The Butte County Campfire gold

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

captain_mike

New member
Joined
Dec 27, 2018
Messages
1
This may be a stupid question. We recently lost everything in the campfire in California, including the house. So we had gold nuggets and silver bars, in a gun safe along with some ammo. The fire got to about 2100°F, and melted it all together. Can I melt it with some Chapman flux, and pour it into a conical mold to separate the metals? Or does it have to be chemically separated? We have about 6oz of gold, same silver, and lots of lead. It's all melted together in blobs right now at the bottom of the safe, although you can see the different metals in sections of the blob.
 
captain_mike said:
Can I melt it with some Chapman flux, and pour it into a conical mold to separate the metals?
That will not work.

Or does it have to be chemically separated?
Yes. Maybe there is someone near you on the forum that can refine it for you?
 
I think I would consider bone ash and portland cement rosebud torch and fume hood.
Problem is the toxic products and other dangers.

Hmm, how about ferric chloride I will think some more about it.
It could attack the lead and silver (somewhat).
 
captain_mike said:
(1) We recently lost everything in the campfire in California

(2) This may be a stupid question.

(3) Can I melt it with some Chapman flux, and pour it into a conical mold to separate the metals?

(4) Or does it have to be chemically separated?

(5) We have about 6oz of gold, same silver, and lots of lead.

(6) although you can see the different metals in sections of the blob.

(1) first of all --- VERY sorry to hear that :(

(2) certainly not a stupid question

(3) NO :!:

(4) NOOO :!: :!: :!:

(5) per the under lined; - how much lead ? --- 1 pound - 2 pounds - 5 pound - 10 pounds - more ???

(6) some pictures would be good

The lead is most definitely a problem :!: --- but then we are talking about $7,000 plus in gold & silver

Kurt
 
butcher said:
I think I would consider bone ash and portland cement rosebud torch and fume hood.
Problem is the toxic products and other dangers.

Definitely think this would be the way to go. The ability to deal the lead vapor in a responsible fashion would be the main reason I would have someone who is setup for capturing the metals from the exhaust do this for me.
 
I think much would depend on the alloy itself how much lead...
I could see where you could have high lead with little gold and silver or lots of gold and silver with a little lead or a combination of both in a molten pool of metals.
 
captain_mike said:
It's all melted together in blobs right now at the bottom of the safe, although you can see the different metals in sections of the blob.

I would start here, use a small hammer and a sharp chisel to seperate them as best as you can. Then you would have a better handle on how to process each seperate blob from here.
 
lead will melt (and absorb as it dissolves some of the gold and silver).

Maybe you could just melt a majority of the lead sweating it from the majority of gold and silver.

Treating the lead separately for values.
Parkes process, ferric chloride or another process...


Cupeling the gold and silver...

Having a better idea of the alloy composition would give better ideas for a plan of recovery methods...
 
Back
Top