Questions / confused on black sands.

[Goldbear]

Ok, so watching guys pan in a stream and dumping or letting black sands get away. So what black sand is worth keeping and what isn't? It appears the blue bowl is best to seperate to a point and then? Microwave what is left with flux or? At what point do you throw them away?

 

[Hoser John]

Everything is predicated on economic viability in conjuction with how hungry are you and your financial situation?? I keep all black sands,bring home crush in tumbler and run through my blue bowl. I've found pounds a gold that a way-Clear Creek Canyon-- and wasted many hours for squat-SF American- gives me something to do when rain,sleet,hail and snow hit in the winter-only time I work the crumbs from the plate as mining seasons are tooooooooooooo short-John

 

[ivan salis]

place a good strong magnet inside a zip lock baggie --run it over the black sand --the iron rich "black" sand will be drawn to the magnet -- the gold will remain behind in the plastic bowl --once you get the black sand apart from the gold in the pan -- simply turn the bag inside out upon itself "trapping" the black sand within the bag --thus it never comes in contact with the actual magnet .--the black sand in the bag can then be panned for any gold that might still be in it .

 

[GrayCloud]

Now thats a good idea Ivan.

 

[ivan salis]

black sand = magnetic --gold = not magnetic --simple really

 

[Goodyguy]

I have always thrown my black sand away after all visible gold was removed.

However, I have since learned depending on which area you reclaim your gold and black sand from determines how much gold is still present in them.

I've heard that a basic rule of thumb is, four out of every ten grains of black sand is oxide covered gold. (micron but still gold) I have also heard of prospectors getting three lbs. of gold out of ten pounds of black sand!!!

I also hear that heating and cracking black sand and soaking in vinegar or citric acid releases gold that was not previously visible.

Plus that a 55 gallon barrel of black sand with no visible gold may yield up to 20 or more pounds of pure gold after professional refining!!!
* I have not been able to find even one professional refiner that processes black sand.

What is true and what is not?
Facts with references or first hand knowledge only, please.

Confused and in doubt,
GG~


*Be careful using a magnet to separate gold from black sand. Even though gold is non ferrous it still has a tendency to get stuck between the black sand particles. Don't use a neodymium magnet as used below, they are way too powerful!

 

[ivan salis]

a decent but not overly powerful one --thats way too strong --lol

 

[shamaalah]

Everything is predicated on economic viability in conjuction with how hungry are you and your financial situation?? I keep all black sands,bring home crush in tumbler and run through my blue bowl. I've found pounds a gold that a way-Clear Creek Canyon-- and wasted many hours for squat-SF American- gives me something to do when rain,sleet,hail and snow hit in the winter-only time I work the crumbs from the plate as mining seasons are tooooooooooooo short-John

Wow, I guess Ill be keeping my black sands from now on

 

[Astrobouncer]

I keep mine now.Read this thread:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,86794.0.html

 

[GrayCloud]

Buddy, While out in Calcrazy, Lady GrayCloud and I ran a sluice box on a creek right below a commercial mining operation. The landowner of the property we were on, stated that the mine shipped their black sand off in 55 gal barrels. The mine owner told him that the barrels were running between $20,000 to $30,000 each. Hopefully one day, you and Harley will ride back up that trail with me.

 

[Goodyguy]

Buddy, While out in Calcrazy, Lady GrayCloud and I ran a sluice box on a creek right below a commercial mining operation. The landowner of the property we were on, stated that the mine shipped their black sand off in 55 gal barrels. The mine owner told him that the barrels were running between $20,000 to $30,000 each. Hopefully one day, you and Harley will ride back up that trail with me.

I'm ready when you are my friend
Just PM me with times and dates.

Have several 55 gal barrels will travel
I'll also bring 100 feet of vortex mat....never seen anything grab black sand and gold any better.

GG~

 

[GrayCloud]

Is that the same matting that Harley sent me?

 

[Goldbear]

You guys are the best. Thanks to all!

 

[Goodyguy]

Is that the same matting that Harley sent me?

Yep!
We'll build a long tom and get rich

 

[Gold_Striker]

look at my site goldminingequipment.info there is a guy in this forum who collects black sands then once a year he will process them using a flux he recovers multiple POUNDS of gold !!!

keep that black sand!

 

[russau]

Have several 55 gal barrels will travel
I'll also bring 100 feet of vortex mat....never seen anything grab black sand and gold any better.

GG~
[/quote] GG i dont think your vehical would be able to carry that kind of weight! we, in the midwest used to goto a sand and gravel compnay that got its material from the old Mississippi River channel. we knew the owner and they let us clean out their hopper for the 36 inch sand screw. at the end of the summer they would have 400/600 gallons of black sand that they would just dump back into their tailings race .we even used a small dredge to proccess this area aslo for fine gold!

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

I keep ALL the black sands I can! I soak them in vinegar. The last half full ziploc bag I had was soaking for 2 1/2 weeks while I went to annual training. I panned it out tonight and found quite a few small flakes of gold and some specs. Not much, but prior to soaking I panned it and took what little gold was there.

So the vinegar fractures the black sands and pops out the gold, by doing this I found more gold that I didn't see prior when panning.

 

[Traveller]

Have you ever tried nitric or muriatic acid instead of vinegar (acetic acid)? They are a great deal more dangerous to work with but work much faster and with far better results. Just be VERY careful not to breathe the fumes.
Regards
Bob

 

[Klondikeike]

Hello Everyone....Klondike Ike here

It's been a while since being on this site... I've been in Montana and Arizona trying to secure some commercial mining properties...

I finally settled for AZ...BECAUSE....I have run several samples of about 1/5 yard each or less from the property I am purchasing...

From the cons of each sample, I ran over a small clean up table and each sample produced approx 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of wet black sands....and removed the free or visable gold...(this produces about 3/4 to 1 pound of completely dry black sand...

I then took the sands to a licensed, commercial and trusted assayer... Just got my result back today on the last batch of samples.... ... ALL the samples are running very close in values.. NO PGM's (Platinum Group Metals) of any significant amount...... but they show a 6 to 1 ratio of silver to gold.. that is for each ton of black sand produced, this property will produce 6 ounces of silver and 1 ounce of gold... this is silver and gold that is NOT visable to the naked eye.....or even through a loop...(and is in addition to the free gold).. the free gold weighs rather closely to..at between 1 gram to 1 1/2 grams per yard of bank run materal....(31.1 grams per troy ounce)... ( at $1500 plus an ounce, that is about $50 to $75 a yard of free visable gold)

I am currently working with the authorities to get the property permitted for 200 yards per hour operation and will run actually about 150 yard per hour....Never over tax your equipment...less breakdowns and more production...

Each yard will produce approximately 5 pounds of black sands...and every 300 yards will produce approximately 1 ton of black sands..... or at 10 hours a day and 5 days a week, single shift per day... each month should gross approximately $180,000 in silver..and $1,800,000 in gold...and we can work year round......even if my calculations are off by 50%, which I doubt... half of that a month is cedrtainly worth mining... for sure...

This post wasn't meant to boast... but to show you fellow prospectors that the black sands are certainly valuable... but they need to be assayed and smelted to know exactly what you have...I, like many of you, for years threw my black sands away ... but certainly no more for several years now.....

I retired from mining 2 years ago... but with the gold prices as they are... I have to get back into....and are also developing a Non-profit corp...it is named G. O. L. D. which actually stands for
G od O verhauls L ifes D esires...

PS...I am waiting for an assay to come back on a vein of which my H3 Element detector is saying is a high density Tungston deposit and it is of significant size...I am secreatly hoping it is assays well...

Hope this helps you all...and wish the best for all of you...

Klondike...

 

[TheRandyMan]

S W E E T!!!!!