WHAT TO DO WITH BLACK SAND???

[blynch35]

I have heard that you can sell black sand and or melt it for super fine gold in it, is this true and what else can you do with it?

 

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[deserdog]

You can sell the black sand. Pull out the magnetic and then just screen it. People buy it on Ebay.

 

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[Wes bradley]

Where do u sell it after u have everything u need to show everything is in order ..who do I contact..

 

[ncclaymaker]

Try a professionally run, no hockus-pockus processors. Have a look to see if it fits. TCB Metals and Refining

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I’m actually building a sand collector currently. Basically a large funnel with a valve and motor to shake everything. Hoping to concentrate the heavies to the bottom and then crack the valve to let them out the bottom. I’m in Ohio, we have tons of black sands, lots of super fine gold, silver and some other bright silver flakes, not sure what they are. I figured I’d get a fair amount, roast them and then smelt them. It’s worth a shot!

 

[arizau]

I’m actually building a sand collector currently. Basically a large funnel with a valve and motor to shake everything. Hoping to concentrate the heavies to the bottom and then crack the valve to let them out the bottom. I’m in Ohio, we have tons of black sands, lots of super fine gold, silver and some other bright silver flakes, not sure what they are. I figured I’d get a fair amount, roast them and then smelt them. It’s worth a shot!

I'm sceptical of the vibration idea. Hook a water supply to the outlet of the funnel. You can regulate the water flow and create a fluid bed of sorts to concentrate the black sands, gold, etc. in the neck and a small area above it. Classifying all feed to like sizes will make the process most efficient.

Good luck.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I'm sceptical of the vibration idea. Hook a water supply to the outlet of the funnel. You can regulate the water flow and create a fluid bed of sorts to concentrate the black sands, gold, etc. in the neck and a small area above it. Classifying all feed to like sizes will make the process most efficient.

Good luck.

I agree. I do have plans to build u trap in place. Allowing me to add water from the bottom. Less vibration and more a side to side shearing motion, like from a motor with a of center plate mounted to the frame of the unit and the vessel. Should in theory act like the stratification action of a pan. I plan to weld some studs inside the vessel as well, something the material has to work around to avoid clumping.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Datty85]

Hogwash.

I have a spot that the old timers of the South passed down to me and I shit you not in recovering about 1 oz of fine gold and silver every three pounds of black sand!!!!

 

[Terry Soloman]

 

[N-Lionberger]

Hogwash.

It’s not hogwash. I have assay reports for black sands from the previous owners of one of our claims.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

A small hand held microscope will help you see a fair bit of what’s locked up in those sands. It’s pretty crazy what you miss with the naked eye. I keep all my black sands so I can trip over the buckets and tell myself I’m an idiot for not doing something with it already.

 

[N-Lionberger]

A small hand held microscope will help you see a fair bit of what’s locked up in those sands. It’s pretty crazy what you miss with the naked eye. I keep all my black sands so I can trip over the buckets and tell myself I’m an idiot for not doing something with it already.

It’s hard to see anything with those things!

 

[russau]

On last night's "Gold Rush " mine rescue with Freddy Dodge and Jaun they had a guy that sold his magnetic black sands for $7.00 a pound and he mailed 3 pounds at a time . He made some money over the year instead of throwing it out ! The guy was / is in Arizona .

 

[southfork]

Our black sand / red sands concentrate when dry get a trip through the chain mill. Then washed on a ribbed micro sluice or blue bowled with mercury. The Mercury is recovered and the concentrates from the catch bucket are melted and corn flaked. Then we pan the slag collect the gold and dump the slag into our next run of ore. It's surprising how much micro gold is in the black sand is it worth the effort? maybe not but I'll take all the gold I can find. Some days we are shocked by how much gold we recover from a small amount of cons. And then the amalgam ball into the retort.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Give a poor kid those black sands and a magnet and he will have fun all day!

 

[Assembler]

As of May 2024, heavy mineral sand prices were relatively strong compared to historic levels, with prices for rutile, ilmenite, and zircon as follows:

Rutile: Around US\$1,500/t

Ilmenite: Around US\$270/t

Zircon: Around US\$1,700/t

Premium zircon: Around US\$2,000/t

The global mineral sand market is projected to reach USD 55.13 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.6% from 2023.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hea...xMDQ5NGowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[southfork]

Give a poor kid those black sands and a magnet and he will have fun all day!

Any kid.

 

[Assembler]

Any kid.

With Premium zircon crystals fetching up to $2,000.00 per ton kind of brings the little kid out.......

 

[Gold:Au]

Thread mining!

An interesting topic, one that coincides with some research I am currently undertaking so I thought I would contribute.

I discovered this paper recently which discusses the use of a roller mill on black sands, to turn +50 cons into -50 cons. Gold, however, is malleable so forms +50 flakes so is easy to recover with a 50 mesh screen. It is an interesting paper that I think has a lot of potential use to small and medium sized miners. (It describes how to DIY your own rod mill, and the process only needs a few minutes to do the job.)

The researchers concentrated on 50 mesh, although I cant see a reason why you could not go finer.

One question I have though is if current setups are designed to shed black sands in favour of gold, is it worth designing a specialty sluice to capture all the black sands (and -150 gold) that are discharged from the regular one?

 

[Assembler]

Thread mining!

An interesting topic, one that coincides with some research I am currently undertaking so I thought I would contribute.

I discovered this paper recently which discusses the use of a roller mill on black sands, to turn +50 cons into -50 cons. Gold, however, is malleable so forms +50 flakes so is easy to recover with a 50 mesh screen. It is an interesting paper that I think has a lot of potential use to small and medium sized miners. (It describes how to DIY your own rod mill, and the process only needs a few minutes to do the job.)

The researchers concentrated on 50 mesh, although I cant see a reason why you could not go finer.

One question I have though is if current setups are designed to shed black sands in favour of gold, is itb worth designing a specialty sluice to capture all the black sands (and -150 gold) that are discharged from the regular one?

As a general rule the flatter the surface land that you are grinding and processing on will give you the best returns of fine values and black sand. Time, effort, and costs are different on a steep slope for the same recovery of the fine values and black sands.
If you are going underground there may not be as much difference.

The question of the sluice should be based on the screen size you are grinding the rock to. The flow rates and rifle size in general will be made for the mesh size of the rock you plan on processing.

 

[Gold:Au]

As a general rule the flatter the surface land that you are grinding and processing on will give you the best returns of fine values and black sand. Time, effort, and costs are different on a steep slope for the same recovery of the fine values and black sands.
If you are going underground there may not be as much difference.

The question of the sluice should be based on the screen size you are grinding the rock to. The flow rates and rifle size in general will be made for the mesh size of the rock you plan on processing.

My operation is placer, so we are just processing existing sands and gravels.

In particular, we are in the planning stage of attacking a large tailings pile that will take us at least a decade to process with our budget and capabilities so whatever we do, we want to make sure its done properly.

If that involves an additional process to recover large volumes of middlings for off-season processing in addition to the cons we'd normally capture, then we'd like to plan for that.