There is a balance that should be looked at.
Yes you can still get up to 3k per ounce for flour if you market it in little vials and have the time to sell it.
Of course you should get the most for your hard work, But there is a point of return that must be considered.
A lot of nuggets have different assays, as somoene who does refine placer and all other forms of gold.
Often times placer has the following issues.
I am going to give a common break down of what happens when you melt placer gold.
First, if you torch heat it. your going to do a few things, All rock and sand stuck in there turns into slag/glass. Any sulfides that may be attached, also go up in smoke, even oxygen tarnish has weight when you melt silver. O2 is heavy!
So lets say your melting 5 ounces. Up to a half ounce off the top can be rock and dirt. Also mercury
So now we are down to 4.5 ounces of an alloy metal. That metal can range a lot. Anywhere from 68% to 85% in most cases.
I dont know why all prospectors claim there gold is 90% or better when they dont know...and often times when they do, They still claim its 90%...well 90% of the time, its not.
Lets say a worst case scenario and this gold is %68 fine. That only gives you 3 ounces of fine from your original 5 Maybe an ounce of silver and the rest copper and other.
Its not that jewelers and refiners are trying to screw you. They in most cases are not, they are looking to do business but they have to cover there own.
Frankly if you have a load of small placer gold flakes and someone offers you 75% to %85 Take it!
Of course the larger specimens should be kept aside and sold to collectors. They do deserve the premiums they pull. And most of the time this is correct.
However we are living in a Bush economy with high gas prices, jobs sent over seas, and rampant inflation, two wars a shortage of money all around the block. When people are tightening up there wallets. Its harder to get those sales, unless its a very spectacular specimen.
A lot of very fine specimens have met there end due too the high prices for melt over collection.
So please understand that jewelers and gold buyers, particularly the ones with decades of experience under there belts. Do have an Idea of what they are talking about and doing. And there are honest gold buyers and jewelers out there. There are also some that are not. Just like there are honest prospectors out there...and some that are not.
most of the small scale prospectors dont sell there gold. The only stuff that comes in via placer in my refining business is placer from small mining operations, or stuff people bought years ago and need to sell it all, right now, due to some financial emergency or need or collections from people or prospectors who have died and the family does not want to keep the gold.
The only time I get the small bottle with a couple grams of very hard worked gold is when I get people who want to use gold they found in there own wedding rings. But most hobby gold prospectors dont sell there gold. Most miners who making a living selling there gold, have markets set up where they can sell it, There are specialist dealers who sell gold specimens and have customers looking for unique things.
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