Hey Butcher,
Thank you for posting your thoughts here. Ive read many, many of your posts and even have some printed out and useing as reference. I know that you know what you are talking about and appreciate the effort that you have put into considerately sharing your expertise with the less knowledgeable. Books can't replace the value of experience as a teacher- greater than the sum of both is having an experienced teacher.
Respectfully, I say that I think you must have me confused with some other incredibly strong and handsome prospector. I consider safety number one. I work under a fume hood, and use every precaution to protect this fine figure of man. I respect the law and consider myself an outstanding-upstanding citizen with love of god and country. I am not creating toxic waste and destroying mother earth-I just want to milk her teats. I treat my waste solutions exactly as recommended here on this forum, and have them printed up and hanging on the wall out in my work shop. No cause for alarm, but thanks for your concern.
In fact if I could find a way to be any "greener", I would take action because Im getting sick and tired of my neighbors calling me "white-boy" :-}
A few dumb and irresponsible prospectors have caused society to generalize the entire lot poorly. This is not me... Im not about to mortgage the farm for a gold bug epidemic while hollering "eureka" and acting like a madman. Im just an inquizative-honest, hard working country-boy with an appreciation for the outdoors and a fascination for the natural sciences and "inner workings" of things.
I live in the here and now, being down to earth and rational most of the time. The FBI granted me clearance to work inside a nuclear generating station (of course I didn't mention my burning desire to be a dirt welder) so they consider me safe and sound. I must admit to you all though that I have come to blows defending the existence of Santa Clause, but that was way back when- on the playground as a kindergartener. So....I realize that it sounds too fantastic and unreal for someone other than a scientist to uncover something new especially in this age of information/technology. If the reader of this happen to be of the naysayer type, take the easy road, and think inside the box type then please excuse the notion and my quest for discovery,knowledge, and understanding by not posting words of discouragement.
I have a lot of "issues" to work out and processes to refine, but to pick just one to focus on, I need help with the melt.
I have a million questions and am certain that Im fouling things up since Im learning from the experience of "on the job training" and the written word. Keeping that in mind while considering my observations and theories, correct me where im mistaken, please. Im open minded and can/am willing to follow instruction if you have any constructive courses of action to perform.
In my research I have not heard of such a thing, but just suppose that au has been lode deposited from solution with silica in the crystal matrix as described by dr. poe. The lode ore at this spot looks like fine grained diatomaceous earth instead of say white milky quartz for example. I think it may have metamorphed from a the previous event of tectonic plate collisions during uplift and subduction. If the crystal lattice did contain silica and pm, base metals or combination thereof= what would the best process for recovery be? The very finely devided stuff im calling values seems to want to go into the slag instead of reduce into metal. I am thinking that I just have not allowed enough time during the melt and need to thin the slag more. Each time I melt the same slag it seems to reduce more. Lacking the experience for comparison makes it hard for me to decipher results.
On the same subject I ponder the discussion between yourself and dr. poe about incomplete precipitation and the gold carrying a plus one static charge. I have yet to digest the mechanics of all of that after reading through it again and again. Then again and again, but that is describing the results of my multiple attempts at reduction via oxallic acid or smb where everything goes as expected during the drop and looks right, but converts to white powder during the wash cycle.
I had stated that it would fuse to lead as a collector. To describe in more detail- I did not use any flux for this. Taking that bead through the rolling mill as thin as possible, I can see splotches of the same white powder and slightly different shades of color here and there. Could the white powder from the bead be a broken window so to speak where the silica had been linking atoms or molecules in the primary material? The white powder was not there before i introduced lead and the bead was clean. I suppose the lead could have easily encapsulated some of the gangue material and crushed it. I just wanted to mention this white powder showing up here as it rears itself at strange and unexpected places throughout the process. Im aware that lots of metal salts are white.
It is not practical to pan this vein material as it is all so finely divided. Ive tried screening to 100 mesh and very carefully concentrating it. Fine gold is present but the heaviest thing in the pan is white. I guess plattinum but the action of the particle is relative to its size and shape which is to small to determine.
Having undergone multiple major geological events it seems possible. The area is documented to contain flour gold and there is a working hardrock gold mine twenty or thirty miles from this place. It is also known for some rare earth metals. A geological wonderland of granite, limestone, and precambrian host rocks with intrusions in each containing slightly different makeup... Cool stuff to rockhound like myself. Yes, There is some free gold that can be seen under a jewelers loupe in the deposits that resembles a picture of whitwatersrand surface ore. Out of three different lodes- One of these spots in this range has a round silica pebble agglomerate containing much cinnabar- Im shying away from this one even though it looks richer. Some of It looks like really fine clumps of freemilling gold to me. Some of it looks and behaves like gold having been dropped from solution and during the wash cycles for refinement.
This post is getting too long, so as to not talk your ear off or eyes out, I shall condense.
I need more detailed instructions on the safety and process of alkyline leaching. Am I correct in my understanding that trends are moving away from cyanide for safety and environmental reasons? I have a pound of sodium thiosulfate on order to experiment leaching on the basic side. I read that cyandide leach is much more selective for gold but I cant seem to locate a supplier for that or detailed procedure.
Another area I need edge-u-macatin on and would like to explore further is froth flotation as a means of concentrating, but detailed information and instructions I have been unable to find.
Again, I say "thanks ya'll"
Core
Thank you for posting your thoughts here. Ive read many, many of your posts and even have some printed out and useing as reference. I know that you know what you are talking about and appreciate the effort that you have put into considerately sharing your expertise with the less knowledgeable. Books can't replace the value of experience as a teacher- greater than the sum of both is having an experienced teacher.
Respectfully, I say that I think you must have me confused with some other incredibly strong and handsome prospector. I consider safety number one. I work under a fume hood, and use every precaution to protect this fine figure of man. I respect the law and consider myself an outstanding-upstanding citizen with love of god and country. I am not creating toxic waste and destroying mother earth-I just want to milk her teats. I treat my waste solutions exactly as recommended here on this forum, and have them printed up and hanging on the wall out in my work shop. No cause for alarm, but thanks for your concern.
In fact if I could find a way to be any "greener", I would take action because Im getting sick and tired of my neighbors calling me "white-boy" :-}
A few dumb and irresponsible prospectors have caused society to generalize the entire lot poorly. This is not me... Im not about to mortgage the farm for a gold bug epidemic while hollering "eureka" and acting like a madman. Im just an inquizative-honest, hard working country-boy with an appreciation for the outdoors and a fascination for the natural sciences and "inner workings" of things.
I live in the here and now, being down to earth and rational most of the time. The FBI granted me clearance to work inside a nuclear generating station (of course I didn't mention my burning desire to be a dirt welder) so they consider me safe and sound. I must admit to you all though that I have come to blows defending the existence of Santa Clause, but that was way back when- on the playground as a kindergartener. So....I realize that it sounds too fantastic and unreal for someone other than a scientist to uncover something new especially in this age of information/technology. If the reader of this happen to be of the naysayer type, take the easy road, and think inside the box type then please excuse the notion and my quest for discovery,knowledge, and understanding by not posting words of discouragement.
I have a lot of "issues" to work out and processes to refine, but to pick just one to focus on, I need help with the melt.
I have a million questions and am certain that Im fouling things up since Im learning from the experience of "on the job training" and the written word. Keeping that in mind while considering my observations and theories, correct me where im mistaken, please. Im open minded and can/am willing to follow instruction if you have any constructive courses of action to perform.
In my research I have not heard of such a thing, but just suppose that au has been lode deposited from solution with silica in the crystal matrix as described by dr. poe. The lode ore at this spot looks like fine grained diatomaceous earth instead of say white milky quartz for example. I think it may have metamorphed from a the previous event of tectonic plate collisions during uplift and subduction. If the crystal lattice did contain silica and pm, base metals or combination thereof= what would the best process for recovery be? The very finely devided stuff im calling values seems to want to go into the slag instead of reduce into metal. I am thinking that I just have not allowed enough time during the melt and need to thin the slag more. Each time I melt the same slag it seems to reduce more. Lacking the experience for comparison makes it hard for me to decipher results.
On the same subject I ponder the discussion between yourself and dr. poe about incomplete precipitation and the gold carrying a plus one static charge. I have yet to digest the mechanics of all of that after reading through it again and again. Then again and again, but that is describing the results of my multiple attempts at reduction via oxallic acid or smb where everything goes as expected during the drop and looks right, but converts to white powder during the wash cycle.
I had stated that it would fuse to lead as a collector. To describe in more detail- I did not use any flux for this. Taking that bead through the rolling mill as thin as possible, I can see splotches of the same white powder and slightly different shades of color here and there. Could the white powder from the bead be a broken window so to speak where the silica had been linking atoms or molecules in the primary material? The white powder was not there before i introduced lead and the bead was clean. I suppose the lead could have easily encapsulated some of the gangue material and crushed it. I just wanted to mention this white powder showing up here as it rears itself at strange and unexpected places throughout the process. Im aware that lots of metal salts are white.
It is not practical to pan this vein material as it is all so finely divided. Ive tried screening to 100 mesh and very carefully concentrating it. Fine gold is present but the heaviest thing in the pan is white. I guess plattinum but the action of the particle is relative to its size and shape which is to small to determine.
Having undergone multiple major geological events it seems possible. The area is documented to contain flour gold and there is a working hardrock gold mine twenty or thirty miles from this place. It is also known for some rare earth metals. A geological wonderland of granite, limestone, and precambrian host rocks with intrusions in each containing slightly different makeup... Cool stuff to rockhound like myself. Yes, There is some free gold that can be seen under a jewelers loupe in the deposits that resembles a picture of whitwatersrand surface ore. Out of three different lodes- One of these spots in this range has a round silica pebble agglomerate containing much cinnabar- Im shying away from this one even though it looks richer. Some of It looks like really fine clumps of freemilling gold to me. Some of it looks and behaves like gold having been dropped from solution and during the wash cycles for refinement.
This post is getting too long, so as to not talk your ear off or eyes out, I shall condense.
I need more detailed instructions on the safety and process of alkyline leaching. Am I correct in my understanding that trends are moving away from cyanide for safety and environmental reasons? I have a pound of sodium thiosulfate on order to experiment leaching on the basic side. I read that cyandide leach is much more selective for gold but I cant seem to locate a supplier for that or detailed procedure.
Another area I need edge-u-macatin on and would like to explore further is froth flotation as a means of concentrating, but detailed information and instructions I have been unable to find.
Again, I say "thanks ya'll"
Core
