# black sand wont dissolve



## gobot (Sep 15, 2012)

I have been working with an ore concentrate and trying to remove the black sand. The concentrate has the magnetics removed. I cant seem to get this black sand to dissolve. The mineral is in the 200-300 mesh range. I have pre-leached with hot HCL and all that seems to do is to make appear more shiny metallic under scope. It appears pitted and angular under 100x magnification. It wont even dissolve in AR. Any ideas for DIY testing on this material.


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## patnor1011 (Sep 15, 2012)

Do you have assay on your concentrate? In there you will see what is in a mix.


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## galenrog (Sep 15, 2012)

I would suggest, in addition to searching and taking notes from this forum, that you join and learn from the gold prospecting and small scale mining forums out there. From them you will learn quite a lot about types of ores, ore treatment, fluxes for smelting and why the flux mix is just a bit different for each type of ore. You will learn here and at the various gold mining forums why refining techniques are rarely adequate for separation of gold from ores.

Here at goldrefingforum, most information is centered around refining, and if you want to know about the steps that come before that in the mining game, you should to go to the miners.

While many here at our forum will give you good advice, only a relative few have experience with mining, ore treatment, and smelting.

I, in addition to learning from this forum regarding refining, have been involved in small scale mining of free milling ores, and small scale placering for several years, with interests going back decades. I dig, process, concentrate, and smelt my own ores and became a lurker here so I could learn how to get top dollar for my gold. Little did I know...

Go, learn, have fun.


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## Geo (Sep 15, 2012)

black sands is not just pyrite and magnetite and sulfides. theres also gem stones, ruby, garnet, quartz for instance. these crystalline features will not dissolve in acid. if you have found visible gold from the concentrates, theres a good chance that theres going to be gold that you cant see. the only sure way to know what it contains and how much is to have a sample assayed. if you are a member of either the GPAA or LDMA, they each provide five free assays per year. if not, you can send a sample in to have it assayed at any large mining operation or mine lab. normally, the price for a fire assay runs around $25-$35 dollars per sample depending on who you send it to.


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