Assaying Karat GOLD 8K > 18K and FINE GOLD

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
It took me forever to make a measurement in one of those mechanical things. We bought a Sartorius balance for $7,800, it was digital and self-calibrating and 0.0001 readability. Much faster. You can get a microgram balance for that amount of $ these days. Unthinkable at the time.

To this date, it is the one expensive item in assaying/refining that I would still have to buy.

Edit: If you are really looking around, it is amazing how many of the items needed in a lab can have a very affordable source. See picture and guess what it is and how it can be used?. :lol:

Most of the other items can also be easily sourced/replaced with everyday items. The one notable exception being the analytical balance.

The only relatively cheaper solution to the balance "problem" is to take a 10x larger sample, but then you need oversize cupels, a lot more lead, more acid, and a lot more time "rolling the button". Not an elegant solution, since you still need a 0.001 gr balance at a minimum.
 

Attachments

  • ELcheapOpartingcrucible.jpg
    ELcheapOpartingcrucible.jpg
    161.5 KB · Views: 190
That would be a porcelain casserole used for parting and annealing.

You can try auctions if you're looking for an analytical balance, I usually go to the auction site on the day of the inspections with some of my calibration weights and make sure the balance I want to bid on is working. With the internet today it's easy to find out about the auctions and most sites list all of the items for sale and give descriptions. If you like what you see, and the auction is close enough, go and bid.
 
4metals said:
That would be a porcelain casserole used for parting and annealing.

You can try auctions if you're looking for an analytical balance, I usually go to the auction site on the day of the inspections with some of my calibration weights and make sure the balance I want to bid on is working. With the internet today it's easy to find out about the auctions and most sites list all of the items for sale and give descriptions. If you like what you see, and the auction is close enough, go and bid.

You mean for the mechanical ones 4metals or the digital ones?. I live outside the US, but I would certainly purchase one of the "antiques" for sentimental value if it was in good shape. Where can I get good and precise calibration weights?.

If it was for work, I'd go with a 0.0001 gr digital ones for about $1,500-$2,000. Even amazon has them.

The picture is of a Luminarc@ porcelain coffee cup, and yes I used similar ones for annealing and parting. Much cheaper and sturdier than equivalent labware. Got a dozen for the price of one parting crucible...and my wife likes them too!. :lol:

I'm going to be in Miami-Orlando next month, and I also want to purchase about 5 OZ of gold, or scrap, or coins, and pay near spot with personal credit card. Anyone know how to do this?.
 
Here's a Sartorius for $900.
http://balance.balances.com/scales/559

I would also get a furnace for cupelling. You can get an adequate electric burn-out from a jewelry supplier for a few hundred $.
 
That has classically been like chasing your tail, as a general rule if you can't get a positive stannous test it's not worth the effort.

I wonder which side of a membrane (RO) the gold ends up on? I wonder if any salt mines have assayed their salt for PM's? If all of the oceans of the world have gold in solution, than the pre-historic remnants, or salt mines, should be holding concentrates from ancient seas.
 
4metals said:
That has classically been like chasing your tail, as a general rule if you can't get a positive stannous test it's not worth the effort.

I wonder which side of a membrane (RO) the gold ends up on? I wonder if any salt mines have assayed their salt for PM's? If all of the oceans of the world have gold in solution, than the pre-historic remnants, or salt mines, should be holding concentrates from ancient seas.

Just imagine that gold is $1,000,000 an OZ, and give the problem to your subconscious. Let me know the answer by Private Message!. :p
 
4metals said:
That has classically been like chasing your tail, as a general rule if you can't get a positive stannous test it's not worth the effort.

I wonder which side of a membrane (RO) the gold ends up on? I wonder if any salt mines have assayed their salt for PM's? If all of the oceans of the world have gold in solution, than the pre-historic remnants, or salt mines, should be holding concentrates from ancient seas.

I was thinking that instead of a membrane one could try some "special" solvent extremely selective for gold in a reverse osmosis type of idea like this diagram. I don't know what other attempts have been made or in what direction. The pipe is say 1 Km long, and the "funnel" in the bottom, near the bottom of the sea has a very large area. The water pressure against the solvent frontier acting like a pressure filter. The solvent slowly circulates from the top down by some type of pump. Crazy idea?. I wonder if it can be calculated, and if there is a suitable solvent. Even if it isn't economically viable, going to the moon wasn't economically viable either. :?:
 

Attachments

  • seagold.jpg
    seagold.jpg
    16.8 KB · Views: 88
I've seen estimates of gold ranging between 0.1 and 2 milligrams per ton of seawater, that's in the parts per trillion range. Even with the perfect solvent, a tremendous amount of water would have to contact the solvent for it to collect even the smallest quantity of gold. It's just that the oceans are so big that makes the parts per trillion amount to something.

I think the only thing going for you in this case is the gold is already in solution. There's just sooooo much solution. :shock:
 
Of course you are right. If you had told a miner 60 years ago that ore with less than a gram per ton could be exploited by heap leaching with cyanide, he would have laughed. A 0.1 microgram balance was unthinkable 25 years ago, today $7k, etc.

I read there have been serious (not scams) attempts on the gold seawater thing, but I do not know what process or technologies they failed with and how much they recovered, costs, etc. I have tried web search and have only come up with unreliable bits of info.

I do not know even HOW to assay seawater for gold content!. Do you?.
 
HAuCl4 said:
Of course you are right. If you had told a miner 60 years ago that ore with less than a gram per ton could be exploited by heap leaching with cyanide, he would have laughed. A 0.1 microgram balance was unthinkable 25 years ago, today $7k, etc.

I read there have been serious (not scams) attempts on the gold seawater thing, but I do not know what process or technologies they failed with and how much they recovered, costs, etc. I have tried web search and have only come up with unreliable bits of info.

I do not know even HOW to assay seawater for gold content!. Do you?.


Evaporate the water and testthe remians.
 
For assays of that very low concentration, it is done exclusively with ICP-MS after careful preconcentration of a sample.

The only way I could think to recover gold would be with some sort of very selective ion-exchange resin--with water passing over the resin by tidal power.


Lou
 
If you do figure this out there are places they are already paying to pump huge quantities of seawater. The desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, and a billion dollar desalination plant in Queensland, and any others in arid lands.

It would have to be something truely revolutionary though. I'm certain they have given the issue a great deal of thought already. :mrgreen:
 
Back
Top