# What's the best way to seperate Pyrite from gold?



## Smitty

Hello wiser members.

My name is Andy. I came across this website thru Lazersteves grrreat website. I have a place I go to in the local area for panning and I get a lot of black sand and pyrite mixed in with gold. I'm looking for anyone with answers on how to dissolve the pyrite and leave the gold. The gold I'm getting is salt grain sized gold dust. Any answers would be great.


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## ChucknC

Easiest way, Mix the black sands with an equal amount of uniodized salt. Heat the mixture to scorching hot. Stir the mixture with a glass rod or piece of rebar. You canheat the mixture in a castiron pan if you want to. I'm talking about a red heat on a piece of iron. Dump the mixture in a bucket of ice water. (NOT THE PAN) From there, just pan out the gold or use whatever method you prefer.

The heat drives off the sulpher in the pyrites, and the thermal shock breaks the black sands, releasing more gold. The salt also acts to remove any organics that will discolor the gold. 

Chuck


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## Irons

Nitric acid reacts with sulphides to give free Sulphur, The Nitrate salt of any base metals and free Gold.

In 1970, some friends sent me a wash tub full of pyrite from a Gold mine in Colorado that had been closed since the 19th. Century when the Federal Government closed the Gold mines to raise the price of Gold.

I called them up and asked them how much gold was in it. They didn't know.

I treated it with some dilute HNO3 and panned the sand and gravel that remained. There was about 2 ounces of nuggets and a quarter cup of fine Gold. That was some good ore.

They made over 7 Million the first year. That's 1970 dollars.

Don't use concentrated acid. It releases too many noxious fumes.

Don't do this indoors.


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## Smitty

I'm gonna have to try both methods in the suggestions. Since I have both pyrite and black sand in my material. thnx people


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## Irons

Many contain Arsenic compounds that can ruin your day.


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## Smitty

OK here are some results from an AP solution bath. The solution immediateley started to fizzzzz showing that it was reacting to the Pyrite. It takes a lot of AP to dissolve a little amount of Pyrite. It started to turn a deep yellow to orange color. I actually had to pour it out when the fizzing decreased and pour some fresh AP into the material. The material I was working on was about half a tea spoon of pyrite / black sand mix. I also took a few grain sized pyrite to test the time it took to dissolve a 1mm piece of Pyrite in AP. After 2 hours in the solution it was still very much the same size it was when i left it.


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## Irons

Put it in a container with a loose fitting lit and put it out of the way somewhere outdoors. It may take a few weeks. Occasionally add some more peroxide to replenish the acid. Don't do this indoors. Arsenic poisoning is cumulative. If you can smell the Arsine, it's a lethal level. 0.5 PPM is lethal,140 PPM will kill you in seconds. It may take you a while to stop convulsing but you will be dead just the same.

Chemical reactions double in rate for every 10 Deg. Centigrade rise in temperature, so reactions will take longer as the weather cools.

That material has been sitting in the ground, unaffected for Millions, perhaps Billions of years, so don't expect instantaneous results. Some PGM Sulphides are even unaffected by AR.
Americans suffer from the Digital Camera effect. When Kodak first came out with the Brownie camera, people would take pictures, mail in the camera and two weeks later they were amazed to get their pictures. Now, with Digital Cameras, ten seconds is too long a wait.

Patience is a virtue in this business.


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## goldsilverpro

No offense but, the word "separate" must be the most misspelled word in the English language. At least half of the people on the net write, "seperate." It seems like I see it at least 10 times a day. A close second is "nickel." A lot of times, it is written, "nickle." I'm just as bad, or worse. If I didn't get that red dotted line underneath my misspelled words, my posts would be incomprehensible. Especially with the long words like "incomprehensible." I wish that dotted lines would appear when I use commas wrong. I never know exactly where to put them.


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## aflacglobal

> I wish that dotted lines would appear when I use commas wrong. I never know exactly where to put them.



That's me. Run on sentences. :lol:


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## blueduck

Since Pyrite is Iron, will not HCL or Muriatic put the iron into a solution making an iron chloride ?? leaving any gold out of the solution or will the gold follow suit and need be dropped out by another metal?

William


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## Irons

blueduck said:


> Since Pyrite is Iron, will not HCL or Muriatic put the iron into a solution making an iron chloride ?? leaving any gold out of the solution or will the gold follow suit and need be dropped out by another metal?
> 
> William


Pyrite as found in placer concentrates is rarely Iron Sulphide alone. It could be a complex mixture of metallic sulphides including toxic elements such as Arsenic. In fact, unless you know differently, you should assume that Arsenic is one of the constituents as it is so common.

Pure Iron Sulphide dissolves quite readily in most acids, but unfortunately, you will find that many sulphides are very resistant to digestion.


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## Smitty

I've been messing with dissolving pyrite and leaving gold for about 2 weeks now. It seems as if panning alone is going to be my prefered method right now. It takes a long time to dissolve the pyrite that was present and I was also concerned that I might have dissolved some gold into solution because the gold I as trying to seperate was very small. As soon as I put HCl into the material it did turn a dark yellow and that was before I added the Peroxide.


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## Irons

when panning fine Gold, screen your concentrates to a size close to the size of the Gold. You will lose less that way. 
Be sure your pan and hands are free of oil otherwise it will work like flotation and carry the fines off.
I always pan fines at least 3 times to catch Gold that floated off before.

Fine Gold is a pain but that's all we have around here.


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## DeadDOG

and make sure to add some dawn dish soap to the water. this will keep the fine gold in the bottom of your pan.


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## OMG

Looks like you could use some Thiobacillus bacteria to help you reduce the pyrites to sulfuric acid and iron ions.
Or so I read in wiki


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## mikeore

The best way to deal with Sulphide ore is to 1 move to another spot. Seriously though, the best and cheapest is to roast them. What you are trying to do is drive off the Sulpher (sulfides) Were talking a good long hot roast. It stinks. See 1.


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## austexjwlry

Smitty,

Listen to Irons about arsenic poisoning. The initial poisoning is bad enough. Years later I had the lower half of my right ear surgically removed at the age of 42 because of basal cell skin cancer attributed to arsenic in my system. I was the youngest guy the V.A. had ever seen with this form of cancer at the time. My nose will be next. I have other tumors on my face and behind my right ear and shoulders etc. It's not fun being disfigured because of this stuff. Respect this material! Especially if you use a crusher or hammermill to pulverize this material making it easier to absorb it through your skin.

My exposure to arsenic was due to the negligence of the Penwalt Chemical Corp in Bryan, Texas on Finfeather Rd. The rather large sum of money I recieved in settlement is of course long gone but the cancer remains.

Sincerely,
Wayne


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## Smitty

I've already given up on dissolving pyrite. Thnx anyways austex.


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## geubrina

This is what I am doing now.

Dissolve the pyrite with HCl and heat. Decant the dark yellow solution, then put the fresh HCl and heat again. It is surely a long time.

I think, after this, I will put the remain solids into AR.


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## geubrina

DeadDOG said:


> and make sure to add some dawn dish soap to the water. this will keep the fine gold in the bottom of your pan.



Sorry, but what is dawn dish soap?
My bad English.


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## eagle2

Any kind of liquid soap.

On the sulfide ores, after roasting, try a leach of Sodium Sulfide or Thiourea.
To get info there are references here on the forum or Google these keywords.


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## Shecker

I use to have a mine in which all of the gold was in pyrite. I would roast the ore using only the heat of a campfire. This drives the sulfur off from the pyrite and turns it into magnetic iron. A magnetic separator would yield a clean pyrite concentrate and I would dissolve the iron with H2SO4. Just A thought.

Randy in Gunnison


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## Irons

austexjwlry said:


> Smitty,
> 
> Listen to Irons about arsenic poisoning. The initial poisoning is bad enough. Years later I had the lower half of my right ear surgically removed at the age of 42 because of basal cell skin cancer attributed to arsenic in my system. I was the youngest guy the V.A. had ever seen with this form of cancer at the time. My nose will be next. I have other tumors on my face and behind my right ear and shoulders etc. It's not fun being disfigured because of this stuff. Respect this material! Especially if you use a crusher or hammermill to pulverize this material making it easier to absorb it through your skin.
> 
> My exposure to arsenic was due to the negligence of the Penwalt Chemical Corp in Bryan, Texas on Finfeather Rd. The rather large sum of money I recieved in settlement is of course long gone but the cancer remains.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Wayne



Wayne is right. Always assume that Pyrites contain Arsenic. Even ones with no precious metal content will have some. The question is how much. Hot HCl will generate AsCl3 which is volatile on heating. Arsine is another volatile Arsenic compound. One good breath of it will kill you.
If you find a promising Sulfide deposit, send a sample to an assayer like Acme that can tell you
what the Arsenic content is. The lowest concentration I've seen in these parts was 35 PPM. Not much but still very dangerous for long term exposure.

You may get away with it for a long time but then like me, get a sample loaded with it and that one will get you.
Arsenic poisoning is very painful and you will have no doubt you've been poisoned, especially when your urine starts looking like tomato juice. It hurts.


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## Rag and Bone

Has anyone heard of gold in Pyrite from the midwest? Northern Wisconsin to be more precise. I found a source.

Irons, you must be one tough dude. I hurt just thinking about what you said.


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## Oz

Irons,

If you roast your black sands and pyrite to a red heat and hold it there for 5 or 10 minutes will you have destroyed the toxins so it is safe to proceed with chemical dissolution with out poising yourself? It would be simple to make a rig for roasting ores that would be safe to leave out unattended.


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## Oz

Agreed Rag and Bone! No amount of gold is worth me peeing tomato juice. Just not that tough! :shock:


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## calgoldrecyclers

Oz,
pyrite is not an arsenic ore. arsenopyrite is. also orpiment. and realgar.
identifying the two is fairly simple with easy to do tests. pyrite streak is greenish black, while arsenopyrite is dark grey to black. specific gravity of pyrite is 5.1, while arsenopyrite is 6.1. arsenopyrite hardness is 5.5 to 6. pyrite hardness is 6 to 6.5. 
pyrite when struck with a hammer, sparks, and gives a distinct odor of sulphur ( freshly struck match ). arsenopyrite when struck with a hammer, gives off a smell of garlic. 
pyrites fracture is conchoidal ( like how glass breaks ) 
arsenopyrites fracture is uneven.
arsenopyrite and pyrite are different in color. arsenopyrite is a brassy white to grey, pyrite is brassy yellow. 
hope that dispells any dangers in roasting pyrite.


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## Lou

Rag and Bone said:


> Has anyone heard of gold in Pyrite from the midwest? Northern Wisconsin to be more precise. I found a source.
> 
> Irons, you must be one tough dude. I hurt just thinking about what you said.




That's why he's called "Irons"--tough as iron 


Roasting it is probably the best way to remove the sulfides and make SO2 out of them. Heck, you can even run the SO2 into NaOH water and make some sodium sulfite.


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## Oz

Calgold,

That is great information about the different ores, the problem from my point of view is that all the iron sands I have pulled out of waterways are a mixed lot and of small size. If I was hard rock mining it would be effective testing as you suggest. I even have a reddish pink iron sand I get in one area that will evenly mix in stratifying with your more traditional black sands.

Because of these mixes I am trying to find out what effect the roasting has on the cyanides. I prefer to treat all iron sands as suspect, so I don’t get a “gift” like Irons did.


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## calgoldrecyclers

Oz,
ahh yes. the black sand dillemma. i save everything that i cannot recover and send it off to a smelter to be processed. you know, the micron gold. 400,000 plus colors per ounce. i have seen various methods for recovery of flour and micron gold, but few if any actually work. this is where refining with acid comes into play. unless, you know alot about the hazards and dangers, and are proficient in refining, i would leave it to the refiners. thats what they know. prospecting is what i know. 

when you said you find a reddish pink material in your black sands, is it more reddish than pink? more pinkish than red? a metallic substance? or more like a silicon? i have found more than not that garnets, tourmalines, rubies, and proustites are littered in amongst the black sands. because the specific gravities are identical, i guess. 

have you tried looking at your black sands through magnification? a strong light pointed towards the source helps. what may look like a grain, actually turns out to be a crystal and so forth. 

what do you mean by "cyanides"? do you suspect there to be cyanides intermixed in the black sand?


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## Oz

My bad, I misspoke saying cyanides I meant arsenic. Cyanides are killed even with regular cooking (as in food) temperatures if I remember correctly. 

“when you said you find a reddish pink material in your black sands, is it more reddish than pink? more pinkish than red? a metallic substance? or more like a silicon? i have found more than not that garnets, tourmalines, rubies, and proustites are littered in amongst the black sands. because the specific gravities are identical, i guess”

In my dreams! I have found a few odds and ends like that in other areas but am not a gemoligist like you. Let me tell you about the area; there is an old abandoned mine that I go into that is literally a mountain of near solid hematite/magnetite, I can get solid pieces as big as one wants. There is some oxidized copper here and there as well and some magnetite with small gold iron pyrite crystals. 

Now 10 minutes away at my girfriends house is where I found the reddish/pink sands. Her yard is littered with boulders that are a red sandstone material with river worn quartz in the matrix. Oddly enough there are almost no black sands present here. Last weekend I took a quick sampling using a pie tin of all things, this weekend I will be bringing my screens and pans and see how it classifies with riffles. 

Of note; her driveway was restoned with stone from a local rock quarry. It is a 30% grade so after 6 months of storms I panned some concentrates from the bottom of the hill and found 3 flea bite pieces of gold.


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## calgoldrecyclers

Oz,
it sounds like you might have found gneiss. is it banded? or more like granite? if its gneiss, you wont find any gold with it. if its granitic you have a much beter chance. quarries rarely are aware of striking gold. or a gold vein for that matter. they are interested in the rock and thats about it.
good luck and happy hunting!
Ezra


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## Oz

Not even close, I hope I have my camera with this weekend and will take a picture of a representative rock at her place. This is what I saw in googleing “gneiss” and why I think it is not it. what is here is not banded at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gneiss


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## calgoldrecyclers

Oz,
O.k. well that sounds promissing. are they fairly large boulders? or is it more like river gravel (2 1/2" diameter rocks)? little black specks littered throughout? could be a feldspar biotite. (good indication of minerals present) unfortunately, the soil in and around the areas of houses, usually dosnt come from that area, it is usually shipped in on dump trucks. but, you can be pretty sure it came from somewhere in that area. 
do y'all have horsetails out there? a type of fern that grows out in the woods. google a pic. i have heard that horsetails contain gold. 610 grams for one ton of horsetails. wet weight or dry, i couldnt say. i would guess that you dry and incinerate then process the ashes. you could ceratinly gather a ton a week, not a bad haul at todays prices. 
well, let me know if you obtain a pic, im a little intrigued to know what it is. 
have a good weekend, i'm headed out to my claim.
Ezra


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## calgoldrecyclers

Rag and Bone,
if you have found pyrite, it is a very good indication of gold present. it would be processed as a by product, but gold no less. whenever you find minerals such as calaverite, krennerite, sylvanite, quartz and pyrite, it is a very good indication. just remember, gold is not always the buttery yellow people envision in their minds. depending on the associative minerals and gangue, gold can be tinged red, black, green, silver, brown, reddish brown, etc. gold now adays is processed as a by product of coper, silver and lead ores. with the occaisional open pit, large heap, cyanide leach, micron gold processing. about three percent nationwide, comes from placer deposits. 

when you're out and about, look for copper ores and their associative minerals and scheelite (tungsten) sperrylite (platinum) iridosmine (osmium) but, be careful if you do come across iridosmine, it is poisonous. worse than large doses of arsenic. it is the osmium content that makes it unstable.
it will more than likely be found in grains and flakes in your black sands. 
osmium being the heaviest mineral. SG of 22.5. 

according to my copy of a range guide to mines and minerals, looks like you are in copper country. excellent opportunity for specimen hunting on the old tailings piles. 

if you are looking to understand and identify what you are looking for, i suggest finding and reading a copy of De Re Metallica, by georgious agricola, written in 1557. they have reprinted copies translated into english that wont cost more than twenty or thirty bucks. 
it is definitely a good read. 
hope that helps a little,
Ezra


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## Oz

calgoldrecyclers,

Here are a few pics. This is not locally quarried stone brought in by a developer building houses, only the driveway is imported. The yard is littered with this kind of stone making up over 70% of the “soil” by volume, some as big as a truck. There is a 10 foot wide stream at the bottom of the property and a 30% grade leading down to it the whole way. Any input would be welcomed. 

It looks as if it might quit raining so I am off to the iron mine with a new eye to other minerals.


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## calgoldrecyclers

Oz,
looks like a sandstone conglomerate. it should break and chip off rather easily with a pick axe. the blocky looking rock in the foreground of pic number two, looks like ironstone. a copper bearing gangue material. 
what you want to look for is granite with interdisspersed flecks of a lightish grey mineral. limestone replaced by quartz, and so on. any igneous/ metamorphic rock you can find. smack it apart and notice how the rock fractures. pay close attention to the mineral where the rock has fractured. you will need a loupe to get a good look.

looks like they may have been poison ivy in pic number one, watch where you step!
that stuff is like the plague to me.
good luck on your many ventures and happy hunting!


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## Oz

Calgold,

Ignore the file name these are under. These are not the greatest pictures for color and it was getting dark when taken. These are not representative of the stones found in the iron quarry they were hand picked from a mountain of overburden tailings that are piled up against an exposed rock face of solid magnetite several hundred feet tall. They are predominately green.

In the first picture you can see some of the copper has oxidized from a green to a blue around the iron pyrite crystals (upper cluster) and the lower cluster of coppery colored crystals. 

The second picture shows the green at the bottom transitioning to a silver colored crystalline structure with a small core area of crystalline hematite? Forgot my magnet.

The last picture has bands of dark metallic crystals with the right side cleaved showing the iron face in the green stone. 

There are also some stones that are a purer green that tend to be crumbly. This is just 10 minutes away from the sandstone pic location where the stream yields virtually no black sand. The geology is all shifted around here. There is also one of copper colored fine banding in it. I would love to hear your opinion on these 3 pics as you seem to know more than I and I am just guessing on some parts.

I wish I had more time there but it is now posted, closed off and patroled by the local police. They gave me an escort away. Its too bad as it is a neat area, I did get the new owners name from the officers and will attempt to get written permission to visit again.


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## calgoldrecyclers

Oz,
that greenish looking gangue looks like granite, or perhaps limestone. 
i would suggest breaking off a couple of chunks where the fissures/ veins are and crushing the samples. then you can pan out the samples. from the pics, looks like it may be pyrite, bornite, and perhaps carrolite.(light silver color) often, the presence of pyrite, is an indication of gold within the same host rock or gangue. 

the smaller bands of green, to me, indicate a presence of copper. 
a malachite type of oxidataion. perhaps chrysocolla.
do you know anything about the area? was it a mining district at some point? 

as to the large boulders at your friends house, chip off what you can, grind the samples and pan them out. i suspect you may encounter values.
look for a geological survey for the area you are in. i think that will give you a better idea. it is hard to tell what something is from a picture. 
is the material fairly weighty? 
more so on one end than the other?

let me know what you find out.


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## Anonymous

If the gold values are not locked up in the pyrite simply screen the material down to a fine particle size. Mortar the oversize until it clears the screen and run in a spiral wheel. I usually do this twicw with a steeper angle on the second pass. Remove the magnetic sand with a magnet. Then clean with muriatic acid.................Bob


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## calgoldrecyclers

running a magnet is not such a good idea anymore, because most platinum in placer deposits has a high content of iron. best way to seperate is with a wheel or other gravity device.


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## Anonymous

I use a spiral wheel and always get a little magnetic black sand with the gold. I am in western Montana and don't have any platinum. Although there is platinum in east central Montana near the Stillwater. It is always good to know the minerals in your concentrates. pgm's are generally not there.............Bob

Also some pgms will become magnetic if heated. I am doing gold and will continue to use the magnet........... :?


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## Oz

Calgold,

Sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to this thread. I need to get an iron mortar and pestle then I will do some small acid testing to see just what is in these other than iron. They are indeed heavy as they come from where I used to get my iron ore for smelting. I had just overlooked the stones other than the hematite and magnetite as they were my focus at the time.

I am not in a hurry on these as I have at least temporarily lost access to the site. But I am working on changing that. I will indeed get back to everyone when I find out more.

Thanks all,
Oz


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## calgoldrecyclers

Oz,
no rush here, as it is prospecting season. just two more weeks and i can break out the pumps and hit the rivers. been doing alot of prospecting here lately, been away most weeks myself. just now finished my book. hopefully it will be on the shelves by next spring. if you're on the market for a mortar and pestle, how about an old cast iron pipe cap and an old iron bar? you could even set up a crusher in your back yard made from an iron weight bolted onto a log, set up on a hoist of sorts. 
well, keep me updated on your progress and good luck.
Ezra


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## Oz

Ezra,

For regular crushing the pipe would be fine for small amounts but for good clean separate samples it would be a PITA to clean. 

Now the iron on the log with hoist is starting to sound like a stamp mill. I have no room to talk though, I made a trip hammer similar to that in my younger days for some heavy forging. I miss having the time to play with such projects.


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## geubrina

After reading about the arsenopyrite, it is quite frightening.

But, I have done what I planned with my pyrite.

Firstly, I put the pyrite in HCl, cold. Not much reaction and it seems like no reaction at all, but the solution became yellowish.

Then I crushed the pyrite to fine powder. And put it again in HCl, all the powder dissapear. Solutions became yellow.

So, I guessed, no PGM is in the pyrite.


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## olddannyboy

Hi all I have a question or two I'm new at this, I don't know much about it. After watching Steve's videos I decided to try AP and muriatic acid on ore I had collected in Azusa CA.
This is what I did 
I roasted an small sample( about 50 gr) of that screened ore, in a small glass container I added AP waited till the morning then I added an equal amount of muriatic acid, that produced a reaction, bubbling fizzing and a lot of golden and silver color flakes were floating on the liquid.




Twelve hrs later there is nothing floating on the liquid anymore but when I stir there are many (like my daughter will say gazillions) particles of a golden and silver coloration, going around the trying to go to the bottom of the jar and on top of the gravel







The sand at the bottom of the jar has now a lot black specks that it didn't have before and there are more visible lots of flakes of a golden/pinkish color they are big enough to see with the naked eye, there are bubbles going up from the sand I guess its still reacting the question is how long should I maintain the reaction going, will it be a good idea to smelt this small sample or to do fire assay first, but the main question is, do any of you guys think I'm doing anything wrong? I got gold fever and I cant think straight.
If this test proves successful I'm planning to leach with chlorine and muriatic but that will come later.
Thank you in advance


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## Barren Realms 007

olddannyboy said:


> Hi all I have a question or two I'm new at this, I don't know much about it. After watching Steve's videos I decided to try AP and muriatic acid on ore I had collected in Azusa CA.
> This is what I did
> I roasted an small sample( about 50 gr) of that screened ore, in a small glass container I added AP waited till the morning then I added an equal amount of muriatic acid, that produced a reaction, bubbling fizzing and a lot of golden and silver color flakes were floating on the liquid.
> 
> View attachment 2
> 
> 
> Twelve hrs later there is nothing floating on the liquid anymore but when I stir there are many (like my daughter will say gazillions) particles of a golden and silver coloration, going around the trying to go to the bottom of the jar and on top of the gravel
> 
> View attachment 1
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The sand at the bottom of the jar has now a lot black specks that it didn't have before and there are more visible lots of flakes of a golden/pinkish color they are big enough to see with the naked eye, there are bubbles going up from the sand I guess its still reacting the question is how long should I maintain the reaction going, will it be a good idea to smelt this small sample or to do fire assay first, but the main question is, do any of you guys think I'm doing anything wrong? I got gold fever and I cant think straight.
> If this test proves successful I'm planning to leach with chlorine and muriatic but that will come later.
> Thank you in advance



What are you considering as AP? Because AP is HCL/Peroxide.


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## olddannyboy

I'm trying to remove all base metals from the ore with AP/HCL and I was asking if I was doing something wrong. Am I? Idk.


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## Barren Realms 007

olddannyboy said:


> I'm trying to remove all base metals from the ore with AP/HCL and I was asking if I was doing something wrong. Am I? Idk.



I can't say you are doing wrong, I don't work with rocks but some here do and I have seen them use HCL as their 1st step.

My question is concerning your AP/HCL. Perhaps it is just how you are posting it. How is your AP made up? And if it is AP no need to add the acid in the post, it is confusing.


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## Harold_V

olddannyboy said:


> I'm trying to remove all base metals from the ore with AP/HCL and I was asking if I was doing something wrong. Am I? Idk.


Rarely will you be able to process an ore with acid and accompish your task at a profit. Consumption will be excessive, and results leaving a great deal to be desired. 

Harold


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## olddannyboy

Thank you Harold for your response


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## Richard36

Oz said:


> Calgold,
> 
> Ignore the file name these are under. These are not the greatest pictures for color and it was getting dark when taken. These are not representative of the stones found in the iron quarry they were hand picked from a mountain of overburden tailings that are piled up against an exposed rock face of solid magnetite several hundred feet tall. They are predominately green.
> 
> In the first picture you can see some of the copper has oxidized from a green to a blue around the iron pyrite crystals (upper cluster) and the lower cluster of coppery colored crystals.
> 
> The second picture shows the green at the bottom transitioning to a silver colored crystalline structure with a small core area of crystalline hematite? Forgot my magnet.
> 
> The last picture has bands of dark metallic crystals with the right side cleaved showing the iron face in the green stone.
> 
> There are also some stones that are a purer green that tend to be crumbly. This is just 10 minutes away from the sandstone pic location where the stream yields virtually no black sand. The geology is all shifted around here. There is also one of copper colored fine banding in it. I would love to hear your opinion on these 3 pics as you seem to know more than I and I am just guessing on some parts.
> 
> I wish I had more time there but it is now posted, closed off and patroled by the local police. They gave me an escort away. Its too bad as it is a neat area, I did get the new owners name from the officers and will attempt to get written permission to visit again.




Hello Oz,

Long time no chat.
I am surprised that I have not commented on these photos already.
I was just reading posts in this thread when I saw your photos, and about flipped out over them.
They're seriously indicative of a region that is of serious interest to me.

First off, these photo's indicate an extensive area of hydrothermal alteration.
The sulfides, and the green color produced from extensive heating of the parent Basalt into a version of Greenstone is obvious evidence of that fact.

Have you ever read about Gold associated with Greenstone Facies? 
I have, and have prospected many zones associated with such outcrops, and in fact, that is the primary type of emplacement in my region. Greenstone Facies is one of the ore deposit models that have been extensively researched, and wrote about. 

The green color, aside from being heated by contact metamorphism, could, and probably is being created by the presence of copper, manganese, and possibly nickel. The rusty color is Goethite, an Iron hydroxide produced by the breakdown and weathering of Iron Pyrite. This stain is associated with "Gossons", also called "Iron Hats", and indicate areas well worth further investigation. They often contain Gold, Silver, and Platinum group metals, as well as other metals of value.

This last photo is the one that turns me on. (Ore # 3)
The red band is some sort of iron stone, and is often a high grade gold ore, at least here it is. I panned a handfull of that same reddish ore as gravel from a stream close by, and assayed it. It contained 3 oz of Gold per ton of ore.

It is associated with that same gray to black material with the silvery luster.
I have not done any tests on that material to determine what its precious metal content is, or what metals it contains, but do know that it is associated with Gold, and will contain values the same as the red material. For all I know it may well contain Platinum, most of the PT group ores I have saw were the same silvery gray to black looking material.

I would love to have a chicken egg sized piece to look at that showed the gray to black material with the red material.
Further more, I would like to assay a piece of it just out of curiosity, in order to see exactly how much PM's it contained.

All that I have is marble and smaller sized pieces of the same material, and currently am prospecting natural traps as I go upstream looking for where it is being broke out of the bedrock, and being washed downstream.

I envy you Oz.
You have found a really good outcrop of material.
I want some, Lol!

I hope that this has been helpful, and to hear back from you soon.
Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## Britt82

I know it’s like 10 years later since the beginning of this post but I had to throw this out there for anyone who is currently reading this thread and thinking that when you are roasting the dirt, sand, gravel ore or whatever it is that you’re burning out the sulfides and arsenic and other toxins therefore it’s safe because you’re burning them out… But stop and think about this when you’re roasting those toxins, where do they go? They have to go somewhere, right? They go in the air that you breathe that is how you get that toxic poison into your body! I read once that there’s no gas mask that will assuredly keep those toxins from entering into your body not to mention skin (And if you’re wearing a bodysuit then you also have to have safe handling of the soup when you take it off and have a properly cleaned. But this isn’t even talking about the air balloon that you are polluting creating pack sick chemical into the air . I know I have typos and I don’t care because I have babies crawling on me and dogs jumping and I’m just doing speak to text So hopefully somebody out there read this and I save life


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## Sk8rguy

i know its an old post but on the indication of pyrites and arsenic. The ore I have is arsenopyrite finely disseminated with magnetite,gold,silver,antimony,copper, chromium,cobalt,vanadium,titanium,PGM's,(a little bit of aluminum) and im pretty damned sure some of my dark non magnetic heavies have a thorium oxide(i just dont have a real way to check). i have a small scale method of neutralizing some arsenic values. i first break all the rock ore into 2-3 inch pieces for my hand crusher. *note i do all cold baths.When all is broke to 2-3" i give it the first citric acid bath. some color leaves but not much. usually let soak for a few days. now i decant citric acid let ore dry, and crush. i screen my crushing's and separate powder and re-crush remainder. now this takes a week or 2 depending on how lazy and how much time i have. during this time i have only enough concentrate in a plastic container to layer the bottom and fill the acid to the top of the ore.(like the cementation process) i every few day will (a)decant all and let dry out. (b) agitate and replenish acid with more. when all is said and done the concentrated citric acid can then be watered down and i personally just water the ferns in my yard.(Ferns naturally soak up arsenic)  I have only made maybe a gallon of the stuff never really tested it to be 100% sure but with the studies out there i know its eliminating some of it before i even get to the roasting process.


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## blueduck

Dealing with Arsenic is hardly worth the recovery unless you have really decent precious metal values to recover. The expense of recovery will eat into your efforts and the health risks are not usually worth toying with on a small scale lab experiment even in my opinion when you know it is there in quantity [especially via several trustworthy professional assay results] 

It sucks knowing you have gold values and other possible metals to recover, best to either walk away or find a recovery millsite that is willing to deal with the arsenic and purchase your ore or ore body and then go prospect for a new lode to exploit.

Blueduck
Idaho


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## Palladium

blueduck said:


> Dealing with Arsenic is hardly worth the recovery unless you have really decent precious metal values to recover. The expense of recovery will eat into your efforts and the health risks are not usually worth toying with on a small scale lab experiment even in my opinion when you know it is there in quantity [especially via several trustworthy professional assay results]
> 
> It sucks knowing you have gold values and other possible metals to recover, best to either walk away or find a recovery millsite that is willing to deal with the arsenic and purchase your ore or ore body and then go prospect for a new life to exploit.
> 
> Blueduck
> Idaho



Well back Duck!
Long time, no see!


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## blueduck

Palladium said:


> blueduck said:
> 
> 
> 
> .......
> 
> Blueduck
> Idaho
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Well back Duck!
> Long time, no see!
Click to expand...


I reckon it has been long enough, was hoping folks might remember I was here learning from the best if the best awhile back.... nice to see you remembered too.... I read you have a new interest yer chawing and am following that thread too. 
On my fone this forum is difficult to navigate.... and read.

William
Idaho


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## DarkspARCS

Richard36 said:


> Oz said:
> 
> 
> 
> Calgold,
> 
> Ignore the file name these are under. These are not the greatest pictures for color and it was getting dark when taken. These are not representative of the stones found in the iron quarry they were hand picked from a mountain of overburden tailings that are piled up against an exposed rock face of solid magnetite several hundred feet tall. They are predominately green.
> 
> In the first picture you can see some of the copper has oxidized from a green to a blue around the iron pyrite crystals (upper cluster) and the lower cluster of coppery colored crystals.
> 
> The second picture shows the green at the bottom transitioning to a silver colored crystalline structure with a small core area of crystalline hematite? Forgot my magnet.
> 
> The last picture has bands of dark metallic crystals with the right side cleaved showing the iron face in the green stone.
> 
> There are also some stones that are a purer green that tend to be crumbly. This is just 10 minutes away from the sandstone pic location where the stream yields virtually no black sand. The geology is all shifted around here. There is also one of copper colored fine banding in it. I would love to hear your opinion on these 3 pics as you seem to know more than I and I am just guessing on some parts.
> 
> I wish I had more time there but it is now posted, closed off and patroled by the local police. They gave me an escort away. Its too bad as it is a neat area, I did get the new owners name from the officers and will attempt to get written permission to visit again.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hello Oz,
> 
> Long time no chat.
> I am surprised that I have not commented on these photos already.
> I was just reading posts in this thread when I saw your photos, and about flipped out over them.
> They're seriously indicative of a region that is of serious interest to me.
> 
> First off, these photo's indicate an extensive area of hydrothermal alteration.
> The sulfides, and the green color produced from extensive heating of the parent Basalt into a version of Greenstone is obvious evidence of that fact.
> 
> Have you ever read about Gold associated with Greenstone Facies?
> I have, and have prospected many zones associated with such outcrops, and in fact, that is the primary type of emplacement in my region. Greenstone Facies is one of the ore deposit models that have been extensively researched, and wrote about.
> 
> The green color, aside from being heated by contact metamorphism, could, and probably is being created by the presence of copper, manganese, and possibly nickel. The rusty color is Goethite, an Iron hydroxide produced by the breakdown and weathering of Iron Pyrite. This stain is associated with "Gossons", also called "Iron Hats", and indicate areas well worth further investigation. They often contain Gold, Silver, and Platinum group metals, as well as other metals of value.
> 
> This last photo is the one that turns me on. (Ore # 3)
> The red band is some sort of iron stone, and is often a high grade gold ore, at least here it is. I panned a handfull of that same reddish ore as gravel from a stream close by, and assayed it. It contained 3 oz of Gold per ton of ore.
> 
> It is associated with that same gray to black material with the silvery luster.
> I have not done any tests on that material to determine what its precious metal content is, or what metals it contains, but do know that it is associated with Gold, and will contain values the same as the red material. For all I know it may well contain Platinum, most of the PT group ores I have saw were the same silvery gray to black looking material.
> 
> I would love to have a chicken egg sized piece to look at that showed the gray to black material with the red material.
> Further more, I would like to assay a piece of it just out of curiosity, in order to see exactly how much PM's it contained.
> 
> All that I have is marble and smaller sized pieces of the same material, and currently am prospecting natural traps as I go upstream looking for where it is being broke out of the bedrock, and being washed downstream.
> 
> I envy you Oz.
> You have found a really good outcrop of material.
> I want some, Lol!
> 
> I hope that this has been helpful, and to hear back from you soon.
> Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".
Click to expand...


I have to second the words of the Rock Man regards the ore samples depicted by Oz. You possess what appears to be Archaen greenstone, which the world over has been notable for possessing dynamic amounts of gold and platinum values.

Here are some of my recent greenstone deposit discoveries that have revealed themselves as possessive of quantified amounts of gold, silver and pgm within them....


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