looking for someone who can help have rock with gold some quartz and some other rock want to determine value or get it refined email dbeggs [email protected]
assayer in maine
- Thread starter danb
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I have 40 or so core drill samples that i kept when disposing of a large amount or samples from a wharehouse years ago I basicly kept the pieces that i could see gold veins and quartz with gold in it. the samples were from an area where gold is known to be present in maine. was wondering how to test the samples to determine if they are gold and to try to harvest the gold. either by hiring someone trustworhty or if easy how to do it myself. the samples are a couple inches in diameter and could easily be soaked or heated. I had considered putting a dutch oven on my turkey frier burner and simply heating the rocks up to see if i could melt the gold out. was just hoping to get a little direction
Barren Realms 007
In Remembrance
If you can break the samples up and get to the gold. Hit it gently with a hammer and see if it flattens out or if it breaks up. If it flattens out it should be gold if it breaks up it is probably fools gold. The turkey frier will not get hot enough to melt the gold.
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I'm not trying to give you a bad time, although it may appear I am. Just trying to keep you from spending money on something that may be worthless.danb said:
Why don't you start by posting a picture of what you think is a gold deposit in some of the samples you have?
The problem with gold is it isn't always visible to the eye. I have processed an ore that had visible gold, but under magnification, areas that had a general gray cast were riddled with microscopic particles. Visual, alone, may not be enough, and you certainly don't want to entertain the idea of paying for an assay on each piece.
In general, recovering gold from ore isn't successful when using acids. That may or may not be true in your case---but don't get your hopes up that it will work. Even if it does, it may consume so much acid that the cost is greater than the values involved.
You can't heat a rock to the point of recovering gold within by having the metal run out. It simply doesn't work that way. When such material is subjected to furnace processing, the rock is either melted, or dissolved (fluxing properly) to liberate the values. It's a rather complicated process, and not uniform from ore to ore----so you may not have something that lends itself to (economic) recovery.
Harold
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danb said:
Sure! Give it a go. What do you have to lose?
A proper crucible would be required, for molten metals are strong solvents of other metals. If you were to succeed, using a container made of steel (which I suspect you hope to use), the resulting gold would solder to the vessel, or would digest a portion, perhaps enough to create a hole through. Not a good idea at all.
While you may have enough heat to melt gold, that's not going to work well. If you have large obvious areas of gold, yes, it may melt and run out, but gold is often disseminated in rock in such a way that it isn't visible to the naked eye. Even if you achieve the melting temperature of the gold (alloy), you'll be at least a thousand degrees too cold to melt the rock.
Before you beat yourself to death on this project, why don't you take measures to insure that you really have gold? Don't let this thing blind you from reality. Doesn't matter what approach you pursue if there is no gold present.
I've taken note that you don't like getting answers that don't meet your expectations. I'm likely not going to be able to help you, and I expect no one else will be able to, either. You'd do yourself a big favor by providing more input on your ore, including posting a picture.
Harold
