What's the best way to seperate Pyrite from gold?

[calgoldrecyclers]

running a magnet is not such a good idea anymore, because most platinum in placer deposits has a high content of iron. best way to seperate is with a wheel or other gravity device.

 

[Anonymous]

I use a spiral wheel and always get a little magnetic black sand with the gold. I am in western Montana and don't have any platinum. Although there is platinum in east central Montana near the Stillwater. It is always good to know the minerals in your concentrates. pgm's are generally not there.............Bob

Also some pgms will become magnetic if heated. I am doing gold and will continue to use the magnet........... :?

 

[Oz]

Calgold,

Sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to this thread. I need to get an iron mortar and pestle then I will do some small acid testing to see just what is in these other than iron. They are indeed heavy as they come from where I used to get my iron ore for smelting. I had just overlooked the stones other than the hematite and magnetite as they were my focus at the time.

I am not in a hurry on these as I have at least temporarily lost access to the site. But I am working on changing that. I will indeed get back to everyone when I find out more.

Thanks all,
Oz

 

[calgoldrecyclers]

Oz,
no rush here, as it is prospecting season. just two more weeks and i can break out the pumps and hit the rivers. been doing alot of prospecting here lately, been away most weeks myself. just now finished my book. hopefully it will be on the shelves by next spring. if you're on the market for a mortar and pestle, how about an old cast iron pipe cap and an old iron bar? you could even set up a crusher in your back yard made from an iron weight bolted onto a log, set up on a hoist of sorts.
well, keep me updated on your progress and good luck.
Ezra

 

[Oz]

Ezra,

For regular crushing the pipe would be fine for small amounts but for good clean separate samples it would be a PITA to clean.

Now the iron on the log with hoist is starting to sound like a stamp mill. I have no room to talk though, I made a trip hammer similar to that in my younger days for some heavy forging. I miss having the time to play with such projects.

 

[geubrina]

After reading about the arsenopyrite, it is quite frightening.

But, I have done what I planned with my pyrite.

Firstly, I put the pyrite in HCl, cold. Not much reaction and it seems like no reaction at all, but the solution became yellowish.

Then I crushed the pyrite to fine powder. And put it again in HCl, all the powder dissapear. Solutions became yellow.

So, I guessed, no PGM is in the pyrite.

 

[olddannyboy]

Hi all I have a question or two I'm new at this, I don't know much about it. After watching Steve's videos I decided to try AP and muriatic acid on ore I had collected in Azusa CA.
This is what I did
I roasted an small sample( about 50 gr) of that screened ore, in a small glass container I added AP waited till the morning then I added an equal amount of muriatic acid, that produced a reaction, bubbling fizzing and a lot of golden and silver color flakes were floating on the liquid.



Twelve hrs later there is nothing floating on the liquid anymore but when I stir there are many (like my daughter will say gazillions) particles of a golden and silver coloration, going around the trying to go to the bottom of the jar and on top of the gravel





The sand at the bottom of the jar has now a lot black specks that it didn't have before and there are more visible lots of flakes of a golden/pinkish color they are big enough to see with the naked eye, there are bubbles going up from the sand I guess its still reacting the question is how long should I maintain the reaction going, will it be a good idea to smelt this small sample or to do fire assay first, but the main question is, do any of you guys think I'm doing anything wrong? I got gold fever and I cant think straight.
If this test proves successful I'm planning to leach with chlorine and muriatic but that will come later.
Thank you in advance

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Hi all I have a question or two I'm new at this, I don't know much about it. After watching Steve's videos I decided to try AP and muriatic acid on ore I had collected in Azusa CA.
This is what I did
I roasted an small sample( about 50 gr) of that screened ore, in a small glass container I added AP waited till the morning then I added an equal amount of muriatic acid, that produced a reaction, bubbling fizzing and a lot of golden and silver color flakes were floating on the liquid.

View attachment 2

Twelve hrs later there is nothing floating on the liquid anymore but when I stir there are many (like my daughter will say gazillions) particles of a golden and silver coloration, going around the trying to go to the bottom of the jar and on top of the gravel

View attachment 1



The sand at the bottom of the jar has now a lot black specks that it didn't have before and there are more visible lots of flakes of a golden/pinkish color they are big enough to see with the naked eye, there are bubbles going up from the sand I guess its still reacting the question is how long should I maintain the reaction going, will it be a good idea to smelt this small sample or to do fire assay first, but the main question is, do any of you guys think I'm doing anything wrong? I got gold fever and I cant think straight.
If this test proves successful I'm planning to leach with chlorine and muriatic but that will come later.
Thank you in advance

What are you considering as AP? Because AP is HCL/Peroxide.

 

[olddannyboy]

I'm trying to remove all base metals from the ore with AP/HCL and I was asking if I was doing something wrong. Am I? Idk.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

I'm trying to remove all base metals from the ore with AP/HCL and I was asking if I was doing something wrong. Am I? Idk.

I can't say you are doing wrong, I don't work with rocks but some here do and I have seen them use HCL as their 1st step.

My question is concerning your AP/HCL. Perhaps it is just how you are posting it. How is your AP made up? And if it is AP no need to add the acid in the post, it is confusing.

 

[Harold_V]

I'm trying to remove all base metals from the ore with AP/HCL and I was asking if I was doing something wrong. Am I? Idk.

Rarely will you be able to process an ore with acid and accompish your task at a profit. Consumption will be excessive, and results leaving a great deal to be desired.

Harold

 

[olddannyboy]

Thank you Harold for your response

 

[Richard36]

Calgold,

Ignore the file name these are under. These are not the greatest pictures for color and it was getting dark when taken. These are not representative of the stones found in the iron quarry they were hand picked from a mountain of overburden tailings that are piled up against an exposed rock face of solid magnetite several hundred feet tall. They are predominately green.

In the first picture you can see some of the copper has oxidized from a green to a blue around the iron pyrite crystals (upper cluster) and the lower cluster of coppery colored crystals.

The second picture shows the green at the bottom transitioning to a silver colored crystalline structure with a small core area of crystalline hematite? Forgot my magnet.

The last picture has bands of dark metallic crystals with the right side cleaved showing the iron face in the green stone.

There are also some stones that are a purer green that tend to be crumbly. This is just 10 minutes away from the sandstone pic location where the stream yields virtually no black sand. The geology is all shifted around here. There is also one of copper colored fine banding in it. I would love to hear your opinion on these 3 pics as you seem to know more than I and I am just guessing on some parts.

I wish I had more time there but it is now posted, closed off and patroled by the local police. They gave me an escort away. Its too bad as it is a neat area, I did get the new owners name from the officers and will attempt to get written permission to visit again.

Hello Oz,

Long time no chat.
I am surprised that I have not commented on these photos already.
I was just reading posts in this thread when I saw your photos, and about flipped out over them.
They're seriously indicative of a region that is of serious interest to me.

First off, these photo's indicate an extensive area of hydrothermal alteration.
The sulfides, and the green color produced from extensive heating of the parent Basalt into a version of Greenstone is obvious evidence of that fact.

Have you ever read about Gold associated with Greenstone Facies?
I have, and have prospected many zones associated with such outcrops, and in fact, that is the primary type of emplacement in my region. Greenstone Facies is one of the ore deposit models that have been extensively researched, and wrote about.

The green color, aside from being heated by contact metamorphism, could, and probably is being created by the presence of copper, manganese, and possibly nickel. The rusty color is Goethite, an Iron hydroxide produced by the breakdown and weathering of Iron Pyrite. This stain is associated with "Gossons", also called "Iron Hats", and indicate areas well worth further investigation. They often contain Gold, Silver, and Platinum group metals, as well as other metals of value.

This last photo is the one that turns me on. (Ore # 3)
The red band is some sort of iron stone, and is often a high grade gold ore, at least here it is. I panned a handfull of that same reddish ore as gravel from a stream close by, and assayed it. It contained 3 oz of Gold per ton of ore.

It is associated with that same gray to black material with the silvery luster.
I have not done any tests on that material to determine what its precious metal content is, or what metals it contains, but do know that it is associated with Gold, and will contain values the same as the red material. For all I know it may well contain Platinum, most of the PT group ores I have saw were the same silvery gray to black looking material.

I would love to have a chicken egg sized piece to look at that showed the gray to black material with the red material.
Further more, I would like to assay a piece of it just out of curiosity, in order to see exactly how much PM's it contained.

All that I have is marble and smaller sized pieces of the same material, and currently am prospecting natural traps as I go upstream looking for where it is being broke out of the bedrock, and being washed downstream.

I envy you Oz.
You have found a really good outcrop of material.
I want some, Lol!

I hope that this has been helpful, and to hear back from you soon.
Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".

 

[Britt82]

I know it’s like 10 years later since the beginning of this post but I had to throw this out there for anyone who is currently reading this thread and thinking that when you are roasting the dirt, sand, gravel ore or whatever it is that you’re burning out the sulfides and arsenic and other toxins therefore it’s safe because you’re burning them out… But stop and think about this when you’re roasting those toxins, where do they go? They have to go somewhere, right? They go in the air that you breathe that is how you get that toxic poison into your body! I read once that there’s no gas mask that will assuredly keep those toxins from entering into your body not to mention skin (And if you’re wearing a bodysuit then you also have to have safe handling of the soup when you take it off and have a properly cleaned. But this isn’t even talking about the air balloon that you are polluting creating pack sick chemical into the air . I know I have typos and I don’t care because I have babies crawling on me and dogs jumping and I’m just doing speak to text So hopefully somebody out there read this and I save life

 

[Sk8rguy]

i know its an old post but on the indication of pyrites and arsenic. The ore I have is arsenopyrite finely disseminated with magnetite,gold,silver,antimony,copper, chromium,cobalt,vanadium,titanium,PGM's,(a little bit of aluminum) and im pretty damned sure some of my dark non magnetic heavies have a thorium oxide(i just dont have a real way to check). i have a small scale method of neutralizing some arsenic values. i first break all the rock ore into 2-3 inch pieces for my hand crusher. *note i do all cold baths.When all is broke to 2-3" i give it the first citric acid bath. some color leaves but not much. usually let soak for a few days. now i decant citric acid let ore dry, and crush. i screen my crushing's and separate powder and re-crush remainder. now this takes a week or 2 depending on how lazy and how much time i have. during this time i have only enough concentrate in a plastic container to layer the bottom and fill the acid to the top of the ore.(like the cementation process) i every few day will (a)decant all and let dry out. (b) agitate and replenish acid with more. when all is said and done the concentrated citric acid can then be watered down and i personally just water the ferns in my yard.(Ferns naturally soak up arsenic) I have only made maybe a gallon of the stuff never really tested it to be 100% sure but with the studies out there i know its eliminating some of it before i even get to the roasting process.

 

[blueduck]

Dealing with Arsenic is hardly worth the recovery unless you have really decent precious metal values to recover. The expense of recovery will eat into your efforts and the health risks are not usually worth toying with on a small scale lab experiment even in my opinion when you know it is there in quantity [especially via several trustworthy professional assay results]

It sucks knowing you have gold values and other possible metals to recover, best to either walk away or find a recovery millsite that is willing to deal with the arsenic and purchase your ore or ore body and then go prospect for a new lode to exploit.

Blueduck
Idaho

 

[Palladium]

Dealing with Arsenic is hardly worth the recovery unless you have really decent precious metal values to recover. The expense of recovery will eat into your efforts and the health risks are not usually worth toying with on a small scale lab experiment even in my opinion when you know it is there in quantity [especially via several trustworthy professional assay results]

It sucks knowing you have gold values and other possible metals to recover, best to either walk away or find a recovery millsite that is willing to deal with the arsenic and purchase your ore or ore body and then go prospect for a new life to exploit.

Blueduck
Idaho

Well back Duck!
Long time, no see!

 

[blueduck]

.......

Blueduck
Idaho

Well back Duck!
Long time, no see!

I reckon it has been long enough, was hoping folks might remember I was here learning from the best if the best awhile back.... nice to see you remembered too.... I read you have a new interest yer chawing and am following that thread too.
On my fone this forum is difficult to navigate.... and read.

William
Idaho

 

[DarkspARCS]

Calgold,

Ignore the file name these are under. These are not the greatest pictures for color and it was getting dark when taken. These are not representative of the stones found in the iron quarry they were hand picked from a mountain of overburden tailings that are piled up against an exposed rock face of solid magnetite several hundred feet tall. They are predominately green.

In the first picture you can see some of the copper has oxidized from a green to a blue around the iron pyrite crystals (upper cluster) and the lower cluster of coppery colored crystals.

The second picture shows the green at the bottom transitioning to a silver colored crystalline structure with a small core area of crystalline hematite? Forgot my magnet.

The last picture has bands of dark metallic crystals with the right side cleaved showing the iron face in the green stone.

There are also some stones that are a purer green that tend to be crumbly. This is just 10 minutes away from the sandstone pic location where the stream yields virtually no black sand. The geology is all shifted around here. There is also one of copper colored fine banding in it. I would love to hear your opinion on these 3 pics as you seem to know more than I and I am just guessing on some parts.

I wish I had more time there but it is now posted, closed off and patroled by the local police. They gave me an escort away. Its too bad as it is a neat area, I did get the new owners name from the officers and will attempt to get written permission to visit again.

Hello Oz,

Long time no chat.
I am surprised that I have not commented on these photos already.
I was just reading posts in this thread when I saw your photos, and about flipped out over them.
They're seriously indicative of a region that is of serious interest to me.

First off, these photo's indicate an extensive area of hydrothermal alteration.
The sulfides, and the green color produced from extensive heating of the parent Basalt into a version of Greenstone is obvious evidence of that fact.

Have you ever read about Gold associated with Greenstone Facies?
I have, and have prospected many zones associated with such outcrops, and in fact, that is the primary type of emplacement in my region. Greenstone Facies is one of the ore deposit models that have been extensively researched, and wrote about.

The green color, aside from being heated by contact metamorphism, could, and probably is being created by the presence of copper, manganese, and possibly nickel. The rusty color is Goethite, an Iron hydroxide produced by the breakdown and weathering of Iron Pyrite. This stain is associated with "Gossons", also called "Iron Hats", and indicate areas well worth further investigation. They often contain Gold, Silver, and Platinum group metals, as well as other metals of value.

This last photo is the one that turns me on. (Ore # 3)
The red band is some sort of iron stone, and is often a high grade gold ore, at least here it is. I panned a handfull of that same reddish ore as gravel from a stream close by, and assayed it. It contained 3 oz of Gold per ton of ore.

It is associated with that same gray to black material with the silvery luster.
I have not done any tests on that material to determine what its precious metal content is, or what metals it contains, but do know that it is associated with Gold, and will contain values the same as the red material. For all I know it may well contain Platinum, most of the PT group ores I have saw were the same silvery gray to black looking material.

I would love to have a chicken egg sized piece to look at that showed the gray to black material with the red material.
Further more, I would like to assay a piece of it just out of curiosity, in order to see exactly how much PM's it contained.

All that I have is marble and smaller sized pieces of the same material, and currently am prospecting natural traps as I go upstream looking for where it is being broke out of the bedrock, and being washed downstream.

I envy you Oz.
You have found a really good outcrop of material.
I want some, Lol!

I hope that this has been helpful, and to hear back from you soon.
Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".

I have to second the words of the Rock Man regards the ore samples depicted by Oz. You possess what appears to be Archaen greenstone, which the world over has been notable for possessing dynamic amounts of gold and platinum values.

Here are some of my recent greenstone deposit discoveries that have revealed themselves as possessive of quantified amounts of gold, silver and pgm within them....

 

[syamilah1310]

Hello. Im from indonesia and im new here. I had with me 3 samples of pyrites. If any of you guys had good knowledge in pyrites, your comments is much appreciated.

Btw, I'm looking for gold or PGM if ever existed in these rocks.

Best Regards.