# how to melt gold dust and gold nuggets into pure gold?



## Anonymous

Hi, Anybody who know how to melt gold dust and gold nuggets into pure gold? Thank you for your imformation.


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## Harold_V

You don't. If you're talking about gold found in nature, it's rarely found in the pure state---it's usually alloyed with silver, and often copper. along with other elements. 

You can not melt metals and separate them by gravity, with rare exception. Gold, silver and copper will not stratify once mixed. 

You should study this forum, then purchase a copy of Hoke's book, Refining Precious Metal Wastes, which will give you good and proper instruction on separating the elements included with placer gold. 

What you need to do is refine the gold by chemical means. Turning it pure with heat is beyond your ability-----and very dangerous. It involves the use of chlorine gas. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro

Harold,

How many times, over the years, have you heard someone ask, "How do you refine gold? Just melt it down?"

penanghill, Welcome!

No offense. Common mistake. You'll learn fast on this forum

Are you from Penang? I made a few glorious trips there.


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## Harold_V

goldsilverpro said:


> Harold,
> 
> How many times, over the years, have you heard someone ask, "How do you refine gold? Just melt it down?"



While I don't recall the particular post, that was proposed here not too long ago. 

Yeah, it's a commonly held belief by many, even some that should know better. Melting gold can improve it's quality, but only under the proper conditions, and with limited results. 

One of the other myths that would be best discarded is the use of soda ash in melting pure gold. It's a reducer, and will convert oxides of metals that might have been absorbed by flux instead of being added back in the gold when it's melted. It is an excellent agent to use when alloyed gold is melted. It helps avoid changing the alloy by not permitting the base metals to be eliminated through oxidization. 

While fluxing gold when it's melted can be beneficial, the ultimate situation is to produce gold of high enough quality that it needs none. That, of course, demands outstanding procedures and practice in the refining process, and is learned only by considerable trial and error. Often, old bad habits must be eliminated. 

Sorry, penanghill, I should have offered you a welcome to the forum. Please accept a belated one!

Harold


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## ChucknC

As a small scale miner, I can tell this about nugets: NEVER melt them. They are worth more as a specimien than the value of the gold content. I have seen nugets with "character" auction for upwards of 3X spot prices. Most others, that I have seen, auction for at least 1.5X spot.

Moral of this story, don't melt the nuggies.

Chuck


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## Harold_V

That's particularly true as the size increases. While there's a market for small nuggets, they become increasingly rare as size increases. Only a fool would melt large nuggets for gold content----when collecting value is as you allude, and there's a ready market for them. 

By contrast, as a refiner, I have processed a fair amount of placer gold in my day. The customer is always right! 

In one case, the volume of nuggets was large enough that I withheld my pay in nugget form, and still have them today. I couldn't bring myself to destroy all of them.

Harold


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## Anonymous

Highly appreciate to you all yours attention and clear information.

Best Wishes to you all.


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## ChucknC

Here is a good reason Not to melt down nuggets and specimiens: :shock: 
http://www.stacks.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00067979

Then again, it is an extreme rarity.
:wink: 
Chuck


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## Anonymous

A newbie here. I have source of low karot flake. Iron being the main metal. Im currently wrapping the flake in tissue then soaking in alcohol and then torching in a crucible. The gold beeds up but the iron only burns down to black crusties. I then pull the mass out of the crucible and put it in water. I then put the black mass in a towel and smack it with a hammer. Im finding little gold beeds inside. Is there an easier way? I prefer not using acids but am thinking of building a furnace to get my temps up. Secondly I have a source of bench sweeps, am I able to burn of debris with a propane furnace? All advice is appreciated. thanks


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## Harold_V

shlari1 said:


> I have a source of bench sweeps, am I able to burn of debris with a propane furnace?



What is your purpose? If you'd like to incinerate the sweeps, then melt them to recover the values for re-use, that's not a good idea. 

I spent years refining jeweler's wastes. Even relatively clean filings are contaminated with substances that degrade the quality of gold when it's melted for re-use. I'm not talking about wax and other carbonaceous matter, but other metals, iron in particular, shed from files, gravers, and saw blades. 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with bench waste, even polishing residues. What you should do is learn to properly refine them, so the end product isn't suspect. 

Are you familiar with Hoke's book, Refining Precious Metal Wastes?

If you are not, do yourself a favor and purchase a copy. Expect to pay about $75 for one----even a reprint, which is acceptable. This book is likely the finest text published for teaching a novice how to refine, how to make test solutions, how to test metals, and what chemicals are involved, and how to handle them safely. 

Sorry, I can't help with the other project. I'm not a chemist, and concentrated my efforts on refining waste materials. 

Harold


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## Irons

Iron and Gold have an affinity for each other and easly alloy. Iron-Gold alloys are often found in nature.
Melting them together just adds more difficulty. Sweeps are finely divided metals, an ideal state for refining. Why make more work for yourself?


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## tutorus

Hi Refiners.
I've got few grams of small nuggets and was thinking about melting them.
Now, i understand that it is not a matter of just put some borax in the melting dish and exterminate the little rocks. the melting dishes are not completely clean. 
Also I had noticed that even small nuggets are better paid than refined bars.
I'ts contradicting that pure refined gold can be cheaper than natural found gold!
It does make a kind of weird sense. but sense after all.

By the way, never try anything with so called gold flakes bought on ebay. They are copper with no gold contains . I wonder how they make them? I had an expensive lesson when trying to melt them.
Good day,
tutorus


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## Anonymous

http://www.mineralatlas.com/mineral%20photos/G/gold%20cp.htm


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## aflacglobal

tutorus said:


> I wonder how they make them? I had an expensive lesson when trying to melt them.
> Good day,
> tutorus



Someone gave a lesson on how to do that a few days ago. If you are talking about the vials with floating gold in it. Gold leaf foil cut into small strips and i think they said,mineral oil was it ?

Found It. :arrow: http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=9281&highlight=#9281


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## Anonymous

Hi Guys. I'm new here, but not new to gold. I've been prospecting for the ellusive metal for 40 years. I agree with what's been said about not melting nuggets, but fine gold flakes are usually not worth more than spot. In fact, most gold buyers only pay around 75% of spot for small flakes. So, a person may be better off to screen out his fine gold and refine it. That's what I do. I screen to minus 20 (window screen) and anything smaller than that goes into the pot. I heard once that 99% of the gold found will go through a window screen. That doesn't seem to be true here in AZ. The ratio is more like 70%. So, I have done a lot of buttons. Melting buttons is not the best way to handle things though if you are lookiing for "pure" gold. The best way is to refine it with Aqua Regia. And fine flakes react a lot faster and more throughly to the acid than will a melted lump. Hope this helps.
........ rf


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## indecency

good idea


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## goldenchild

goldsilverpro said:


> Harold,
> 
> How many times, over the years, have you heard someone ask, "How do you refine gold? Just melt it down?"
> 
> penanghill, Welcome!
> 
> No offense. Common mistake. You'll learn fast on this forum
> 
> Are you from Penang? I made a few glorious trips there.



Yep. Its the same story when I'm buying gold from someone. 

Seller- What do you do with the gold?
Me- I refine it.
Seller- Oh you melt the gold? :shock: 
Me* No I use nitric acid and hydrochloric acid
Seller- *blank look* :| 

It actually gets annoying after a while so I just say I'm gonna make jewelry out of it or something. And of course what do they ask when I tell them that? You guessed it. "Oh you melt the gold?" Where did the idea of if you melt gold down it becomes pure come from anyway? Even before I ever thought of refining I could put together that if you melt gold down all that happens is it turns into the shape you melt it into. An ice cube doesnt become pure if you melt it.

Anyway... welcome to the forum penanghill. Harold has mentioned buying Hoke's book but you can also download it from here http://tinyurl.com/mfnyhs


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