# Some Interesting Mining Equipment



## rusty (Jan 19, 2011)

Some interesting files related to concentrating ore fractions recovered from mining.

Of particular interest to me is Osterberg’s E-tower which is included in the archived file but uploaded separately for those with limited bandwidth. I think the tower has a lot of potential for concentrating values from incinerated and milled ic's.


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## amosfella (Jan 19, 2011)

Could one add a bit of cooking oil and soap to the water, and use compressed air from below, and float the gold off the top, rather than letting it settle to the bottom?? I suppose one would have to empty the sand out more often... Just thinking about an idea...


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## rusty (Jan 19, 2011)

Here's one for you, Gold-paraffin wax floatation – 1990s research in Brazil


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## rusty (Jan 19, 2011)

Another floatation method, Oleophilic adhesion – 1980s research in Alberta


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## rusty (Jan 19, 2011)

And another flotation method, Froth floatation – 1930s research in Idaho and USSR


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## rusty (Jan 19, 2011)

Last one, Agglomeration – 1980s research in Australia and China


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## rusty (Jan 19, 2011)

This works because fine gold is hydrophobic (resists water-wetting) and oleophilic
(easily wetted by oils). CGA only works with fine gold.

Diamonds are also hydrophobic, they use grease on the conveyor to capture the diamonds. 

Does anyone here know how many of the precious metals are hydrophobic. This is where my research now leads me as I suspect that my interests stray to far from the path of most of our forum members.

Just the same I would be interested in hearing back from those that develop and interest, my goal is to concentrate the values from milled cats and that from ic's.

For the curious I have attached a document I recently found.


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## turtlesteve (Jan 21, 2011)

Any clean (not oxidized) pure metal would be hydrophobic. However, from a practical standpoint you never have clean surfaces on most metals unless you cut them under a vacuum environment. For example stainless steel, aluminum, etc. passivate immediately by forming oxide layers on the surface. This oxide protects the underlying metal but because it is a charged surface it attracts water.

Gold is hydrophobic because it retains this clean surface (it doesn't react with water or air). Likewise any metal (or pure elemental solid) that retains a clean surface would also be hydrophobic. Gold and diamond meet this condition - platinum and the other PGM metals are prone to chemisorption leading to charged surfaces (this is related to catalyst properties - PGMs are good at catalysis but gold is not). However, this chemisorption could be reversed by heating. So, as a final answer: platinum flakes will "float" like gold under some conditions (particularly if they have been recently heated) but they may not retain this ability the way gold does.

Steve


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