# Pureness of placer gold after melting



## Roy (Apr 6, 2010)

what's the normal pureness of placer gold after melting it? and I'm going to assume that washing the gold won't get all the black sand that might stick to the gold how could I remove that? and yes I'm still reading hokes book I should have been done with it a long time ago but I'm getting things planned and ready for this summer since I'm going to be one busy person. Summer entails of gold panning, opal mining, garnet mining, more gold panning (mostly blue bowl), and possibly taking a trip to Arkansas to diamond park. 

And where could I find gold ring setting I plan to make my fiancees wedding ring but if I can't find what I'm looking for I'm sure I'll be really busy during winter too for gold panning.


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## manorman (Apr 6, 2010)

it all depends on were the placer gold comes from, GA and alabama very pure 22K to 24K, gold in California and Alaska 16K to 18K if i remember right.
MIke


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## Roy (Apr 6, 2010)

so i'm looking at about the same as cali and alaska then since I live in oregon.


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## AKDan (Apr 6, 2010)

I think you will find that the purity of the placer gold will have as much, or more, to do with the source and the associated minerals it formed with, rather than simply the state it was found in. My placer mine in Alaska is consistently producing 920 gold with the remainder being silver. It is so consistent that the refinery simply pays out at that rate without more than 1 assay charge per year.

That said, there are a lot of locations in Alaska that the placer is only 50% gold at best.


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 6, 2010)

It can vary a lot, even in locations that are fairly close to each other. In the 70s, we refined for a customer in Alaska with a big placer operation whose gold ran about 96% pure.


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## Roy (Apr 7, 2010)

ya i'm just try'n to get and idea since i don't have a furnace i'll more and likely sell the gold raw until i can get enough to buy one, and finding out i'm going to need a license to posses nitric acid and all that stuff i need for refining I'm gonna be stuck with melting the gold with out running it threw the acid works.


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## Harold_V (Apr 7, 2010)

Unless you have a huge volume of material to melt, you have little need for a furnace. I'm assuming you have placer that is relatively free of contamination, however. If your objective is to melt black sands that contain gold, I think you're in for a rough ride. 

By using a large melting dish and an oxy/acetylene torch, you should be able to melt, easily, ten troy ounces of placer gold, along with some borax. The borax will trap the non-metallics, leaving you with clean gold alloy. Pour the molten metal to a cone mold, for easy separation from the borax. If you don't have a cone mold, I strongly suggest you invest in one. They are commonly available from assay supply stores. If you don't find a large one, one that will contain more than a couple ounces, insure that you get one with multiple cavities, so you can pour anything you melt.

Harold


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## Roy (Apr 7, 2010)

Thanks Harold, no I don't plan to even mess with black sand that stuff will just be tossed in some brier bushes behind the house. I am hoping to have a huge volume hoping lol since I will be at this the whole summer. I'm getting a list made right now for stuff i'm going to need since I won't be just going to one spot i'll be hitting about 10 different places that I know have gold. once everything is set and the snow is melted I'll keep everyone posted on my adventure. :mrgreen:


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## Richard36 (Aug 14, 2010)

Roy,

If they re-open the gate going up the Calapooia, I'd like for us to go up to the spot I told you about, where the river sediment contains so much black sand that the soil is rusty, and sluice or dredge that 15' by 12' section of river down to Hardpan.

Not sure how much Gold we would recover, but it looks like a good spot.

Just a thought.


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## demons26 (Aug 21, 2010)

hey rick it's roy. mining claims are 189.00 :shock: I'm sure we can get it lowered it's the maintenance fee that's the killer they want 140.00. http://www.blm.gov/or/pubroom/files/ORWA-BLM-MINING-PACKET.pdf here's where i found everything from.


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## Richard36 (Aug 21, 2010)

demons26 said:


> hey rick it's roy. mining claims are 189.00 :shock: I'm sure we can get it lowered it's the maintenance fee that's the killer they want 140.00. http://www.blm.gov/or/pubroom/files/ORWA-BLM-MINING-PACKET.pdf here's where i found everything from.



Ouch!

That's rather steep.
Let's hope that the assay numbers are high on the sulfides from the deposit that we found.
We shall find out soon enough. 

Remember to bring the digital camera with us so that we can take a photo of the pocket load that we found and post it here for others to look at.

See you when you get here.

Sincerely; Rick."The Rock Man".


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