Fresh Meat

[Prospektor D]

Hello everyone here at gold refining forum. I just want to start by saying that I'm a little intimidated here. I hate being new. Anyway so I've been at this gold thing for about two years now and I must say gold can be quite elusive. I live in South Carolina and I believe I have found an area rich with gold and who knows what else. You know they say gold rides an iron horse. Does that mean that when you find it it's with iron mostly or that it literally comes from iron. Maybe that's why they you can't fuse gold with it. I guess if it did come from it you wouldn't be able to. Also does anyone happen to know anything about iron and it's rust? When iron rusts it turns red and then the red turns black. However if this red rust is kept moist and is not allowed to dry out it turns orange instead of black. Anyone know what it's called then? Hmmm well it does make since on why gold wouldnt react with water if it has already been through that process. Also can someone please tell me if I had some brown mud and wanted to say smelt a bar what truly is needed?

 

[4metals]

If you take a gram of the mud in question and add a small amount of aqua regia. say 9 drops of Hydrochloric Acid and 3 drops of Nitric Acid, you will likely dissolve the gold. When the reaction stops, pour the sample and the acid on to a dry paper towel. The acid will leach outwards from where you poured it and give you a clean film of solution to test. (quick filtration by capillary action) Add a drop of stannous chloride solution to the leading edge of the outward leaching sample and acid and if it turns black all is good in South Carolina.

You can find instructions to make stannous chloride here on the forum using the search function.

 

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

You know they say gold rides an iron horse. Does that mean that when you find it it's with iron mostly or that it literally comes from iron. ?

Riding the iron horse means .....

Both Gold and Black Sand are both relatively heavy compared to regular/lighter sand/gravel/rock ..... because both Gold & Black Sand are heavy, they both tend to follow the same/similar path in a natural watercourse - and they both tend to naturally concentrate in the same area's .... so when you find naturally concentrated pockets of black sand, you often find fine gold mixed in with the black sand, providing the watercourse your working is gold bearing ... hence Gold rides an iron Horse.

Most of the times, the Gold occurs as separate particles from the black sand - with the black sand particles themselves carrying no gold values ..... however, in rarer geographic locations, the Magnetite (black sand) can carry gold values ..... in BC for example, there are some big multi-metallic Copper/Iron/Gold mines/deposits; and some of the watercourses around these area's can contain Magnetite carrying Gold values.

 

[goldshark]

It depends on what type of deposition you are talking about. HBC has described a placer occurrence, while the other meaning describes either a Gossan, or a Lateritic or Regolithic type occurrence. A Gossan is a formation which used to contain sulphides. The sulfides oxidize, leaving behind limonite, and if Au is contained within the deposit, the Au. This weathering can continue until everything original, is eroded. After the original deposit is completely eroded, the Au and FeO can erode and migrate further, often times leaching into the surrounding area.. This eventually turns into a lateritic deposit of limonite and Au. Varying weather environments can throw a multitude of deposits into the equation. Throw in some other elements like Manganese Dioxide, and it gets even more complicated. The bottom line is Au has an affinity for Sulphur, Iron, Carbon, etc. So most oxidized deposits are stained red from the Iron. That is the lode occurrences of the " Gold rides an Iron hat " saying. Unoxidized will not have the red Limonite stain. This is a very brief description of the geology involved. A very good watch on Youtube, is a geologist named Chris Ralph. He has many good videos on a wide variety of geology subjects. Many comment in the comment section below his videos. If there is a particular subject you are interested in, and he hasn't done 1, maybe he will.

 

[Prospektor D]

If you take a gram of the mud in question and add a small amount of aqua regia. say 9 drops of Hydrochloric Acid and 3 drops of Nitric Acid, you will likely dissolve the gold. When the reaction stops, pour the sample and the acid on to a dry paper towel. The acid will leach outwards from where you poured it and give you a clean film of solution to test. (quick filtration by capillary action) Add a drop of stannous chloride solution to the leading edge of the outward leaching sample and acid and if it turns black all is good in South Carolina.

You can find instructions to make stannous chloride here on the forum using the search function.

Thanks

 

[Prospektor D]

Thank you