Separating gold from silver ore

Gday everyone,

I just found a heavy rock with plenty of silver in it. I crushed it up in the dolly pot & noticed what looks like a fair amount of gold particles in the crushed silver ore.

Any ideas how I can safely separate the gold from the silver ore?

Cheers,
nugget_man

nugget_man wrote:Gday everyone,

I just found a heavy rock with plenty of silver in it. I crushed it up in the dolly pot & noticed what looks like a fair amount of gold particles in the crushed silver ore.

Any ideas how I can safely separate the gold from the silver ore?

Cheers,
nugget_man

G'day nugget man & welcome to the forum

I hope your got what you think you have, but, Gold and Silver certainly do exist together in an "Ore Body" (rock) but this is where the but comes in, it is usually alloyed together and not separate particles.

Are you sure it's not Pyrite that you have, to check, pyrite will turn to powder/dust when crushed up with a hammer, gold and silver will just squash/flatten and not shatter.

Also gold and silver will melt together into a blob/ball when heated above there melting temperature, pyrite on the other hand: "If you heat is up slowly it will eventually glow and then melt. It will release a lot of sulphur gas and leave iron behind. If you heat it rapidly, as with a propane torch, it will expand explosively. The term for it is "decrepitate".

Gold will melt with a MAP Gas torch, 24K Pure Gold will melt at 1063 C, and Pure Silver 961 C, and pyrite will be roasted if heated in the presence of air, giving off SO2.

Hope some of this is helpful

cheers dave

Thanks for your reply Dave,

Yeah, I guess only further testing will tell if it's the real deal or not, it's very fine yellowish powder dispersed in swirl like runs in the bottled silver ore. The ore is a dark, gunmetal grey colour that's heavy but quite easy to crush & stains the skin easily. I was just wondering if anybody else knew had come across this & whether there's a way to separate the light yellow flecs from the the dark stuff.

Cheers!
n_m