C.M Hoke videos?

[nickvc]

While an assay may well be more accurate a simple xrf reading should give us all the metals in the bar including base metals, once we know that advice can be given from a simple one acid process to a more involved selection of acids and processes.
If the bar is mainly copper a small piece or some drilling’s in a test tube and a little nitric should give us a good idea if there is gold there, this will mean there will be nox fumes but if done outside with the wind behind it should be safe and only emit small amounts of fumes.

 

[g_axelsson]

You haven't measured the density yet? Why not?

Just as Nick is saying, an XRF would give a list of base metals in the bars. Some metals doesn't appear in natural occurring gold. For example nickel have a different chemistry while silver and copper often follows gold. Zinc is also common in copper alloys but too reactive to be part of any naturally occurring alloys.

Gold test solution on the lower end is just diluted nitric acid. If it totally remove the streak there are only base metals there. You should have some particles of gold floating around in the acid.

You could dissolve some of the bars in nitric acid. When the acid is spent you would have any gold from the alloy floating around in the liquid. If you let it stand for a day or more it will settle on the bottom of the beaker as a black mud. The top layer can be poured off gently to not disturb the sediment. If you have the beaker standing tilted most of it will collect in the lowest part.

You could wash it with some water one or two times and you should have a small amount of pale blue solution with the sediments.

If you now add a bit of hydrochloric acid to the mud it will form a weak aqua regia and dissolve the mud. There will probably be enough nitrates left to totally dissolve the mud. Now any gold in it is in solution and you could test it with stannous chloride.

And for the solution you poured off you should add a bit of sodium chloride (a saturated salt solution) or hydrochloric acid. If there is silver in the bar you should get an instant white cloud of silver chloride. Silver and copper is the two metals that follows gold around as an alloy.

This is my redneck way of testing the bars, it will tell you if there is a bit of silver and gold in it but it won't tell you how much. If you go all the way and turn the gold and silver chloride back into metal then you could weigh the result and how much lighter the bar became and that way calculate the composition.

Göran

 

[SCW_Summoner]

Sorry for the long wait, Stannous hasn't arrived. Took a small bar to Portland and had an xrf read on it. Results were 85 percent copper, 12 percent zinc, 1 percent iron, and 2 unknowns at 1 percent each. It's not a hundred percent accurate but no gold or not enough to register on their reader. As it came up with 2 unknowns. So in the end, not rich, but happy, now I can start my crafting with no worries of precious metals. Thank you all for the info, support and patience.

 

[GoldmoreGold]

That's too bad on the results but still interesting. The only things I can think if that could make chips like that is the well driller(maybe his mud pump or if he hit something) or a water pump in use at some point that went bad. .

 

[g_axelsson]

The zinc is a dead giveaway. It is so reactive that it never comes in metallic form from natural sources. Whatever the source of all your metallic shavings is, it's a man made object.

Too bad it wasn't gold but on the positive side you have really learned how to pan for gold and now you don't have to chase some non-existent gold and make a chemical mess on the way.
Too many people get their mind set on gold, never listen on advice and spend a lot of money, time and health chasing something that's not there. Good to hear that at least some people is cold-headed enough to listen to advice. It makes it worth spending my time here giving out advice.

Thanks for letting us know. Always nice when we get the whole story and not only the beginning.

Göran

 

[galenrog]

Received a few replies from the inquiries I sent out a few weeks ago. Consensus was that you did not hit gold. A historical note that was added, but unverified, is that there were many machine shops in your area just a few decades ago. Some in very out of the way places. You may have hit upon a spot where a machinist dumped brass turnings.

Again, this is a consensus of the few replies I received. I have no evidence in my files to support local machinists dumping turnings, but it could fit with the XRF readings. A look at you property history may turn up something.

Time for more coffee.