Gonna provide a view of each ore I run through. This ore type I am least optimistic about of all the type I plan to run through. I have found both white and brown/red sandstone in the ol' creek.. the brown runs from peanut butter all the way to near black and I have found fly poop in it in the past. White sandstone, never... but lets run it through the REDNECK forum process and see what we find. I went ahead and skipped roasting for this one. It is non-magnetic and contains no magnetic particles when crushed.... HCL bath time. It is less than half the weight of the heavy dark ore in the first sample and in other REDNECK thread. Very Quart like, or silica like best I can tell under microscope. What'cha think ? Anyone every seen or heard of gold in any measure being found in light sandstone ?
REDNECK ORE SAMPLING (WHITE SANDSTONE)
- Thread starter bahabully
- Start date
Help Support Gold Refining Forum:
DO NOT put unknown ore into acid. It may contain nasty toxic elements that can injure yourself or anyone around you.
oops, too late. I do keep this outside. No one but a few cows around... and I'm only dealing with 14 grams of ore.
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We really do try to help. How do you know it is sandstone, and not limestone?
1 - It breaks easily with a hammer... VERY easily. Limestone around here can break the hammer.
2 - It's sandy, in feel and in look.
What's odd to me, is that some of the darker varieties of sandstone around here are amazing heavy. Could be they are saturated with water as I am doing my rock hounding in and around the creek.
Out of HCL bath today and oh man.. Where he hell did it all go ? HCL took a bite. I am kicking myself for not drying this and re-weighing prior to putting into AR. oh well. Has anyone ever run into a sample where HCL decimates it ?
One more question: This stuff is outside.... 30's lows / low 50s to 60s highs..... I'm going to leave it out there maybe all week.
Q. - Can you leave a sample in AR "too" long ?
Q. - Will my mix of potassium nitrate and muriatic acid even activate into AR at the above noted temperature ?.. and if yes, will the AR work on the sample at these temperatures ?
One more question: This stuff is outside.... 30's lows / low 50s to 60s highs..... I'm going to leave it out there maybe all week.
Q. - Can you leave a sample in AR "too" long ?
Q. - Will my mix of potassium nitrate and muriatic acid even activate into AR at the above noted temperature ?.. and if yes, will the AR work on the sample at these temperatures ?
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I believe your sandstone is actually limestone. Limestone is a carbonate, dissolves with even some white vinegar. I don't mean to be snarky, but you should learn to at least know how to differentiate between the rock groups, before trying something like refining.
Snark away brother, good stuff. I've never been offended by a bit of slung snot where appropriate ; ) I guess the limestone could have eroded, washed down into and around creek and congealed into stone. So even though it looks like sand, it is in fact limestone particles. That makes sense. I was thinking these were relics of the period when the area was an inland salt sea, and the stones broken coral, similar to the sands in florida that are derived from eroded corals... I think both a pretty carbon based. Anyway... on to what's left over, which is obviously gold
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Maybe I should change my handle to " Goldsnark ", unless somebody beats me to it.
JaHahaha... Nice answer. Good stuff Shark.
** AR Filtered **
Filtered AR solution and added 1/2tsp of sulfamic acid (grout cleaner) mixed in with 200ml of water to denox.
Given I only had around 40-50ml of solution at the most this greatly lightened the solution form yellow to near clear.
Did a stannous test, but I think I'll redo that because i only used .8g to nearly 30ml of HCL.
Results was odd to me.. No reaction, solution remained clear, but I did see some precipitates.. could be the spoon was not completely clean. Again, I will redo and follow up later today.
Question: Can stannous precipitate stuff of this size from such a dilute solution with no color change to the solution itself ?.. or likely contamination from a not so clean spoon ?
Filtered AR solution and added 1/2tsp of sulfamic acid (grout cleaner) mixed in with 200ml of water to denox.
Given I only had around 40-50ml of solution at the most this greatly lightened the solution form yellow to near clear.
Did a stannous test, but I think I'll redo that because i only used .8g to nearly 30ml of HCL.
Results was odd to me.. No reaction, solution remained clear, but I did see some precipitates.. could be the spoon was not completely clean. Again, I will redo and follow up later today.
Question: Can stannous precipitate stuff of this size from such a dilute solution with no color change to the solution itself ?.. or likely contamination from a not so clean spoon ?
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*** SMB addition ***
Added 100ml of water with 1.5 table spoons of SMB dissolved within.
Results was an immediate darkening of the solution from nearly clear to gasoline yellow.
Thoughts / Comments ?
Will leave this outside until the weekend and then see what has precipitated.
Added 100ml of water with 1.5 table spoons of SMB dissolved within.
Results was an immediate darkening of the solution from nearly clear to gasoline yellow.
Thoughts / Comments ?
Will leave this outside until the weekend and then see what has precipitated.
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Can’t see much here, what was the original color?
W
If it gets too dilute the precipitate will be very fine.
But according to the Stannous there is nothing there.
Why all the water?
If it gets too dilute the precipitate will be very fine.
But according to the Stannous there is nothing there.
Original color is posted in the thread in the image, it was nearly clear.
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I felt adding extra water would help with safety and potentially dilution of any toxins I've been hearing about. From now on I'll cut the water in half as I add sulfamic and smb. I did expect this would make capturing any precipitate that much harder, but I have time and will go slow and carefully when we get to that point. I am also going to start doing 3 stannous tests per ore type instead of just the 1. This will allow me to test the sample with no water added.
Drained solution and put precipitate into collector jar.
I am assuming the white precipitate is silver chloride and the darker is gold.
Very small amount, probably would not move the scale if weighed.
Solution combined and processing waste best I can.
On to next ore type.
I am assuming the white precipitate is silver chloride and the darker is gold.
Very small amount, probably would not move the scale if weighed.
Solution combined and processing waste best I can.
On to next ore type.
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What about sticking to one process until you understand and can use it??
Assume nothing, test it.
