Bonding wires on my concentrator table

[kurtak]

Ran some chip ash on my concentrator table the other day & thought you guys would enjoy some pics

Kurt

 

[crbaker41]

how many pounds of chips to get that? very nice

 

[ettran]

hi , geat job kurt. still saving some up for you , ed.

 

[denim]

I'll be waiting for the picture of the bar, or button, you get from that. I presume I contributed to that to some degree. Thanks for the picts.
Dennis

 

[glorycloud]

Nice!

 

[Anonymous]

Looks great Kurt.

Fantastic to see someone doing it properly.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Watch out Kurt! We can almost see what you look like in the reflection on that third picture. :lol:

Dave

 

[gaurav_347]

Sir,

That looks Awesome. A few questions. Are you able to get all the gold out from these chips that you processed? What kind of shaker table are you using?

Thanks and Regards,
Gaurav

 

[acpeacemaker]

I see the bonding wires, but where's the gold? :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Geo]

A large part of the brown in those pictures is copper. Some of the magnetics will be copper coated iron. The actual bonding wires is the light yellow color near the top. You can see a clear distinction between the bright yellow gold metal and the dull brown copper metal. It truly is a beautiful sight though. Good work.I am in the panning stage. I will try to post a vid of me panning bonding wires by hand in a day or two. I will be doing it tomorrow but as slow as youtube uploads, it might be the day after before it goes public.

 

[kurtak]

Sorry for the delay in posting anymore here but have been quite busy taking advantage of the few day of "way" above normal temps we had doing other things --- temps are back "down" to normal again

So here are a couple pics of the "first" drop on the bonding wires - I did a 2 gram test melt & was not happy with it so it will now go for a second refine

This was from about 11.75 pounds of N/S BGAs (back tops only) & yes the yield may seem low but that is actually by intent --- (at 4 grams/lb 11.75 pounds would be an expected yield of about 47 grams & I got only 35.3 grams recovered powder - so 12g under expected)

Here is the thing --- because of the high bonding wire content in BGAs I do a down & dirty fast run when concentrating them to get the bulk of the gold on the "first" run - meaning I run both the water flow & the ash feed rate faster then you would to catch all the gold on this first run - meaning I know I am going to wash gold off in this first run --- & I do so for good reason

Because BGAs have a high concentration of bonding wires to start with - they also (as Geo pointed out) have a "very" high concentration of "very" fine copper wires - fine enough to go though my 80 mesh sifting screen

This high wire content in BGA ash (both copper & gold) hinders the washing process in that as they collect at the head of the table they also become a trap for the ash its self - if - you try to run the water flow slow enough to "not" wash wire off with the ash - which in turn means you don't actually get a good "concentrate"

In other words the purpose of the first wash is to wash off the "bulk" of the ash - leaving you with a "high" concentration of wire --- even though you are also washing off "some" gold

Yes this means you have to run your first ash "wash off" a second time - but - what you will find is that you can make this second run faster as well (even though you run both the water flow & ash feed rate slower then the first time) because you have got rid of the bulk of the wire that traps ash - if - you try to catch all the wire with a slow water flow in the first run

In other words - on the second run you slow the water flow down so that it doesn't move (wash) gold down the table - but you can feed the ash faster because the lighter ash washes away faster unhindered (no longer getting trapped) in a bulk of wire --- so in the long run you actually save time (a lot of time) AND get a better concentration by running the ash twice

I was unable to do the second wash due to needing to get some other things done during the few days of nice weather we had & then the weather got bad again so just decided to process the wires from the first run

Just as a note - the powders actually look a lot better then the pics show - due to lighting they are actually brighter in color then they appear in the pics

Edit to add; - Dennis - yes - this was a combination of the BGAs you sent me along with personal BGAs & BGAs Alexxx sent me

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

how many pounds of chips to get that? very nice

I had a total of about 15 - 16 cups of ash to run (from 11.75 pounds of chips) the pics of the wires on the concentrator table are about 3 cups of ash - after running about 3 cups of ash I would have to clean out the table because it would be to loaded to run any more

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

What kind of shaker table are you using?

Thanks and Regards,
Gaurav

Its actually not a shaker table - its more of a Miller table that I made

Kurt

 

[ettran]

hi kurt , are those black mats grooved floor mats , ed.

 

[kurtak]

Watch out Kurt! We can almost see what you look like in the reflection on that third picture. :lol:

Dave

Is this better - I am sort of an "old" hippie/outlaw biker/logger/mountain man kind of guy :shock: :lol: :mrgreen:

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

hi kurt , are those black mats grooved floor mats , ed.

I'm not sure if its used for floor mats or not - mechanics use it for lining the bottom of their tool box drawers (as do I) I picked up a roll of it at a local auction of an old motor shop that was closing down a few years ago (it was in a box of mix/match stuff) I believe you can find it on E-bay though

The pic shows the thickness compared to a quarter - so I think its kind of thin for floor matting

Kurt

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Is this better - I am sort of an "old" hippie/outlaw biker/logger/mountain man kind of guy :shock: :lol: :mrgreen:

Kurt

Exactly how I imagined you!

Dave

 

[ettran]

hi kurt , are those black mats grooved floor mats , ed.

I'm not sure if its used for floor mats or not - mechanics use it for lining the bottom of their tool box drawers (as do I) I picked up a roll of it at a local auction of an old motor shop that was closing down a few years ago (it was in a box of mix/match stuff) I believe you can find it on E-bay though

The pic shows the thickness compared to a quarter - so I think its kind of thin for floor matting

Kurt

thank you for your fast reply ,great picture , ed.

 

[Grelko]

Very nice work there kurtak, I need to make a small table like that someday. I have close to 15 pounds of chips that I still need to process.

Is this better - I am sort of an "old" hippie/outlaw biker/logger/mountain man kind of guy :shock: :lol: :mrgreen:

Kurt

Exactly how I imagined you!

Dave

:shock: I always thought that you would have been in your late 20s or early 30s, until I saw the birthday announcement at the bottom and that picture. I was going to call you "dude", but I guess I should start calling you sir.

 

[alexxx]

Kurt, the offer still stands to process that drum of ashes from illinois.
A few more ounces up for grab.

Nice work on the powder, even if you dont find it pure enough, it shows some nice skills.
Running bigger volumes always gets tricky.