# separating visible gold from ore



## aussie gold (Nov 28, 2010)

Hi. I have a lot of large quartz stones which I line my fire grate with (initially to cut down the speed at which the fire was burning fuel). I have a roaring fire every evening. When I take the stones out, there seems to be lots of gold which wasn't visible when I put them in. Question 1. would the fire 'sweat out' pyrite or is it all likely to be gold?
I read here that if nitric acid doesn't dissolve it then it is gold. I read up on the romans method and so I pour vinegar over the hot stones and they just crumble quite easily. The 'gold' is very visible but how can I separate it from the rest of the crumbled ore? I dont have shaking tables etc. Is there somewhere I could send the crumbled ore to be processed? Many thanks for your help


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## butcher (Nov 28, 2010)

I would (use a sample) take and grind to powder, leach this powdered Quartz (silica) with HCL/bleach, heat a small portion to rid the free chlorine, test with stannous chloride.


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## aussie gold (Nov 29, 2010)

Is there a simple way to make stan chloride (ie with common products)? I found a chimney cleaner powder with sodium nitrate and added non iodised water, and the powdered ore. Is this the same as nitric acid?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Nov 29, 2010)

aussie gold said:


> Is there a simple way to make stan chloride (ie with common products)? I found a chimney cleaner powder with sodium nitrate and added non iodised water, and the powdered ore. Is this the same as nitric acid?



Dissolve some 95/5 plumbers solder in HCL.


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## aussco999 (Nov 29, 2010)

Hey aussie gold:

It sounds like you lack the experience to identify precious metal in ore (no offense meant), so at this point in this investigation, forget about the acid leaching as they aren't very effective on head ore. What you really need to focus on at this time is producing a larger concentration of your suspected heavy metals.

Yes, it's possible that the quartz contained gold and/or a gold/pyrite combination and the continual fire exposed the metal. So, the next step in this adventure should be crushing and pulverizing the ore to reach the liberation point of the suspected metals, and then grab your trusty old miner's pan (or any flat pie pan) and very carefully try panning out the heavies.

When you have a larger sample of concentrates, then come back to us with your results (and photos if possible) so we can give you a more useful answer toward the next step of leaching or smelting recovery.

I personal hope that you found the Mother Lode, good luck, :lol: 

John


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## aussie gold (Nov 30, 2010)

Thank you all for your input so far. Butcher, I didn't get the solder but put crushed powder in bleach. I got the lend of a testing solution from a jeweller( sol no. 1995 for RS Mizar M24). Not sure whats in it as it doesn't say on jar. It looks like iodine - same colour. Anyway I added it to the ore n bleach. Something solid formed and dropped to the bottom of the glass - browny colour. The remaining liquid went a pinky lilac colour. I wouldn't call it purple but has a definite hint of purple. Any thoughts?

I also tried another tac. I took some of the ground ore, added borax and smelted with a small blow torch. Unfortunately it just turned into a shiny plasticy looking gunge with no sign of my lovely shiny bits - dissappointing.


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## butcher (Dec 1, 2010)

The bleach will oxidize gold, but you will need HCl to form gold chloride,
The HCL gives the chloride to gold, the bleach assists this forming a chloride of gold by oxidizing the gold, HCl by itself will not dissolve the gold.

Then we need to remove the oxidizer from the gold chloride (yellow solution), this chlorine will keep our gold dissolved and will not let us get the reaction in our test, with stannous chloride.

Tin is needed to make stannous chloride, look for tin, 95% tin solder, pewter from cups. 
edited 12-18-10 : my hardware sells pure (not tin oops its zink) zink strip metal for moss control on roof's.

If you make gold chloride you can also test using ferrous sulfate (another process).

Nitric alone will not dissolve gold this can also be a good spot test.

The Mizer solution you have is for an electronic gold testing product, I really do not know what it is, or how it would react with your bleach oxidized gold solution.

Aussie Gold, without the HCL and stannous in your reaction I am as lost as you are as to what you have.

HCL can be made from rock salt and sulfuric acid, if needed, ferrous sulfate can be made from Iron and dilute sulfuric.

Personally I would concentrate on making gold chloride and testing with stannous chloride, it is a very sensitive test, and a must in this business.

Nitric acid is also a valuable testing tool.

One last Idea unconventional but I might try it, say I had a spot on the quartz that looked to be gold, well I might make a scratch next to it with a karat gold ring then use a drop of acid to see which dissolved first, the acid can be HCl/Bleach or aqua regia.

As Aussco999 suggested is the gold in quartz large enough to pan if quartz is crushed? 

You were making glass slag with melting the quartz, alone it could be hard to find any gold you may have had in the quartz,
To your powdered quartz melt if you had added some flour, to overcome the oxidation of your quartz, and lead oxide (litharge) as a collector for the gold in the melt, some borax to make melt more fluid, and some sodium carbonate, then the lead metal would pick up any gold and then oxidize lead and using cupel (bone ash to absorb oxidized lead leaving gold button if there was any gold in the original melt, 

The test above with stannous would still be much easier.


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## aussie gold (Dec 1, 2010)

Thanks for your detailed response. I will follow up on HCL/Stannous first but can easily try the quartz acid test too...will also try to upload some photos.....to be continued


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## aussie gold (Dec 16, 2010)

Well, the stannous chloride test came out orange.....Platinum? I have been trying to separate the metal now for over 3 years. Is there somewhere I can get a low cost definitive assay without giving a location?


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## Palladium (Dec 16, 2010)

aussie gold said:


> Is there somewhere I can get a low cost definitive assay without giving a location?



Rick aka the Rockman is a forum member and might be able to help you.
http://geotechanalytical.weebly.com/index.html


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## manorman (Dec 30, 2010)

get the assay its not that expensive send it overseas if you must provide the location of your ore in your country.
you need to crush the ore as fine as possible gold wil not crush it will flaten out and make it eaiser to see,
crush your glass buttons you have from your attempted smelting, you might find small gold balls if your flux was to thick or the heat was not hot enough or the heat was not applied long enough,the gold might not have settled to the bottom.
you can pan it out but you need to crush as much as possible, gold is heavy but a flake of gold will stil be moved around by larger chunk of rock.
Good Luck.


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## aussie gold (Jan 1, 2011)

Thanks for that. Experiments on hold over the hols. Anyone interested in testing to satisfy their own curiosity? I don't mind sending good samples with no need to return, if anyone is willing to assay and give me feedback. I will also try to upload photos of about a dozen samples, but the shiny content creates a lot of glare in the photos.


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## shaftsinkerawc (Jan 2, 2011)

I don't have the assay ability but do have a crusher and a rock saw for slabbing as well as a microscope & a little time if interested PM. I'd be interested in a raw unbaked chunk as well as one of the baked pieces. Do you know any of the geology of the area you can share without giving your area away? I also have contact info for a fellow miner in Aust. if you are interested in talking to someone in your neck of the woods. Awaiting your photo's.


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## geonorts (Jan 4, 2011)

could be a gold telluride, do you know where the samples came from. If your still looking for someone to check out this for you i'll take a look at a piece.


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## Richard36 (Jan 4, 2011)

I'm always available to help. Make a post or send me a pm.

Sincerely, Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

here are some photos of samples


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

more photos of ore


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

Ive spent 3 hours trying to upload these photos....this is frying me...


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

photos of ore


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

photos


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

ore photo


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

more photos


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

photos


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

photo


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

photo


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

rock samples


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## aussie gold (Jan 9, 2011)

rock sample


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## Richard36 (Jan 9, 2011)

aussie gold said:


> here are some photos of samples.
> Ive spent 3 hours trying to upload these photos....this is frying me...



Hello aussie gold,

Thanks for the effort, the photos are Supper High Grade in quality.

The rock is obviously a type of Alkaline Feldspar Granite, 
and had plenty of water available with dissolved metals as it formed.

This classic heavy mineralized rock out of such a vein system.

I would like to have the samples pictured in the upper and lower right hand side of item # 7.
As far as ore goes, those are the best pieces of rock that you have photos posted of.
That would be my guess based on my experience. 

Those darker black minerals would be worth checking with a Geiger Counter to see how radioactive they are. Possible Uranium content, as well as several other radioactive metals.
Just a precaution, as granitic rock of this variety can, and often will contain various radioactive metals, in varying concentrations.

I'm sort of surprised that you didn't post a Silver Content for this ore, 
as it should have contained some Silver, at least from the mineralization I'm seeing.

It appears to contain Manganese and possibly a small portion of Copper, 
as well as the obvious Iron.

This Ore screams Volcanism/Magmatic Intrusion resulting from Plate Tectonics within the Crumple Zone, and had Hydrothermal Activity associated with it.

Was this ore by chance associated with any Dendritic Stream Drainage in the area that these samples are from? Just curious, as I would like to see if the rule holds true for areas aside from my own. Areas of Hydrothermal Alteration contain ores like the samples that you posted photos of.

Thanks again for the great photos.

Sincerely, Rick, "The Rock Man".


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## aussie gold (Jan 10, 2011)

sample 13


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## aussie gold (Jan 10, 2011)

sample


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## aussie gold (Jan 10, 2011)

sample 1


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## aussie gold (Jan 10, 2011)

sample 2


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## aussie gold (Jan 10, 2011)

sample 4


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