[b]Refining those concentrates.[/b] [b]Finding the gold[/b]

Refining those concentrates. Finding the gold

I would say this is the most important subject for the newish wet water prospector? Done right you will reap the benefits, done wrong, your filling our drains with Gold!
I've seen first hand how people don't understand the basics to retain the hard earned gold.

For me, a couple of different gauge sieves and a gold pan is all that's required, and of course our old friend Mercury!

Would love to hear your thought's on this subject!

Cheers~Chris.

Personally I hate the stuff!! I've seen the results of inadvertent poisoning of a top bloke true no fault of his own and the toll on him and the people around him . I pan down my concentrates to the visible gold and but the tin oxide and gold that is left into a poverty bottle with a little Mercury and I suppose in time I will have to address the gold amalgam

I just put the blowtorch with fine concentrates in a crucible with a good dose of borax mixed in..the borax seems to collect the 'dross' and by the time the gold melts fully the dross has burnt off leaving pretty much pure gold.
I don't recommend anyone use mercury unless they really know what they are doing...my Dad used to use it to recover gold and then use the old potato in the fire and chamois method to get the gold out of the mercury and reclaim a lot ..but not all of the mercury...he had high levels of mercury in his system when he was checked at my insistance...not quite the mad hatter but mad enough to keep using mercury.

I have in my kit a pair of fossicking sieves (1/4" & 1/8") suitable for wet or dry sieving for gems or crystals. Made from aluminium and 33 cm in diameter. Sieves nest inside each other for compact storage and separating coarse material from fine when sieving. These are the standard mesh sizes used in prospecting.  But also double up for concentrate classification when required. I have also made a smaller one out of fly screen mesh which is about the smallest size I need. I mainly use these sieves when working corundum black sands man that corundum wash would be without a doubt the hardest black sands to separate from gold you will ever encounter, as they say you have not worked black sands until you until hit that stuff. It drive you nuts! Mercury is ok provided you follow the guide lines for it’s use.
Cheers
©

If your using Mercury to collect the fine gold, a simple and relatively safe way is to put your blob of amalgam in Nitric acid, the gold will be let free as the Mercury goes into solution in the Nitric acid! To retrieve the Mercury, simply put a clean strip of copper plate into the acid and leave for a day or so, the mercury attaches it's self to the copper, then the mercury can be scrapped off!
This is a very simple method! You are however dealing with dangerous substances so "Please be careful".

When it comes to very very fine gold that is hard to see with the naked eye, usually when it starts to flood.

I have used a small electrowinning setup.

Sodium hypoclauride boil for half an hour and put through electrowinning circuit, gets it all.

Use wire wool for collection in the recovery and dissolve in acid, then blow torch and crucible.

Majindi

majindi wrote:When it comes to very very fine gold that is hard to see with the naked eye, usually when it starts to flood.

I have used a small electrowinning setup.

Sodium hypoclauride boil for half an hour and put through electrowinning circuit, gets it all.

Use wire wool for collection in the recovery and dissolve in acid, then blow torch and crucible.

Majindi

more info on this Maj please -- I come into contact with a lot of micron gold that is very hard to catch and if I didn't have to use Merc I would be very interested!!

Murachu,

This is the really early days process in the first larger mines in WA, I expect elsewhere also.

It was abandoned because the hydrogen that comes off the electrowinning stage is explosive.

I shall see where my small sample set up is and take a pic or two and put them up.
For your application in average quantities it is cheap and simple, next day or so.

Regards Majindi

Thanks a lot Majindi I appreciate your help!

I have a heap of rocks with gold flecks up to pin head size in it, I am total newbie, any advice much appreciated.

Crush em up and pan away. So you need a dolly pot for that job!
If there's lots of pin head size gold in your rocks and it looks good, Maybe worth a good dollar as they are?

Thanks mate, Im pretty crap at panning LOL. But learning, some are very fine but a lot of it. I heard u can add dishwashing detergent to save a bit of gold, is a old wives tale?

ill be welding a dolly pot up tomorrow. if it works fine ill post a pic.

You won't lose any fine gold by letting water run out of your pan once the gold was settled!!! Let water re enter your pan when your gold was left high and dry, 1 second is enough, then watch all your fine gold float aimlessly all round your pan!
I don't use detergents for reducing water tension. The only time I ever get into trouble these days, is if I go to show someone the fine gold in my pan, the pan gets slightly tilted in the wrong direction allowing a fraction of water to go over the gold and Up she floats Then you have to go through the process again! I Hate that!

Thankyou for the help, much appreciated.

I just remembered my hate is worse than your hate. I woke up after 3 days virtually no sleep, had driven over 2500km, long days lol. I get home, fall dead asleep, wake next day thirsty, drink water in glass. Just happens to be the gold in it I had first ever found. I didnt re pan that lot, wasnt worth it , but i prob win a prize for dumbness.

markvd wrote:I just remembered my hate is worse than your hate. I woke up after 3 days virtually no sleep, had driven over 2500km, long days lol. I get home, fall dead asleep, wake next day thirsty, drink water in glass. Just happens to be the gold in it I had first ever found. I didnt re pan that lot, wasnt worth it , but i prob win a prize for dumbness.

ya clown

Just thought i might throw two cents worth in here,Just a collection of research ive been doing and still researching but i thought the following
may be useful and then again it may not be..so here it is im not knocking its use or anything of such......just a compilation of information i
thought i would type out was going to create a thread on it ..........if you want to read be my guest and anything you may wish to add or
say on this i would like to hear.....................
======================================================================================

===================MERCURY ( A Prospectors Aid and a Prospectors Nightmare )==============================



( It has been termed as the "Jekyll and Hyde" of prospectors passed… )

You may be asking yourself;
 What is it ?
 Where does it come from ?
 What benefits does it have ?
 What risks come with its use ?
 What are its properties ?

============( Well for some answers on these questions and for a better understanding please read on )==================

( What and Where ? )
________________
Mercury occurs in deposits throughout the world and it is harmless in an insoluble form, such as mercuric sulfide, but it is ( poisonous ) in soluble forms such as mercuric chloride or methylmercury…..

It is not usually found free in nature and is primarily obtained from the mineral cinnabar (HgS). Spain and Italy produce around half of the world's supply of Mercury…..

Cinnabar is generally found in a massive, granular or earthy form and is bright scarlet to brick-red in color. It occasionally occurs, however, in crystals with a non-metallic adamantine luster…..

Mercury sulfide, mercuric sulfide, or mercury(II) sulfide is a chemical compound composed of the chemical elements mercury and sulfur. It is represented by the chemical formula HgS. It is virtually insoluble in water. HgS is dimorphic with two crystal forms…..

* red cinnabar (α-HgS), is the form in which mercury is most commonly found in nature.
* black, metacinnabar (β-HgS), is less common in nature and adopts the wurtzite crystal structure…..
……………………………………………………………………………
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( Benefits to Prospecting )
___________________
Although you could say that it could and probably should be avoided, here is just an example of its uses:
Mercury has been used in (Gold Pans and in Sluicing) for (Amalgamation Processes) throughout Gold Prospecting History and is still in use today for Gold Prospecting and Mining purposes.
Its advantages have been proven to be extremely useful to prospectors and miners in that it is extremely
helpful for the recovery and seperation of very fine and often rich particles of Gold often known as (flour).
and in instances where black sand deposits are (extremely rich) with Gold deposits…..
It is recognised for its intense affinity for not only Gold but also Copper and Silver,when it does make contact with clean gold particles etc it's tendency is to chemically bond these fine pieces of gold together and to form clusters or clumps as such.Amalgam is the correct name for this chemical bonding/clump forming and when all particles of the gold come together it is known as Amalgamation…So as for the panning side of things prospectors coat their pans with mercury and throughout the panning process of sloughing the unwanted material from the pan,during the last stage of panning which contains the heavies (black-sands) all of the fine gold particles and flour have been combining in this state to form an Amalgamation of the fine gold and hence the outcome of (no loss of the valuable contents) and this has been a proven and validated process for a lot higher productivity than other means……
The same basic principle is used with Sluicing,as to coating the riffles and different types of matting used to trap the Gold.

( The Downside )????? Yes there is and many...
_____________
Mercury will change Golds appearance and it definitely ruins its natural appearance and beauty::
Mercury if used in the processes above with Gold leaves yet another process to be undertaken (Refining)::
Mercury is able to be refined by the prospector through a process known as (Retorting)::
Mercury has the (( potential )) to be very dangerous and life threatening to ALL LIVING THINGS::(NOT JUST HUMANS)
More information on this later!!………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
( Properties )
_________
Mercury is classed as a dense and heavy metal..
Mercury has a (SG)specific gravity of 13.546 at 20 degrees C
Mercury weighs 846 pounds per cubic foot ; which is 70% less than Gold
Mercury is the only Metal of which is a liquid at ordinary temperatures
Mercury becomes a solid Metal at temperatures below 4.44444444 degrees C and melts as this temperature rises it melts into its silvery-white appearance most of us know it as…..
Mercury can and does "Vapourize" at Room Temperatures and therefore unleashes its [ Nasty Properties ]…………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………..
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(THE RISKS TO PROSPECTORS AND ANYTHING OR ANYONE AROUND)…….. (((( NATURE,HUMANS,ANIMALS ))))
_________ ___________________________________________________________________________________
Since that now we know that MERCURY can and does vaporise at room temperature we can all understand the Importance of the
possible implications of its negligent storage and use……
Even the smallest amounts of Mercury Vaporisation can have serious effects on you and any one or living thing near you……
Inhaling Even Very Small Amounts Of Mercury Fumes And Absorbing Metallic Mercury Through The Skin Or Mucous Membranes Can Result In Erethism (An Abnormal State Of Excitement, Irritability, Fatigue And Headache), Tremor, Sali- Vation, And Serious Corrosive Damage To Mucous Membranes Of Nose, Mouth And Throat, And To Lung Tissues. Just A Bit More Exposure Can Add Loss Of Teeth And Grave Damage To Your Gastrointestinal Tract And Central Nervous System. This Level Of Absorption Also Threatens You With Pneumonitis, Bronchitis, Severe Chest Pains And Dyspnea (An Unpleasant Form Of Breathing Difficulties).
THERE IS NO KNOWN AND PROVEN TREATMENT TO REVERSE THE LIFELONG DAMAGE THIS CAUSES TO ANYONE THAT IS EXPOSED TO EXTENDED OR MULTIPLE EXPOSURES:::
this is as far as i got to date hope it has been a good read/if not my apologies::::::::::::
cheers all....................Trev....

It obviously does vaporize Cause every time I take the lid off my baby food jar which holds my mercury, there's always merc droplets around the rim of the jar, which is a real pain getting it all to re join it's bigger friend inside the jar! Over 20 years of it being handled from the same jar and lid, "Hey, at least it's not corrosive"

Chris,

Standard practice, world wide, is to store small quantities of working Mercury under water.

More good Mercury knowledge here - third topic down:

http://webpages.charter.net/kwilliams00/bcftp/bcftp.htm

More here:

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/mercury.htm

And, as an example, that accidental Mercury poisoning is, at least sometimes, curable:

http://www.coem.com/programstreatment_ChelationTherapy.shtml

Joe

HEY KAEOJ,
HEY KAEOJ,__ DID YOU FORGET TO PUT YOUR READING GLASSES ON TONIGHT........???????
(((((( you just wrote))))) "And, as an example, those who blather that accidental Mercury poisoning is incurable:"
..........................................................................................................................................................
I am glad that you have gone back over what i wrote and read it PROPERLY this time ..And i am also glad you REALISE that i actually wrote
THERE IS NO KNOWN AND PROVEN TREATMENT TO REVERSE THE LIFELONG DAMAGE THIS CAUSES TO ANYONE THAT IS EXPOSED TO EXTENDED OR MULTIPLE EXPOSURES:================And yes i do ACCEPT YOUR SINCEREST APOLOGIES for misinterpreting it and taking out of context, the text that i actually wrote.....It has been a pleasure clearing this up with you........
cheers and have a great one..................Trev....