Placer Paul
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2017
- Messages
- 33
I'm a small scale placer miner. I have been doing exploration mining for the past few seasons and will be increasing to small production mining.
I am trying to figure out the best way to process my black sands after they have been run on a finishing sluice and a miller table to get the visible gold out.
I have had the black sands assayed after I have gotten the visible gold out and the assays have averaged at 60 gr/ton gold.
A lot of the gold in the black sands is locked in the black sands. Like coated inside the black sands. I have not yet gotten an assay that shows what minerals are in the black sands. The assays I have gotten so far I just asked the lab to give me the gold value in it. I do plan on getting a full analysis done though for other precious metals and all other elements.
My black sands on the average weigh around 92 lbs per 5 gallon bucket. This works out to approximately 2.76 grams gold per 5 gallon bucket of black sands.
I will be producing approximately a 5 gallon bucket of black sands every 5 days or so.
I am wondering what the most economical, least time consuming, and efficient way would be to extract the remaining gold from the black sands after I have gotten all the visible gold from it that I can.
I am thinking that my choices are:
1. Grind the black sands to a powder. (some miners are putting them in cement mixers with ball bearings and pulverizing them while still keeping the micron gold intact) then running them on a shaker table
2. Smelting to get the gold bead.
3. Grinding to powder then leaching.
4. Stock pile them and pay a refinery to do it.
Am I correct in this assumption that those would be my options? Do you suggest any other options? Do you need to know a full elemental assay result in order to give me an appropriate answer?
If the best way would be the cement mixer then shaker table then I know how to do that no problem. But if smelting or leaching are better ways can you please let me know what kind of equipment and supplies I would need for the process so I can do some math and see if it's economically feasible for me to do so?
In my rough math estimates I should be able to extract approx $3000-$5000 worth of gold per season from my black sands minus equipment costs to do so. So this can help me pay some of my operating costs for the year. There's also a good chance after buying the supplies to do this with that other fellow miners in the area may pay me to process their black sands to help me recoup some of the capital costs for the equipment. A few of them I know have just been stock piling the black sands and have been waiting to process them.
I am trying to figure out the best way to process my black sands after they have been run on a finishing sluice and a miller table to get the visible gold out.
I have had the black sands assayed after I have gotten the visible gold out and the assays have averaged at 60 gr/ton gold.
A lot of the gold in the black sands is locked in the black sands. Like coated inside the black sands. I have not yet gotten an assay that shows what minerals are in the black sands. The assays I have gotten so far I just asked the lab to give me the gold value in it. I do plan on getting a full analysis done though for other precious metals and all other elements.
My black sands on the average weigh around 92 lbs per 5 gallon bucket. This works out to approximately 2.76 grams gold per 5 gallon bucket of black sands.
I will be producing approximately a 5 gallon bucket of black sands every 5 days or so.
I am wondering what the most economical, least time consuming, and efficient way would be to extract the remaining gold from the black sands after I have gotten all the visible gold from it that I can.
I am thinking that my choices are:
1. Grind the black sands to a powder. (some miners are putting them in cement mixers with ball bearings and pulverizing them while still keeping the micron gold intact) then running them on a shaker table
2. Smelting to get the gold bead.
3. Grinding to powder then leaching.
4. Stock pile them and pay a refinery to do it.
Am I correct in this assumption that those would be my options? Do you suggest any other options? Do you need to know a full elemental assay result in order to give me an appropriate answer?
If the best way would be the cement mixer then shaker table then I know how to do that no problem. But if smelting or leaching are better ways can you please let me know what kind of equipment and supplies I would need for the process so I can do some math and see if it's economically feasible for me to do so?
In my rough math estimates I should be able to extract approx $3000-$5000 worth of gold per season from my black sands minus equipment costs to do so. So this can help me pay some of my operating costs for the year. There's also a good chance after buying the supplies to do this with that other fellow miners in the area may pay me to process their black sands to help me recoup some of the capital costs for the equipment. A few of them I know have just been stock piling the black sands and have been waiting to process them.