Documented Gold Bearing Telluride/Oxide Ores

[DarkspARCS]

Here's the production assay results... 100 grams of ore was ground to 800 mesh, then submerged in a 20% nitric/ distilled water solution in a beaker and heated to 350 degrees on a hotplate and allowed to react for two hours, stirring every now and again with a plastic spoon. Lixivant was allowed to cool over night.

Next day Baking Soda was gradually introduced into the lixivant to bring the ph down to 3, upon such time powdered zinc used to precipitate values. powders were filtered and wrapped in lead foil, then cupelled in a furnace at 1089 degrees for 1 hour...

values are calculated in oz. per ton by the milligram...





=) as you can plainly see... what dropped out of the ore the most were pgms!... :twisted:

Sperrylite!



I'll leave the guessing the weight of that first test and the opt it suggests to you heh...

 

[g_axelsson]

If you have a lot of tellurium in the ore it will also be valuable. It is used for cheap solar cells.

There were a new mine opened close to where I live (the Kankberg mine), it's a gold copper mine basically but it also contains tellurium minerals, it added 10% to the world tellurium production in one go. 8)

Göran

 

[DarkspARCS]

haven't tested for tellurium, however there's some locations that have tested positive via xrf for tantalum, titanium, niobium, and yittrium, not to mention the chronic killers strontium, uranium, and thorium... that being outside the known heavy metal toxins lead, arsenic, and mercury.

This location is like a candy shop guarded by the grim reaper. I've been visiting this location for 4 yeas now and even now am drafting up operational plans to submit to the BLM... But being involved in handling the materials is going to require a lot of health and safety checks and balances, not to mention what the EPA is going to demand operationally to protect the enviroment.

My idea is to set up an in situ leaching op that will leave the materials under ground, with a lixivant well being constructed that can be tapped from and safely transported to mill... =)

 

[DarkspARCS]

Ran tests on the Galena...



As before - tested 100g sample crushed to 1000 mesh using 20% nitric diluted with deionized water, boiled on a hot plate for 3 hours. let cool and settle over night. neutralized with soda, added 20% hcl until solution was a green color... didn't take much... then watched lead and silver chlorides formulate. filtered white powders, ran them through boiling water and then filtered solution through coffee filter... LOTS of powders... and, oh yeah! having eliminated the lead chlorides with boiling water, as well as being outside during filtration... Guess what color the filtrate changed from being white into?



Tadaaaaaaa! tomorrow I'll weigh the powders and see what kinda button it'll fire into. then the process to determine PGMs begins..

EDIT: OOPS! I just remembered that Silver Chloride is explosive... looks like it goes back into water and Ammonia Hydroxide used to convert to metal... heh. I'll weigh the silver then lol

 

[DarkspARCS]

I was reading on the pgm forum a thread on Palladium and what it looked like dissolved in nitric, and I'll be damned if the description given of a cherry orange solution didn't fit the description of my revised test of the plumbojarosite ore! I didn't have my camera with me yesterday (I wish I could have gotten pictures of it now!), but utilizing the same methods of testing what was in that case an ore that was first ROASTED without salting, shocked while still hot with muriatic acid...



which during reaction floated a bright silvery metallic substance as well as a dull silvery metallic substance (as the picture above shows) that I allowed to migrate back into the solution as it cooled over night, washed with water, dried, annealed in the furnace to drive off chlorides (which in turn also smoked profusely... leaving behind a light yellow powdery substrate on the furnace door that I know contained high gold and silver values, as has been documented) then took ore into 20% nitric diluted with deionized water and heated on hot plate for 4 hours...

for the first two hours of heating there was no reaction to the grey powdery solution, which I stirred from time to time. suddenly the solution began to fizz, and it turned from a clear greyish to an opaque carmel colored lixivant! Allowing the reaction to finish, lixivant was let cool over night. Next morning I was looking at a lixivant that had separated into two liquid layers, on top of the insoluables. The top liquid layer was a bright, clear cherry orange solution, with the bottom liquid layer consisting of some sort of heavier precipitant opaque and a light orange in color...

I proceeded to filter off the lixivant, then separated the two types after they settled. the heavier opaque fluid actually is a powder of some kind, as I filtered it and have dried it. I made some Stannous Chloride, I plan on taking it over to the lab to test the lixivant.

 

[g_axelsson]

EDIT: OOPS! I just remembered that Silver Chloride is explosive... looks like it goes back into water and Ammonia Hydroxide used to convert to metal... heh. I'll weigh the silver then lol

I think you got that backwards. Silver chloride is stable, extremely stable and never explodes. It is if an ammonical silver solution dries up that you can form an explosive silver compound. You should take it back to silver chloride again with hydrochloric acid.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=944

Göran

 

[DarkspARCS]

Hmmm... ok, thanks for that. wow, guess my distractions are getting the best of me....

 

[FrugalRefiner]

As Göran said, silver chloride is completely safe and stable. The reason we don't let it dry out is that it complicates the conversion to metalic silver. Just keep it in an airtight container with a bit of water on it until you're ready to convert it.

Dave

 

[DarkspARCS]

As Göran said, silver chloride is completely safe and stable. The reason we don't let it dry out is that it complicates the conversion to metalic silver. Just keep it in an airtight container with a bit of water on it until you're ready to convert it.

Dave

Hi Dave. Quick question: if the powder was left in the filter and allowed to dry, but still had the liquid it was filtered from (yes, the filtration was done but I left, my metallurgist in charge, who had to make an emergency trip to the hospital leaving the filtrate and solution sit where they were) could the dried out powders be reconstituted for later or has this issue caused the silver chloride to become doodoo chloride, end of story?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

When silver chloride dries it forms a crystal structure. It can still be converted to metallic silver, but you'll want to crush the powder as fine as you can before you start the process. The finer the better.

Dave

 

[DarkspARCS]

:shock:

Those buttons weren't pgm... they were silver with traces of gold and pgm... yep, I am definitely a n00b, thatz fer damn sure. I mean I should have realized that just nitric acid alone doesn't dissolve gold or pgm. I'd have to say however that 20 oz of silver per ton is pretty good, right?

We just fired the insoluable materials in the furnace yesterday... I feel like a Master Doink ... der! After firing the insoluables from three of the ore tests three beautiful bright silver colored buttons resulted. No... there's no silver in these buttons! :twisted:

Interestingly, there wasn't any gold colors either, however I'm sure it's alloyed... the big news is that these buttons were huge! Remember, 100 gram tests, with each resulting milligram of pm/ pgm = oz. per ton. I'm going to the lab early to take pictures, and weigh the buttons. Stay tuned!

 

[DarkspARCS]

Here's what the insoluables looked like...



:shock:

My metallurgist actually informed me that there seemed to be a great deal of lead still involved with these fired samples...



So he re cupelled the 32.5 gram sample and it produced this:



In consideration of the OPT ratio this result still isn't too shabby at 18 mg. where 1 mg. = 1 oz. per ton. Because this result was pulled from the insoluables this button represents the gold/ pgm values.

I'm not convinced however... if you'll notice the discoloration of the cupel I believe a larger percentage of the pm/ pgm went into the cupel. Can anyone else here who's run ore assays tell me if my suspicions are correct?

 

[DarkspARCS]

Greetings Fellow enthusiasts....

I know I haven't posted here in quite a long time...

I must at this time state that I have come to a complete halt on this for well over 8 months due to several rather severe set backs that have all but crippled me in my endeavor to pursue this course.

First.. the metallurgist I was working with attempted to allocate the location for himself, as well as began intentionally falsifying his results - I won't go into to much detail about that. When I confronted him on the issue I decided to walk away before I assaulted the man. When I attempted to later reclaim the materials, My furnace, lab ware and what not he refused to allow me to collect them.

I'm not going to get involved with that sort of confrontation.

From there everything else has fallen apart... But I know what I'm seeing, I believe in what I've witnessed... and can say that if pursued this location is worth looking at. I've provided the imagery.... those professionals out there who have seen the ore can only know that even within the imagery itself the values are there waiting to be worked with.

22 different metals all wrapped up into several poly metallic replacement ore deposits of undetermined scope. Best general estimate - 20 thousand tons, which is not including the unworked tailings...

I am posting one of the XRF readings I've done to show just one lower quality sample I tested...



These are sperrylite cubes I pulled from the surface of these tailings which have been exposed to weathering for well over 60 years



The only reason why they are still sharp sided cubes and not part of the rusted soil of these tailings is because they indeed are Sperrylite - ArsenoPlatinum Pyrite... PLATINUM DOES NOT WEATHER!!!

I have viewed samples I've pulled of the Chalcopyrite matrix, Plumbojarosite matrix, as well as the Kaolinite matrix under a microscope - and have seen the Free gold...

Chalcopyrite


This is an attempt by myself to get a metallurgically savvy - mineralogically adept - confidentially and morally scrupulous - as well as legally competent individual interested in seriously reviewing the data I have been able to collect on this particular location to physically invest in some time testing specific ore samples here at my home, as well as reviewing all of the legal as well as both County, USGS, as well as BLM paperwork I've accumulated to PLEASE meet with me face to face over this....

This - In My Honest Opinion - is something I know, once fully investigated by you, will be worth your time alone

IF by any chance there is anyone who is interested and has the ability to commute here I implore you to please contact me at [email protected]

Thank you

 

[Rvirgin]

hello can you please tell me what that rock is i have a rock same color i have been looking all over the web for something similar youre pic is the first one ive seen . the rock i have very very heavy shinny metallic purple color turns platinum color and has gold spots all over i porsted a pic today

 

[DarkspARCS]

I appologize for not seeing your post. I have nit reviewed your picture of the mineral in question however the way you describe it it sounds like you have a specimen of chalcopyrite.

Hope that helps =)