# Question about Mining Concentrators- Table vs. Jig vs. Wheel



## Photobacterium (Jan 27, 2012)

/\ Gold Genie Spiral Wheel.






/\ Diagram of Duplex Jig






/\ Vibrating tables at the Bjorkdahl facility in Sweden.


*My Question - which mining recovery tool is best for flour gold ?* By 'flour gold' I mean particles that are approximately .001 inches in size, 25 microns. By 'mining recovery tool' I mean, tools that utilize gold's density & water to accomplish the initial separation.

For the sake of completeness, I will also mention the blue bowl.

The spiral wheel (e.g. Gold Genie) is impressive in a demonstration, using gold flakes & black sand. But - the ore I have access to has a much smaller particle size than the gold flakes used in a demonstration at a mining supply store

In one thread at finishing.com -
http://www.finishing.com/200/33.shtml

there is a conversation about how to reduce surface tension, to reduce the tendency of gold to float. Soap & Vinegar are mentioned as additives.

*Question #2 - what additives increase recoverability of flour gold, when used with a concentrator that relies on density & water for separation ?*


From a theory point of view, if mercury/amalgam is useful in such a situation, sure I'd like to hear about it. But I won't use mercury ... I would like to find the tools that don't rely on mercury.

In terms of quantity of ore, I have a few tons, stored in the ground & in 5 gallon buckets, concrete mixing tubs, etc.


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## HAuCl4 (Jan 27, 2012)

Photobacterium said:


> In terms of quantity, I have a few tons, stored in 5 gallon buckets.


How many is "few" ?.

If you are intent on gravity concentration, centrifugal devices like the Knelson Concentrator are the state-of-the-art. They have a very small unit for prospectors. They aren't cheap.

Between 1 ton and 1 billion tons of material, I'd just use cyanide leaching, in tanks or in heap. Or chlorine leaching if quantities are a dozen tons or less and I want to be environmentally friendly.


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## Photobacterium (Jan 27, 2012)

HAuCl4 said:


> Photobacterium said:
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> 
> > In terms of quantity, I have a few tons, stored in 5 gallon buckets.
> ...



thanks for the reply !

"few" is good old-fashioned few - 2 to 3 tons.

By Chlorine Leaching do you mean the combination of Muriatic Acid (31.5% HCl) and Clorox, a la Steve's video on processing gold fingers ?


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## HAuCl4 (Jan 27, 2012)

Photobacterium said:


> HAuCl4 said:
> 
> 
> > Photobacterium said:
> ...


http://webpages.charter.net/kwilliams00/bcftp/docs/halides.htm

A. K. Williams is/was a small prospector and hands-on chemist and his website has a lot of useful information for prospectors and small miners.

http://webpages.charter.net/kwilliams00/bcftp/front.htm

If you only have 2-3 tons of dirt and a lot of gold in there, these methods will not work well, and you are better off smelting...


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## Photobacterium (Jan 27, 2012)

i'm enjoying his website.

here's part of what he says about sulfides,

"Have any of you ever been to a "beer and egg party"? A keg of beer and a great quantity of hard-boiled eggs? The next day you are a bit bloated, gaseous, or in scientific terms, "flatulent". When you, as the English say, "pass wind", this is the odor of sulfides being dispelled from the heated ore. When the odor of sulfur is no longer apparent, you can continue to your extraction method.

The time-honored way to deal with sulfides is to boil them off with heat.

Just get some roofing metal, get it up off the ground with a few rocks etc and build a good fire under it. Spread your material on the metal and let it cook. When you don’t smell anymore sulfur, process it."

... as a closet Blazing Saddles fan, and a closet pyromaniac - heck, this is AWESOME ! 8)


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## RGJohn (Jan 29, 2012)

My advice would be to try each one on your particular material and determine the results. Find somebody who has these pieces of equipment and you could test your stuff on each one.
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Jigs usually drop out coarser stuff... and the media ( steel balls usually) must be sized to the anticipated gold particle size. Wheels are great for ultra-fines but even once you have them, they are basically worth nothing 'cause all you have is that one little dab. Tables work on free gold but again they like larger sizes although they adjust ( tilt, stroke, riffle design, water flow) fines get lost.
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Mercury is out. Forget it. 
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Now I will suggest even yet another option. Flotation using pine oil. It's legal (VERY important) as pine oil is biodegradable and it floats clean gold very well indeed. Fines right on up to flakes. ( My definition of flakes is 'too small to pick up with fingers but easily done with tweezers'). Think of a bubble bath where the soap is pine oil and your gold is being attached to and carried upon the bubbles.


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## solarsmith (Jan 29, 2012)

floatation has been reported to be 100% for gold 150 mesh or smaller
and that was free gold (non sulfide) for sulfide ore. floatation should work even better.
Thanks BRYAN in denver Colorado


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