What to do with what is left over...

[TheGoldProspector]

Basically, Im asking if there is a DIY way to smelt gold at home/in a garage. Safest way to get flour / microgold into somthing a bit heavier..

 

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[Bonaro]

Hmmm...some assumptions have to be made here.
By "left over" I presume you mean the black sands and super concentrates that have been panned.
If you did your panning well then there should be very little gold left in these black sands. Not sure you would accomplish much by smelting these tails. However, even the most careful panning will still miss a tiny fraction of micro fine gold. I personally ignore this small amount that is lost as it really doesnt add up to any worthwhile amount.

If you are still driven to get every speck you should start by getting rid of everything that is not gold.
Screen off the larger fractions as any gold this size would have already been panned out.
Remove the magnetics slowly and resist the urge to use a super magnet.
At this point you can try smelting. The instructions for this are most easily found in a you tube video.

 

[KevinInColorado]

First, tell us about your finish separation process so we know what you've done already. Classification, magnetics removal and panning technique will do a lot for you!

Second, microwave smelting is a good option alongside furnace or torch based approaches. More on microwave smelting here:
http://mrmoneyhustler.blogspot.in/p/microwave-kiln-kit-melt-gold-and-other.html ...I have his kit, it's good.
Or here: http://microwavegoldkiln.com/home for a lot more money! ...but they do have some good info.

Note that smelting will fail you if you don't get the chemistry right. You can end up with nothing but a piece of dirty glass with some gold in there somewhere.

 

[Fullpan]

Better to let the black sands accumulate to where the weight is enough to send off for smelting.

 

[Fullpan]

oops, sorry - wrong pic, and I can't seem to delete it.

 

[Geochemdog]

Looks like you have a lot of Hg (mercury) on your gold in that pic. Better be very careful if you smelt any of that. Well you should be very careful anyways regardless...mercury poisoning is no joke. I have had silver poisoning before (from a previous job) and that was bad enough...

 

[goldenIrishman]

I have to agree with Bonaro and Kevin in that more info as to what you've already done is called for. That being said, it all comes down to just how much gold you want to get out of your materials and what you're willing to do to get it. Smelting is NOT your only option here but there are factors like safety and availability of the required equipment to do further processing. Believe it or not, there comes a time when you have to say "enough is enough" and be willing to let some of that micron gold go.

On my materials I process the raw dirt through a sluice, pan it down and then do a "Shake & Bake" on the left overs. (You KNEW that was coming Kevin!) This seems to be the most cost effective method to get the smaller gold from my materials. A LOT of the micro gold here is coated with an oxide and the S&B method breaks that coating off pretty well. It's easy to do, fairly quick and it's cheap! As a claim owner I have to draw the line on processing somewhere. You reach a point where trying to get all the micro stuff cuts into digging and processing more materials and that is going to keep anyone from finding more gold.

If you want more info on the Shake and Bake method I use, feel free to PM me and I'll send you the details.

 

[russau]

I assume you mean "melt",not smelt the leftovers into a lump. you smelting your fines into something bigger will cost you a lot of $$ if you plan on bring it in to sell . the permits to do this and the cost of the chemicals will be expensive, besides if you bring it to a buyer, they'll want to know the percentage of precious metals that are in there, to stamp the final product, they will have to smelt this anyway and that would make your efforts redundant and youll pay for it anyway. I think most people would just melt it into a Dore and be happy.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Oops, he's right, I forgot shake and bake (only because I haven't tried it yet myself although I plan to now that the weather has warmed up here)

 

[Jimmydolittle]

Can we assume you have classified to -100 or more?

 

[dredgeman]

Kwik Kiln runs on propane and can do small batches
Takes 20 min and the fines are in a cone mold with a gold tip.

When you have enough chunks remelt them with a little borax pour into a bigger chunk then sell.

So far the Kwik kiln I am using hasn't ran out of the first propane canisters with hours of running.

A good cast iron cone mold is nice from Lmine.com

 

[Jimmydolittle]

Make a mini firebrick furnace, and melt it with a propane/mapp torch: Gold Refining Forum.com ? View topic - Mini firebrick furnace

 

[Frghtshkr]

I would be interested in hearing how the Shake and Bake method works.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I would be interested in hearing how the Shake and Bake method works.

Go back and read the posts about this as already explained. Go to the profile page for GoldenIrishman, scroll to the bottom, hit the link to see his posts and you'll find it there. Let's not make him repeat it all here

 

[goldenIrishman]

Thanks you Kevin! I AM getting a little tired of typing those instruction out several times a month. Makes me think that we should request a "How-to" section for this forum. Post things like this once and be done with it.

I have been refining my Shake & Bake method lately in an effort to streamline the process and to document the advantages this process will give the small scale miner. Using black sands that had already been cleaned of all the magnetic materials I could get out of them I've found I can remove another 20% by weight of magnetic materials after crushing the samples. I'm not sure but I think this weight is from the coating on some of the materials. The materials weigh enough to keep the magnet from picking it out until that thin coating has been knocked off.

 

[Frghtshkr]

thank you I will look