# Wash Plant for Cleaning Ore? What do you use?



## Ferrell (Feb 2, 2012)

We've crushed our ore down to about 200-300 mesh....some a little coarser, but most in that range. We've been washing in a homemade sluice box because we've only been doing experiments so far on small batches. We're ready to start processing 30-50 lbs at a time and it's not practical to keep up the way we're going. The ore has a lot of dirt in it and needs to be cleaned. We don't have tons of money, but could buy something reasonably priced (hopefully used) if anyone has any suggestions for a small wash plant (we don't want a huge machine). 

Thanks!


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## trashmaster (Feb 2, 2012)

Welcome to the best forum on the internet... :lol: 

Lets start with where is the gold ??? in the ore or in the dirt??

If your gold is in the ore and you are crushing :| I would guess that you are not getting all your gold .. :roll: 

The only way to recover your gold out of ore 100% would be using chemicals (some you may not want to use)


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## Ferrell (Feb 2, 2012)

trashmaster said:


> Welcome to the best forum on the internet... :lol:
> 
> Lets start with where is the gold ??? in the ore or in the dirt??
> 
> ...



The gold is mostly in the ore with a small amt in the dirt. We've been using SSN, butyl and oxalic to recover it, as well as a thiosulfate leach, but the mud that's created makes it very difficult to filter and recover all of the leach, especially in the SSN leach. We're far enough along in the process to know we need to clean it, but we're also concerned that we'll be washing colloidal gold off since our crusher takes it down to very fine particles. We're thinking we made need to get a small crusher that only takes it to about 100 mesh or bigger, wash, then run through a ball mill or back through our crusher to finish, as we need it 200-300 mesh for the chemical process and subsequent electrowinning. Just hoping others might have some suggestions on a smaller type unit for cleaning and concentrating. Altho we don't want to concentrate down to black sands, as we'll be losing gold that way, too. It's bound in much of the ore, not just the black sand.


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## solarsmith (Feb 2, 2012)

200 to 300 mesh is verry small for trying a gravity recovery.(read the 75ways) but just right for a froth recovery with a gravity cleanup just befor the tails pond.
contact snf flomin , tell them what you have and the will send you an asortment of reagents that you can use in a homemade froth cell. if your a large mill they will test your ore for you and get your recovery up to a realy good grade... a home made froth cell can be made with a trash can ,drill, paint stirrer and a shop vac. this will do 50 lb batches with out the risk of loss of any ore. there are 100s of over the counter reagents that can be used too. last night I stumbled onto boiled starch as a depresant for silica!
I have not done an assay yet to see how well it works but I could see in the froth that a lot of stuff (silica) was no longer reporting to the froth phase in the cell. your gole should be 20 plus oz per ton pgms. I have heard of recoverys well over 200 oz of pgms per ton. If you can get it to the 20 oz per ton point ,you will have no trouble selling it as is at 98% value. or then it would be economic to chem treat to concentrate further. 

thanks Bryan in denver colorado 303 503 4799


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## nickvc (Feb 3, 2012)

I know nothing about ores but do know the refining business and I'm just checking you have your figures right when you state you will get 98% of the value for a concentrate if sold. I find that very hard to believe as many refiners will only pay that for assayed bars or marked karat scrap if in volume. If I'm wrong please correct me and indicate who would be willing to pay that sort of return.

Corrected for spelling.


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## Ferrell (Feb 3, 2012)

solarsmith said:


> 200 to 300 mesh is verry small for trying a gravity recovery.(read the 75ways) but just right for a froth recovery with a gravity cleanup just befor the tails pond.
> contact snf flomin , tell them what you have and the will send you an asortment of reagents that you can use in a homemade froth cell. if your a large mill they will test your ore for you and get your recovery up to a realy good grade... a home made froth cell can be made with a trash can ,drill, paint stirrer and a shop vac. this will do 50 lb batches with out the risk of loss of any ore. there are 100s of over the counter reagents that can be used too. last night I stumbled onto boiled starch as a depresant for silica!
> I have not done an assay yet to see how well it works but I could see in the froth that a lot of stuff (silica) was no longer reporting to the froth phase in the cell. your gole should be 20 plus oz per ton pgms. I have heard of recoverys well over 200 oz of pgms per ton. If you can get it to the 20 oz per ton point ,you will have no trouble selling it as is at 98% value. or then it would be economic to chem treat to concentrate further.
> 
> thanks Bryan in denver colorado 303 503 4799




Thanks, Bryan. We're not trying for gravity recovery at all, as we have very little free gold. At this point we're just wanting to clean the worst of the dirt out of the ore so we can chemically process it for both gold and silver. We don't want to send it out.

You lost me on the froth cell. I'm not at all familiar with that. Could you be a bit more detailed on how that works?


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## solarsmith (Feb 4, 2012)

I have included a pic I hope its the right one.
this is the froth cell I have made for continuios feed and discharge.
it works with water air and and water soluable oils. there are 100s of ways to make the froth and 100s of chems that can be added to act as colectors, depressants, frothers, and modifiers, I have done one test so far with a very crude frother and vacume setup and was able to upgrade the ore from 0.13 to 0.39 opt gold. Now I am working on finding a good depresant for the silica that is reporting to the concentrate. A few days ago I tried boiled starch and it seamed to work very well (another assay to do)...
you can call SNF flomin and they will send you an asortment of reagents you can test for your self. Flotation works very well with sulfide type ores and also with oxide too . read the 75 recovery methods (found in scrbid) It sould tell you every thing you need to know about what grind size works with what method. thanks Bryan in Denver Colorado 303 503 4799


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## Ferrell (Feb 4, 2012)

Thanks so much, Bryan. We've looked up the company you suggested and plan on calling them Monday. Sure appreciate the picture and additional information. 

Miralee and Allen Ferrell


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## ashir (Mar 12, 2021)

solarsmith said:


> I have included a pic I hope its the right one.
> this is the froth cell I have made for continuios feed and discharge.
> it works with water air and and water soluable oils. there are 100s of ways to make the froth and 100s of chems that can be added to act as colectors, depressants, frothers, and modifiers, I have done one test so far with a very crude frother and vacume setup and was able to upgrade the ore from 0.13 to 0.39 opt gold. Now I am working on finding a good depresant for the silica that is reporting to the concentrate. A few days ago I tried boiled starch and it seamed to work very well (another assay to do)...
> you can call SNF flomin and they will send you an asortment of reagents you can test for your self. Flotation works very well with sulfide type ores and also with oxide too . read the 75 recovery methods (found in scrbid) It sould tell you every thing you need to know about what grind size works with what method. thanks Bryan in Denver Colorado 303 503 4799


Thats awesome. What rpm your drill rotate and impeller setting/diameter inside drum? havent seen any Air supply.


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