# Water Leaching of Polymetallic Ore



## DarkspARCS (Mar 27, 2011)

Hi folks!

A few months back I'd extracted roughy 3 tons of various metallic ore types from several ore concentrations located in an old mine documented to have been a copper mine that poduced a high grade ore containing gold, silver, and palladium.

Antimony, iron, mercury, bizmuth, lead, copper, zinc, moybdenum, aluminum, tin, and trace amounts of titanium, arsenic, silicon, and uranium were also found there. The mine contained an upper oxidized, carbonic layer, and a lower sulphuric layer.

The lower level sulphuric based ore consisted of plumbojarosite containing arsenopyrite, turquoise, chalcopyrite, galena, hematite, sphalerite, iron pyrite, and gold, silver, and palladium... all embeded within a kaolinite base.

The deposite literally peels away from the walls in thick, heavy layers of scintillating rock that feels solid and doesn't break easily.

When I got home I placed a large piece of this polymetallic ore in a 5 gallon bucket and added tap water to the top and left it overnight. Next day the rock converted to mud. I used a 3 ft. prybar to test the consistancy of the mud by poking it. When I pulled out the prybar it was coated with a thick cementation of what appeared to be copper... as well as the water had changed from clear to a clear turquoise blue. 

Needless to say, I saved that water in a 5gal. jug. Does anyone know what this water has precipitated in it? This mix leaves a fine rust colored sediment on the bottle surfaces. Inserting a clean piece of aluminum into the water causes a crimson red material to cement itself onto the aluminum.

Does anyone know what this red material could be? thanks


----------



## Harold_V (Mar 28, 2011)

It's copper.

Harold


----------



## DarkspARCS (Mar 28, 2011)

Thanks Harold, this mystery gets more interesting by the minute lol...

When I listen quietly to the mouth of the jug with the aluminum in the water I hear the sound of sizzling bacon! lol, I just used tap water, guess this shows that the water in my area is highly acidic. Since I haven't researched how to drop gold or silver out of a copper solution in h2o, perhaps dropping an activated carbon trap into it and aggitating it for a couple of hours would work? would SMB drop the gold and leave the base metals alone

What's the chance that this is mercury cementing onto the aluminum?

If this is mercury.... this ore may just be the ticket to my first manufactured troy ounce!.... =)

Guess I'll just continue cementing until the reaction stops, scrape the substance off and then smelt it..


----------



## Harold_V (Mar 29, 2011)

DarkspARCS said:


> I just used tap water, guess this shows that the water in my area is highly acidic.


Highly unlikely, otherwise it wouldn't be suited to being tap water. 

You already mentioned that the ore is a sulfide, yes? Do you suppose that you are creating an acidic condition with the ore? I know that I had to continually add lime to the sulfide ore I ran in my ball mill to raise the pH, which, otherwise, would have gone down. I expect that the solution is leaching traces of copper. 



> Since I haven't researched how to drop gold or silver out of a copper solution in h2o, perhaps dropping an activated carbon trap into it and aggitating it for a couple of hours would work? would SMB drop the gold and leave the base metals alone


I hope you understand when I say "that's insane".

What reason would there be for gold or silver to be in solution? Water, alone, can't do the job, nor can the acidic solution you created. 



> What's the chance that this is mercury cementing onto the aluminum?


In my opinion, not good. Why would the solution be blue, and why is the deposit copper colored? 



> If this is mercury.... this ore may just be the ticket to my first manufactured troy ounce!.... =)


You'll have to help me with that logic. I fail to see a connection between having a cinnabar ore and gold. Each can be found without the other, and generally is. 



> Guess I'll just continue cementing until the reaction stops, scrape the substance off and then smelt it..


One does not smelt cemented metals. Smelting is the act of recovering metals from ores-----not from melting recovered metals. In this case, you would *melt* the metal.
Don't you think it would be more prudent to collect a small sample of the recovered material, dissolve it in acid, then test for values? Wise people don't go through that kind of experiment to make determinations. If a sample shows that you have copper, recovering more and more copper won't disclose any values---which would READILY cement on any raw copper that would be present. 

You need to read more about testing. 

Harold


----------



## Oz (Mar 29, 2011)

Harold_V said:


> You need to read more about testing.


And if you think you actually have mercury as part of your precipitate the last thing you want to do is smelt it. You need a proper retort before anything else is done.


----------



## DarkspARCS (Mar 29, 2011)

Oz said:


> Harold_V said:
> 
> 
> > You need to read more about testing.
> ...



True. And Harold reminded me of several other pocesses I forgot, due to a fast read, no experience, trying to do too many projects at once to discover a cheap and viable method to earn some quick money and do some investing in materials and tools I'll need for an "Environmental Hazards Reclamation" of several unprocessed mine dumps... of which are contributing factors to the region's contaminated water supply (arsenic, lead, mercury).

I'll clear away the dumps and send them packing to China as a class b grade coper ore. Until then I've got pm values from electronics and from 3 different ore types with several types of metallic values... 20 to be exact lol... 

I had to go and find the complicated stuff first, didn't I?! :roll:

P.S.: Harold, the material cementing to the aluminum isn't copper colored, it's crimson red, like pure oxidised iron, or cinnabar. no metallic sheen. The copper colored cementation occured when I drove a screw driver into the mud this blue water came from several times and it came up coated with a bright, shiney copper sheen on it.

I didn't mention this earlier, but before the red sludge started forming within the siphoned blue waters in that water jug I tried a piece of rebar and the next day that rebar was cemented extra thick with this rust colored material.

Anywho, thanks for replying and in educating me once again... I hope that one day things like this will become second nature for me...


----------



## lazersteve (Mar 29, 2011)

Richard,

Your red powder may be from hematite - Bloodstone:

Wiki Hematite

Just a guess,

Steve


----------



## DarkspARCS (Mar 8, 2012)

lol... I don't even remember posting this post! However, I am a bit more experienced now with my logic and my processes to know what it was that was coating my metal... and Harold was right when he mentioned copper, but Steve was also right when he mentioned Hemetite...

The ore I was working with is as the title professes it to be lol... POLY METALLIC. Use of iron in this case cemented around 22 different metals to it... which included gold, silver, and platinum.

I wonder... could a 'hydro cell' using water as it's solution and this ore as it's extraction material be utilized to extract values as "concentrated ore" (instead of roasting then washing in HCL), which then could be used as the material for an AP or AR refining?

also... about that sizzling noise I heard. I discovered that the ore in the region I got this stuff from is high in sulfuric content, in some cases as high as 25 percent! What I created then in this instance is weak sulfuric acid! lol... acid rain anyone? 

Harold, in your years of experience, have you ever heard of this type of hydrological extraction from raw ore, to be used as an ore concentrate for processing? I intend on researching this further, I may be onto something here heh! :twisted:


----------



## DarkspARCS (Mar 8, 2012)

Just read a very interesting chapter on "Mine Water"... listen to this excerpt:



> Water from abandoned mines may contain significant concentrations of heavy metals and total dissolved solids and may have elevated temperatures and altered pH, depending on the nature of the orebody and local geochemical conditions. These waters may become acidic over time when exposed to oxygen and, if present, pyrites or other sulfide minerals. The acidic water may also solubilize metals contained in the mine and mined materials, creating high concentrations of metals in solution.



Activated charcoal could work wonders when extracting values from such highly concentrated waters, agreed? insertion of iron rods into this solution to cement the metals within it too, would make a great source of concentrated ore material too, agreed? purified metallic content, free from such things as silica, dirt, other rock types... just pure metal!

hmmm... I wonder what a ton of such a concentrate would produce ?! I should go and cement about 3 or 4 ounces of this material and have an XRF reading done on it!


----------



## geonorts (Mar 8, 2012)

Or you could start at the beginning instead of skipping ahead and get a proper assay and a bit of research. This is the best analogy I could think of; would you bake a cake by putting unknown raw ingredients directly in the oven or would you read the instructions, find out what ingredients you have and do a bit of preparation first. Sorry to be rude but I think you might have something good and I would love to see you develop something from it.


----------



## DarkspARCS (Mar 8, 2012)

Why be rude? :?: 

heh... It's evident you somehow misunderstood what I wrote. Proper assay? I've already had an XRF spectrogram done on the pyrites (Iron pyrite/ chalcopyrite/ arsenopyrite/ galena blend), but need to have one done on the azurites, the plumbojarosite, the cinnabar, the kaolinite, the augite, and the skarn.

The material being discussed here however is the plumbojarosite, a polymetallic replacement deposite ore that literally covers the lower part of my location from floor to cieling, which when placed in water turns from a super hardened rock to silty mud. That ore in turn could thus be leeched for all of it's metal content via cementation onto iron rods, or even that with an electrolytic cell...

Which would, IMHO, effectively concentrate the ore content efficiently and give the process of extracting pm's from this concentrate a big shot in the arm.

what's the problem you see with this?


----------



## Harold_V (Mar 9, 2012)

DarkspARCS said:


> Harold, in your years of experience, have you ever heard of this type of hydrological extraction from raw ore, to be used as an ore concentrate for processing?


No, but that is of little significance in that I am not the least bit versed on mining techniques. 

I do know that Kennecott Copper Corporation used to operate (and most likely still does) a precipitation plant for the recovery of copper. They brought in train car loads of thin scrap steel for cementation of the values. 

Harold


----------



## geonorts (Mar 9, 2012)

Oh okay I didn't read anywhere in the posts that you knew for certain what metals you have and in what concentrations (ppm, ppb, %) I was not aware xrf could do this. It's good that you know what minerals you have and what your deposit type is, and if you know the concentrations of metals then it's just the fun part of choosing what metals are most profitable to recover and the best (not the easiest) way to recover these. I would be interested to see some photos of the deposit and ore as well as the assay results


----------



## geonorts (Mar 9, 2012)

As for your water idea it sounds okay I would try and boost its efficiency a bit with an acid ( H2SO4) would be a good start since your ore is already producing a very weak version


----------



## DarkspARCS (Mar 22, 2012)

Harold_V said:


> DarkspARCS said:
> 
> 
> > Harold, in your years of experience, have you ever heard of this type of hydrological extraction from raw ore, to be used as an ore concentrate for processing?
> ...



=)

I'm a sharp cookie! Thanks for validating that Harold... Kennecott people are some sharp minds when it comes to what they do, and I intend on following through by example. I just planted my notice of location for the site, I've got equipment ready to re open the entrance, and that beautiful ceiling to floor polymetallic ore is gonna educate me in ways I've only dreamed of lol!



> As for your water idea it sounds okay I would try and boost its efficiency a bit with an acid ( H2SO4) would be a good start since your ore is already producing a very weak version



that's an interesting idea - I may try it... I'm thinking more along the lines of adding heat to the solution, to "boil" out the sulpher so as to make the water a more concentrated H2S04 (as I'm sure that concentrated sulphuric values still remain locked in the ore without the use of the heating medium to agitate the ore.) 

after the cementation process completes I'll need to further process the remaining ore to work with the lead and mercury values and get the pm out of them, so this won't be an easy operation for sure.

there's other ore types within this mine as well, such as azurite malachite, cinnabar, augite, kaolinite, etc... I even, just the other day, discovered a rich silver deposit bearing pure silver crystals!



> I would be interested to see some photos of the deposit and ore as well as the assay results



I can help with the picture aspect lol... however the assay results at this time are being held close to the chest - for obvious reasons. you can get a great view of both the ore I'm working with as well as some pictures of the mine Starting here and following through the rest of the thread...

ENJOY!


----------

