# alaska black sand with gold



## Brandt (Sep 30, 2009)

have about 3 lbs of black sand from alaska with fine gold in cant pan it out. best way to process?? Have any ideas. Thanks


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## pgmgal (Oct 16, 2009)

You might want to talk to the folks at http://actionmining.com/ 

The Micron Mill Wave tables they have work just for what you need. I have seen other testimonials from people getting good results from his tables, once they are set-up correctly. 

Has anyone else on the forum used one?


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## aussco999 (Oct 16, 2009)

I'm not real sure of the economics of buying a $3,000+ table to process 3 lbs. of black sands. Even a small RP-4 magnetic table at $1,800., which will run 500 lbs/hour, won't be very effcient on that small amount.

I think you would be better advised to do a search on some of the other prospecting forums, like; 

http://www.49ermike.com/dc/dcboard.php
http://www.golddredger.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
http://forum.treasurenet.com/

The members on those forums go into great detail on their favorite methods for getting the last flake of gold out of the black sands. Once you find a system that works for you, try to bring back more than 3 lbs on your next trip to Alaska.

Good luck,

John


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## Anonymous (Oct 16, 2009)

brandt get a finer sieve so the sand size is the same as your gold, then you will be able to pan it out.
althernately, grind the sand to make it the same size as the gold, then will be able to pan it out.
Jim


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## zamistro (Oct 30, 2009)

Would any of the acid processes work on this?


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## AlanInMo (Oct 31, 2009)

zamistro said:


> Would any of the acid processes work on this?




Here's a much better process for the cons, posted by patnor1011. However, you might want to do a small amount at a time... 


*http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=51360#p51360*


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## markqf1 (Oct 31, 2009)

There are several ways to "leach" the gold out of your concentrates.
A good roast and possibly a preliminary soak in some dilute sulfuric, will likely improve your recovery efforts.
With black sand concentrates, a magnet is always a good first step.

Mark


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## butcher (Nov 1, 2009)

put that magnet in a plastic bag. :lol:


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## Richard36 (Nov 24, 2009)

Brandt said:


> have about 3 lbs of black sand from alaska with fine gold in cant pan it out. best way to process?? Have any ideas. Thanks




The best method that I know of would be to put your sand into a Rock Tumbler, or a modified concrete mixer with steel balls and a small amount of mercury. Turn the unit on, and let it operate untill all the sand has been crushed flour fine to recover all the visible fine gold, as well as any encapsulated gold bound up in solid solution with the black sand into the mercury. 

Once the sand has been crushed flour fine, carefully pour off the water. The remaining sand can be ran through a "Blue Bowl", "Spiral Concentrater", such as a "Gold Wheel", or carefully panned in order to recover your mercury. 

Place a piece of cotton, or filter paper inside a 500cc or larger syringe, then carefully pour your mercury into the syringe, then replace the plunger and depress it, forcing the free mercury out through the tip into a container. 

The "Gold Amalgam" will be left inside the syringe against the cotton, or filter paper. Carefully Remove the cotton or filter paper with the gold, and place it into a pyrex dish, and cover with a solution of one prt nitric acid, and 4 prts water. Place the dish on a hot plate from an electric coffee maker, and let gently heat up. The remaining mercury will go into solution, and the gold will remain. Place a coffe filter in a plastic funnel, and then place the funnel into a glass dish in order to support it , and act as a resivior for the solution containing the mercury. Pour the solution from the dish with the gold into the funnel, and let filter. Rinse the dish with some extra water to make sure that all the gold has been removed from the dish, and is now into the filter. Spritz the filter and gold with clean water to remove any remaining nitric solution containing mercury, and let drip, as well as sit untill dry.

Once dry, The filter and gold can be smelted with Borax to produce a single mass of gold.

Place a piece of copper plate into the nitric solution, and let sit overnight. The mercury will drop out of solution as free mercury within the solution, with some adhereing to the copper plate, which can be scraped off, and the solution filtered to recover the rest.

I hope that this has been of some help to you and others.

Sincerely; Rick.


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## 61 silverman (Nov 26, 2009)

Rick; You seem to be very knowing of mercury... Let me give you a brief story of the mercury I have... From the time I can remember my Dad told my brother, sisters and myself too keep our hands off these little jars!! He told us that they are "FULL of GOLD" what they are is two small bottles 2lb-13oz's - bottles included- of MERCURY..by the size of the bottles I guess there is about 2 1/2 fluid oz,
My Question first is HOW MUCH GOLD can be held in say 1 fluid oz. of Mercury. My plan of recovery of the gold is to get a AIR-TORT , and then treat chemically to refine..
also I don't know how old this mercury is !!! I know it is older than 48 years, I think my father had panned the gold when he was a young man with his father..He had it before he married my mother, 
I will get a couple pictures up in a couple days.. Thanks Mark


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## Richard36 (Nov 26, 2009)

61 silverman said:


> Rick; You seem to be very knowing of mercury... Let me give you a brief story of the mercury I have... From the time I can remember my Dad told my brother, sisters and myself too keep our hands off these little jars!! He told us that they are "FULL of GOLD" what they are is two small bottles 2lb-13oz's - bottles included- of MERCURY..by the size of the bottles I guess there is about 2 1/2 fluid oz,
> My Question first is HOW MUCH GOLD can be held in say 1 fluid oz. of Mercury. My plan of recovery of the gold is to get a AIR-TORT , and then treat chemically to refine..
> also I don't know how old this mercury is !!! I know it is older than 48 years, I think my father had panned the gold when he was a young man with his father..He had it before he married my mother,
> I will get a couple pictures up in a couple days.. Thanks Mark




Hello Mark.

Thanks for the reply.

First of all, I do not recomend the use of a mercury retort. Unless you have an acetelyne torch, they do not work all that well. Further more, the mercury does not condense back to a liquid as well as it should, thus producing mercury gas. The gas is deadly, in the long term, if you breath it. Not a good way to get rid of the excess mercury. That is why I suggested the process above. I have played with a mercury retort, I own one.

As far as how much flour gold can be held in one tsp of mercury, probably an oz, mabe an 1-1/2 ozs. 
That would be saturated mix that would not roll, or move around, willingly, without tilting the dish containing the mercury at greater than a 30 degree angle.

The more liquid the mercury is, the less gold it contains,... 

The more sluggish it becomes, the more gold it contains from being agitated within a material containing free milling native gold..

Follow the procedure above. 
It is simple enough. 
They are designed for use by the "Weekend Goldminer".

Sincerely; Rick.


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## Harold_V (Nov 26, 2009)

You might want to rethink the amount of gold that will be dissolved in mercury. Dental amalgam is predominantly mercury, and sets up solid. In my opinion, if the mercury remains fluid and has no lumps, I'd be surprised if it contained anything beyond 15% gold. Could be wrong, however, as all of my experience came from silver. The only gold I processed that came from a retort came to me already free of mercury. 

I retorted a few thousand ounces of dental amalgam in my years of refining. Enough to end up with over 100 pounds of mercury. If the retort is properly built and applied, it will serve perfectly well, with safety. To insure the total recovery of vapors, a condensing chamber that is water cooled is advised.

I would suggest avoiding heating with a torch due to iron's ability to crack from uneven heating. A retort can be heated to a dull read heat easily by firing over a small furnace fueled by natural gas or propane. Cast iron is the metal of choice for a retort. Stainless is slightly soluble in mercury, although it can be used with success assuming the charge is nested in an isolating blanket. I used to use a thin layer of asbestos paper. 

Harold


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## Richard36 (Nov 26, 2009)

Fair enough.

The retort that I have is one of those sold by "Keene Engineering".
A regular propane torch did not work for me, And the condencer did not seem all that adaquate.
A "Gear Head" do it yourself job could be built better, and work properly, I agree.
I have never tried to go that route.

I will stay with the method that I described. 
It does work, I have used it a few times, and I am comfortable with it.

Sincerely; Rick.


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## 61 silverman (Nov 26, 2009)

Thank You for the replies... First off .. The 2 1/2 lb's of mercury I have will be pressed through a filter, using air pressure I think I will stop By Action Mining and buy one tomorrow.. They are located right here in town..
I am working on assembling a retort for the dental material I have.. There is a picture posted on the site here that looks like a good one too copy..
Harold; again for your expertise I thank you... One more question about dental material, When deciding which material has the potential of having mercury,( so needing to be retorted") would that only be items that have material packed into them like an adhesion material? or all parts.!!???? Thank You Mark.
P.S. Rick thank you as well..
maybe you would like a preview of my new sculpture...Also I poured some aluminum I have cleaned, came from hard drives mostly..View attachment 2
View attachment 1


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## Harold_V (Nov 27, 2009)

61 silverman said:


> One more question about dental material, When deciding which material has the potential of having mercury,( so needing to be retorted") would that only be items that have material packed into them like an adhesion material? or all parts.!!????


Your question is not clear to me, Mark. Can you please be a bit more specific?
If it helps any, the material I received from dentists often was a light gray in color, and, needless to say, heavy. It's pretty obvious when you have dental amalgam in your hands. 

If you can provide a picture or two, might be helpful. 

Teeth can be successfully processed for silver, but I used to smash them to remove the filling. Retorting dental amalgam that has been recovered from the body stinks like you can't begin to believe. The more you can limit unwanted materials, the better. Clean waste, that which is left over after a filling, retorts without issues, and is readily identifiable. Material that has been recovered from traps or other sources where they are subject to contamination are a whole different matter. You'll want to retort using ventilation if you don't have clean waste material. 

How large is the aluminum casting? Any issues with cold shuts? Everything I've read concerning casting aluminum indicates you shouldn't achieve great success with the type of scrap you melted. Looks pretty good to me!

Harold


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## 61 silverman (Nov 29, 2009)

Harold , first I think Im understanding what to look for in (amalgam) what I meant to refer to, earlier was filling material inside crowns basically the cement used to permanently attach into the mouth, crown's and Bridges.. I hope that clears up what I am trying to say ..Now the aluminum ! That I melted, I spent the time to get all the material that was not pooling together nice and clean,and shiny,and fluid now I melted with a BRUSH BURNER Propane torch in A SCOOP SHOVEL OUTSIDE at the burn pile...I used a small pry bar to skim and skim and skim some more until I was happy with the look.. The mold I poured as a after thought !!! I did not pre - treat the mold properly I needed too HEAT THE MOLD LONGER (the mold had been in dry storage ) for a more saturated heat , the mold I used is a plaster mold used for casting ceramics we are having to make room, to many molds to little space..Now the size is 9 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches at the tallest weighs 1.25 lbs... 
The cold shuts (mis-run as I've allways called it) there is a small amount in the top edge of wing's yet there are areas that are good to go..
I am also pouring INGOTS from even cleaner material than this piece was poured from the more I do the better it is coming out here is a new picture that will show a size comparrison the ingot is around 2 lbs..


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## 61 silverman (Nov 29, 2009)

I failed to mention that an old SON of a HIBACHI ash tray is my ingot mold, I pour enough (slip used to cast ceramics liquid clay ) to coat the inside, dry this carefully so it does not pop out.. It works for about three ingots.. I can get around 2 1/2 lbs melted clean using the method described, as far as being profitable selling clean aluminum versus dirty well?? I don't know..!! I could just make aluminum art work LOL..
MARK
Also: Harold I have done some work on processing the HANOVIA GOLD products..
I'll look for the proper post to reply to.


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## Richard36 (Nov 30, 2009)

Cool sculptures.
Anyone else with any further questions about black sands?

Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Sincerely; Rick. a.k.a. "The Rock Man".


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## Richard36 (Nov 30, 2009)

Here are a couple of books that I recomend for those wishing to process "Black Sands".
Good information, and well worth reading for those who intend to do this.

Simplified Black Sand Recovery 
By Clark Sable
Hulette Mining Company
P.O. Box 364
Reseda, CA. 91337

How to Process your Black Sand Concentrates
By Vern H. Ballantyne
ISBN 1-877700-07-X
Mountain Publications
P.O. Box 8008, Suite 252
Gloucester, MA. 01931

I hope that these books help, and they should. 
I have used the methods described within them.

Sincerely; Rick. a.k.a. "The Rock Man".


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