your question in a different way.

Leaching is typically used on raw ore - not concentrates. It could work just as well on concentrates but why bother concentrating your ore first? Concentration beyond separating the gangue from the ore is just an extra step. The real challenge in leach mining is finding a leach chemical balance process that is most effective on your ore. That's where the expense, time and resources pay off with leaching.

Leaching started in the "old days" (beginning in 1887) when it was discovered that a cyanide solution could dissolve gold and some other metals from ores that had poor recovery with smelting. The first successful leach operations were on abandoned Nevada mine ore piles from gold and silver mines that had significant recoverable values. Many of the first mines to use this new process in Nevada were booming successes. Free metals from already mined ore is a miners dream.

The dream didn't last long when it was discovered that the mix of metals in some ores prevented the cyanide from doing it's job or the leach was consumed or contaminated by non target metals. Cyanide is easily loaded with low paying copper when you are trying to extract gold. Iron can block the gold from reacting with the cyanide and a whole bunch of other problems can arise that kill the profitability of a leach operation. Depending on the local geochemistry and minerals leaching can be a big boon to miners or it can be an economic bust.

Leaching can improve your recovery over milling and smelting IF your ore has significant loss of values with your current processing methods and IF the ore is susceptible to the leach you choose. Better recovery doesn't add up to more money for the miner unless the cost of recovery is less than the gold values recovered. For this reason alone small batch leaching doesn't make much sense. If you have a small batch (500 tons or less) of concentrate you might try a pre made commercial leach on a portion of it to see if you get good values. That's going to be an expensive and time consuming process because you need to build a leach pad, recovery towers with plumbing and pumps, processing tanks, chemicals and disposal and storage facilities. Leaching is a slow process, it's not like milling where you start seeing results the same day you begin processing.

Every mine using leach recovery today has a different leach. The leach designed for each mining operation has to change as the quality and chemistry of the newly mined ore changes. Leaching is very cost effective on a large scale where you can maintain staffed chemistry and testing labs to control and adjust the leaching and processing systems. Without that customization ability leaching is pretty much a hit and miss proposition even within the same mine.

So give leaching a try if that floats your boat. Without a significant deposit that's susceptible to leach processing it's not economical but life isn't all about profit in my view. The knowledge you gain working with leaches might pay off in other ways that can't be counted in dollars and cents. :thumbsup:

Heavy Pans
 

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