Gold Ore and Bleach Insight
- Thread starter f2fgold
- Start date
Help Support Gold Refining Forum:
niteliteone
Well-known member
f2fgold said:
Let me give you a hand with that.
Thank You Traveller11, I enjoyed that read as well.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2007
- Messages
- 8,360
Yes--the assayer.. He's one of two things. He's a simple person who means no harm, but doesn't know what he's doing---or he's a con man and is setting up a mark. The very idea that ANYONE would claim an ore with a content of more than one percent is most assuredly not being truthful. When you do see ore that rich, you won't wonder if it contains gold---you'll KNOW it contains gold. I've handled a gold ore that ran 325+ ounces/ton. It was painfully obvious.f2fgold said:
Your friend must keep a clear and open mind, otherwise he will be taken for a ride.
Best policy is to emulate my position. Think that the ore is barren, and that it isn't worth pursuing. Then look to disprove your conviction. That way you won't be blinded. Please trust me on this. It's much easier to think you have nothing, to be pleasantly surprised to discover you have a little, than to think you have plenty, only to discover you have nothing. The let-down can be horrible.
Harold
maynman1751
Well-known member
No truer or wiser words spoken!!!!!!
Thank you Harold. I believe you. I have so much to learn, it is good that I am not poisoned by gold fever. I have a purpose for learning everything I can, but not to get rich. The only thing that is hard to deal with is that the elements are smarter than I am. Nevertheless, with patience, study, gratitude for help and knowledge... I just may get to know them well enough to set up the environments necessary for them to do what they do best.
meatheadmerlin
Well-known member
I liked the article at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/71248750
It originally appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal,
on Saturday, January 31, 1891 on pages 24 and 25.
I noticed the OCR text provided on the site contained a good number of errors
and corrected them for my own copy of the article.
I decided against creating an account with the site to post the changes there,
and have included the text of the article here.
I have tried to preserved the original text including line breaks.
The addition of (sic.) has been used to show how a word actually appears when spelling is in question.
Also, references to sulfur and its compounds use the ph spelling.
(on page 24)
Chlorination
------------
The chlorination process of extracting gold
from its matrix, and from from concentrates, is
often freely alluded to in newspapers and amongst(sic.)
miners; and yet, as a rule, the principle is but
vaguely understood, even by men who make
mining their business. Our explanation will be
principally for persons who understand but little,
if anything, of chemistry. To the scientific man
the great affinity of chlorine for the precious
metals has been known almost ever since the dis-
tinguished German chemist, Schule, first dis-
covered chlorine, about the year 1774. Chlorine,
then, is an element, that is a simple substance,
out of which nothing can be produced but itself,
chlorine. It is a gas, and has many remarkable
properties- bleaching almost all colored sub-
stances, and being very heavy as compared with
common air, and being also very deleterious to
breathe. It is largely consumed by man and the
lower animals in food as common salt, which
contains a little more than half of pure chlorine.
It comes into use in mining in consequence chiefly
of its great affinity or liking for gold and silver.
If it can get sufficiently near it will seize hold of
them, appropriating a certain portion to itself,
making what is called chloride of gold or silver.
It being so abundant in nature, salt being so
common, it is made cheaply- a little dilute sul-
phuric acid put on salt liberates chlorine gas, and
its attraction for silver can be witnessed by the
curious any day in the Sydney Mint by watching
the chlorine gas being put into the bottom of the
molten gold in the pot, and as it bubbles up to
top seeing it seize hold of the silver, carrying it
to the top of the gold as a chloride of silver. In
using chlorine to extract gold you simply crush
the stone or matrix so fine that it can get at the
gold and take hold of it as a chloride. The
easiest way to do this is to put the chlorine in
solution in water, and so powerful is its action on
gold that it dissolves that metal, holding it in
solution as water holds sugar. There is
no difficulty in making a solution of
chlorine, as at ordinary temperatures water
dissolves about twice its volume of chlorine.
Thus then having liberated the gold from the
stone by crushing, and having made chlorine gas,
as can be done cheaply, say from common salt,
and having passed the chlorine so made through
water, and thus made a solution of chlorine, and
bringing it and the crushed stone together, in a
short time you have your chlorine solution, con-
taining all the gold in solution that was in the
crushed stone. Having then the auriferous
chlorine solution decanted or run off from the
sludge or crushed stone or pyrites, you put some-
thing into it which will deposit or throw down
the gold. Either one of two things, both of them
very cheap and easily obtained, will do this
effectuallly(sic.), viz., a solution of sulphate of iron,
common green vitrol(sic.), or pieces of common wood
charcoal. The first will throw all the gold down
as a powder; the other, wood charcoal, will
take to itself the gold out of the solu-
tion as a brown film, and upon the charcoal
being burned away the pure gold remains. This
is the rationale or reason of what is called the
chlorination process, and any person of ordinary
capacity, upon reflecting upon the foregoing, will
not fail to comprehend the method used through
the aid of certain machinery, which we will
presently describe. It may help to understand
this subject if we remind the reader that each of
the three chief processes of extracting gold from
its matrix or stone or pyritous matter consists in
bringing it into contact with some substance
which has so great an affinity or liking for it that
it is taken up or amalgamated, and then the
amalgamating substance got rid of or the gold
taken from it. Thus in the common stamper bat-
tery or grinding mill mercury is the amalgamat-
ing material, as all miners know, which takes up
the gold. In smelting, matter containing gold is
put by intense heat, often assisted by fluxes of
various kinds, into a state of fusion, and then
brought in contact with molten lead, which,
like mercury, has an intense affinity for gold,
and it is thus extracted- the lead in the one case
and the mercury in the other being ultimately
taken from the gold by evaporation, or as regards
the lead by cupellation, which is in effect evapo-
ration. As regards the third great process, viz.,
extracting by chlorine, we have explained upon
what principle that is carried out, being, in fact,
like the other two, merely making use of a sub-
stance which, by its great affinity, will seize hold
of the gold and collect it, so to speak.
Of the three processes, the crushing and amal-
gamating with mercury, the smelting and amal-
gamating with lead, and the crushing and absorp-
tion by a solution of chlorine, each is suitable
according to the way the gold is found in the
stone or auriferous material. Rich pyrites or
black sand, or concentrates, require smelting as a
rule, because all the grinding, to whatever degree
of fineness it may be carried, will not
liberate all the gold from the iron and metals, so
that mercury can act on it. Again, crushing by
stampers or grinding in mills will be suitable
where much of the gold is fairly coarse, and, as it
is called, free in the stone. And chlorination
comes in and is useful where gold is free in the
stone, but is so very fine that in crushing in the
ordinary way the mercury can't take hold of it
but is carried away in the sludge or tailings.
Chlorination also is useful in extracting the pre-
cious metal from concentrates, though in this
case it may be found more suitable to sell them
to the smelting works than to treat them by
chlorine at the mine.
Having thus described what may be termed
the principles of chlorination, we now describe
the appliances by which they are carried into
effect. First, the stone is crushed dry, and, as in
the case of the iron-clad reef at Cargo where chlori-
nation is carried on, by heavy steel rollers driven
by steam power. Next the crushed stone is
calcined in an ordinary reverberatory calcining fur-
nace to eliminate all the sulphur and arsenic
which it is advisable to get rid of before treat-
ment by chlorine. Then the calcined crushed stone
is put into a large iron barrel about 8ft long
by about 3ft in diameter, and lined with lead,
because chlorine acts powerfully on iron as it does
on gold and silver, but will not touch lead. A
(On page 25)
sufficient quantity of water is put in the barrel
to make a thin sludge, then a quantity of chloride
lime- that stuff much used as a disinfectant, and
which is simply common lime saturated with
chlorine gas- is put to the sludge, and upon that
a small quantity of sulphuric acid. The barrel
is then closed down air-tight, and made to
revolve very slowly. The acid acting on the
lime evolves the chlorine, which is taken up by
the water, and the chlorine solution takes up the
gold in the stone. After some hours of the barrel
revolving, the whole contents are turned out into
a cask or receptacle and allowed to settle. The
clear liquor is then drawn off, and made to pass
through a cask or vessel partly packed with com-
mon wood charcoal, which, as the auriferous
chlorine solution passes through it, takes the gold
to itself; and upon the charcoal being burned
away, say in an iron pot, the pure gold remains.
This, then, is the chlorination process, which, we
think, our readers- even those quite unacquainted
with chemistry- will clearly comprehend. Whether
this process, admirable as it is in many cases,
should be used at any particular gold mine is a
question for serious consideration. As a rule, the
stamper battery and amalgamation with mercury
and concentrating the pyrites is the best. In
some cases, however, such as the celebrated
Mount Morgan stone, chlorination is of the
greatest advantage on account chiefly of the ex-
treme fineness of much of the gold.
Edited by moderator to add reformatted text:
(on page 24)
Chlorination
------------
The chlorination process of extracting gold from its matrix, and from from concentrates,
is often freely alluded to in newspapers and amongst(sic.) miners; and yet, as a rule,
the principle is but vaguely understood, even by men who make mining their business.
Our explanation will be principally for persons who understand but little, if anything, of chemistry.
To the scientific man the great affinity of chlorine for the precious metals has been known almost ever since the distinguished German chemist,
Schule, first discovered chlorine, about the year 1774.
Chlorine, then, is an element, that is a simple substance, out of which nothing can be produced but itself, chlorine.
It is a gas, and has many remarkable properties- bleaching almost all colored substances,
and being very heavy as compared with common air, and being also very deleterious to breathe.
It is largely consumed by man and the lower animals in food as common salt, which contains a little more than half of pure chlorine.
It comes into use in mining in consequence chiefly of its great affinity or liking for gold and silver.
If it can get sufficiently near it will seize hold of them,
appropriating a certain portion to itself, making what is called chloride of gold or silver.
It being so abundant in nature, salt being so common, it is made cheaply- a little dilute sulphuric acid put on salt liberates chlorine gas,
and its attraction for silver can be witnessed by the curious any day in the Sydney Mint by watching
the chlorine gas being put into the bottom of the molten gold in the pot, and as it bubbles up to top seeing it seize hold of the silver,
carrying it to the top of the gold as a chloride of silver.
In using chlorine to extract gold you simply crush the stone or matrix so fine that it can get at the gold and take hold of it as a chloride.
The easiest way to do this is to put the chlorine in solution in water, and so powerful is its action on gold that it dissolves that metal,
holding it in solution as water holds sugar.
There is no difficulty in making a solution of chlorine, as at ordinary temperatures water dissolves about twice its volume of chlorine.
Thus then having liberated the gold from the stone by crushing, and having made chlorine gas,
as can be done cheaply, say from common salt, and having passed the chlorine so made through water, and thus made a solution of chlorine,
and bringing it and the crushed stone together, in a short time you have your chlorine solution,
containing all the gold in solution that was in the crushed stone.
Having then the auriferous chlorine solution decanted or run off from the sludge or crushed stone or pyrites,
you put something into it which will deposit or throw down the gold.
Either one of two things, both of them very cheap and easily obtained, will do this effectuallly(sic.), viz., a solution of sulphate of iron,
common green vitrol(sic.), or pieces of common wood charcoal.
The first will throw all the gold down as a powder; the other, wood charcoal,
will take to itself the gold out of the solution as a brown film, and upon the charcoal being burned away the pure gold remains.
This is the rationale or reason of what is called the chlorination process, and any person of ordinary capacity,
upon reflecting upon the foregoing, will not fail to comprehend the method used through the aid of certain machinery,
which we will presently describe.
It may help to understand this subject if we remind the reader that
each of the three chief processes of extracting gold from its matrix or stone or pyritous matter
consists in bringing it into contact with some substance which has so great an affinity or liking for it that it is taken up or amalgamated,
and then the amalgamating substance got rid of or the gold taken from it.
Thus in the common stamper battery or grinding mill mercury is the amalgamating material, as all miners know, which takes up the gold.
In smelting, matter containing gold is put by intense heat, often assisted by fluxes of various kinds, into a state of fusion,
and then brought in contact with molten lead, which, like mercury, has an intense affinity for gold,
and it is thus extracted- the lead in the one case and the mercury in the other being ultimately taken from the gold by evaporation,
or as regards the lead by cupellation, which is in effect evaporation.
As regards the third great process, viz., extracting by chlorine, we have explained upon what principle that is carried out,
being, in fact, like the other two, merely making use of a substance which, by its great affinity,
will seize hold of the gold and collect it, so to speak.
Of the three processes, the crushing and amalgamating with mercury, the smelting and amalgamating with lead,
and the crushing and absorption by a solution of chlorine,
each is suitable according to the way the gold is found in the stone or auriferous material.
Rich pyrites or black sand, or concentrates, require smelting as a rule, because all the grinding,
to whatever degree of fineness it may be carried, will not liberate all the gold from the iron and metals,
so that mercury can act on it.
Again, crushing by stampers or grinding in mills will be suitable where much of the gold is fairly coarse,
and, as it is called, free in the stone.
And chlorination comes in and is useful where gold is free in the stone,
but is so very fine that in crushing in the ordinary way the mercury can't take hold of it but is carried away in the sludge or tailings.
Chlorination also is useful in extracting the precious metal from concentrates,
though in this case it may be found more suitable to sell them to the smelting works than to treat them by chlorine at the mine.
Having thus described what may be termed the principles of chlorination,
we now describe the appliances by which they are carried into effect.
First, the stone is crushed dry, and, as in the case of the iron-clad reef at Cargo where chlorination is carried on,
by heavy steel rollers driven by steam power.
Next the crushed stone is calcined in an ordinary reverberatory calcining furnace to eliminate all the sulphur and arsenic
which it is advisable to get rid of before treatment by chlorine.
Then the calcined crushed stone is put into a large iron barrel about 8ft long by about 3ft in diameter,
and lined with lead, because chlorine acts powerfully on iron as it does on gold and silver, but will not touch lead.
A (On page 25) sufficient quantity of water is put in the barrel to make a thin sludge,
then a quantity of chloride lime- that stuff much used as a disinfectant,
and which is simply common lime saturated with chlorine gas- is put to the sludge, and upon that a small quantity of sulphuric acid.
The barrel is then closed down air-tight, and made to revolve very slowly.
The acid acting on the lime evolves the chlorine, which is taken up by the water, and the chlorine solution takes up the gold in the stone.
After some hours of the barrel revolving, the whole contents are turned out into a cask or receptacle and allowed to settle.
The clear liquor is then drawn off, and made to pass through a cask or vessel partly packed with common wood charcoal,
which, as the auriferous chlorine solution passes through it, takes the gold to itself;
and upon the charcoal being burned away, say in an iron pot, the pure gold remains.
This, then, is the chlorination process, which, we think, our readers- even those quite unacquainted with chemistry- will clearly comprehend.
Whether this process, admirable as it is in many cases, should be used at any particular gold mine is a question for serious consideration.
As a rule, the stamper battery and amalgamation with mercury and concentrating the pyrites is the best.
In some cases, however, such as the celebrated Mount Morgan stone,
chlorination is of the greatest advantage on account chiefly of the extreme fineness of much of the gold.
It originally appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal,
on Saturday, January 31, 1891 on pages 24 and 25.
I noticed the OCR text provided on the site contained a good number of errors
and corrected them for my own copy of the article.
I decided against creating an account with the site to post the changes there,
and have included the text of the article here.
I have tried to preserved the original text including line breaks.
The addition of (sic.) has been used to show how a word actually appears when spelling is in question.
Also, references to sulfur and its compounds use the ph spelling.
(on page 24)
Chlorination
------------
The chlorination process of extracting gold
from its matrix, and from from concentrates, is
often freely alluded to in newspapers and amongst(sic.)
miners; and yet, as a rule, the principle is but
vaguely understood, even by men who make
mining their business. Our explanation will be
principally for persons who understand but little,
if anything, of chemistry. To the scientific man
the great affinity of chlorine for the precious
metals has been known almost ever since the dis-
tinguished German chemist, Schule, first dis-
covered chlorine, about the year 1774. Chlorine,
then, is an element, that is a simple substance,
out of which nothing can be produced but itself,
chlorine. It is a gas, and has many remarkable
properties- bleaching almost all colored sub-
stances, and being very heavy as compared with
common air, and being also very deleterious to
breathe. It is largely consumed by man and the
lower animals in food as common salt, which
contains a little more than half of pure chlorine.
It comes into use in mining in consequence chiefly
of its great affinity or liking for gold and silver.
If it can get sufficiently near it will seize hold of
them, appropriating a certain portion to itself,
making what is called chloride of gold or silver.
It being so abundant in nature, salt being so
common, it is made cheaply- a little dilute sul-
phuric acid put on salt liberates chlorine gas, and
its attraction for silver can be witnessed by the
curious any day in the Sydney Mint by watching
the chlorine gas being put into the bottom of the
molten gold in the pot, and as it bubbles up to
top seeing it seize hold of the silver, carrying it
to the top of the gold as a chloride of silver. In
using chlorine to extract gold you simply crush
the stone or matrix so fine that it can get at the
gold and take hold of it as a chloride. The
easiest way to do this is to put the chlorine in
solution in water, and so powerful is its action on
gold that it dissolves that metal, holding it in
solution as water holds sugar. There is
no difficulty in making a solution of
chlorine, as at ordinary temperatures water
dissolves about twice its volume of chlorine.
Thus then having liberated the gold from the
stone by crushing, and having made chlorine gas,
as can be done cheaply, say from common salt,
and having passed the chlorine so made through
water, and thus made a solution of chlorine, and
bringing it and the crushed stone together, in a
short time you have your chlorine solution, con-
taining all the gold in solution that was in the
crushed stone. Having then the auriferous
chlorine solution decanted or run off from the
sludge or crushed stone or pyrites, you put some-
thing into it which will deposit or throw down
the gold. Either one of two things, both of them
very cheap and easily obtained, will do this
effectuallly(sic.), viz., a solution of sulphate of iron,
common green vitrol(sic.), or pieces of common wood
charcoal. The first will throw all the gold down
as a powder; the other, wood charcoal, will
take to itself the gold out of the solu-
tion as a brown film, and upon the charcoal
being burned away the pure gold remains. This
is the rationale or reason of what is called the
chlorination process, and any person of ordinary
capacity, upon reflecting upon the foregoing, will
not fail to comprehend the method used through
the aid of certain machinery, which we will
presently describe. It may help to understand
this subject if we remind the reader that each of
the three chief processes of extracting gold from
its matrix or stone or pyritous matter consists in
bringing it into contact with some substance
which has so great an affinity or liking for it that
it is taken up or amalgamated, and then the
amalgamating substance got rid of or the gold
taken from it. Thus in the common stamper bat-
tery or grinding mill mercury is the amalgamat-
ing material, as all miners know, which takes up
the gold. In smelting, matter containing gold is
put by intense heat, often assisted by fluxes of
various kinds, into a state of fusion, and then
brought in contact with molten lead, which,
like mercury, has an intense affinity for gold,
and it is thus extracted- the lead in the one case
and the mercury in the other being ultimately
taken from the gold by evaporation, or as regards
the lead by cupellation, which is in effect evapo-
ration. As regards the third great process, viz.,
extracting by chlorine, we have explained upon
what principle that is carried out, being, in fact,
like the other two, merely making use of a sub-
stance which, by its great affinity, will seize hold
of the gold and collect it, so to speak.
Of the three processes, the crushing and amal-
gamating with mercury, the smelting and amal-
gamating with lead, and the crushing and absorp-
tion by a solution of chlorine, each is suitable
according to the way the gold is found in the
stone or auriferous material. Rich pyrites or
black sand, or concentrates, require smelting as a
rule, because all the grinding, to whatever degree
of fineness it may be carried, will not
liberate all the gold from the iron and metals, so
that mercury can act on it. Again, crushing by
stampers or grinding in mills will be suitable
where much of the gold is fairly coarse, and, as it
is called, free in the stone. And chlorination
comes in and is useful where gold is free in the
stone, but is so very fine that in crushing in the
ordinary way the mercury can't take hold of it
but is carried away in the sludge or tailings.
Chlorination also is useful in extracting the pre-
cious metal from concentrates, though in this
case it may be found more suitable to sell them
to the smelting works than to treat them by
chlorine at the mine.
Having thus described what may be termed
the principles of chlorination, we now describe
the appliances by which they are carried into
effect. First, the stone is crushed dry, and, as in
the case of the iron-clad reef at Cargo where chlori-
nation is carried on, by heavy steel rollers driven
by steam power. Next the crushed stone is
calcined in an ordinary reverberatory calcining fur-
nace to eliminate all the sulphur and arsenic
which it is advisable to get rid of before treat-
ment by chlorine. Then the calcined crushed stone
is put into a large iron barrel about 8ft long
by about 3ft in diameter, and lined with lead,
because chlorine acts powerfully on iron as it does
on gold and silver, but will not touch lead. A
(On page 25)
sufficient quantity of water is put in the barrel
to make a thin sludge, then a quantity of chloride
lime- that stuff much used as a disinfectant, and
which is simply common lime saturated with
chlorine gas- is put to the sludge, and upon that
a small quantity of sulphuric acid. The barrel
is then closed down air-tight, and made to
revolve very slowly. The acid acting on the
lime evolves the chlorine, which is taken up by
the water, and the chlorine solution takes up the
gold in the stone. After some hours of the barrel
revolving, the whole contents are turned out into
a cask or receptacle and allowed to settle. The
clear liquor is then drawn off, and made to pass
through a cask or vessel partly packed with com-
mon wood charcoal, which, as the auriferous
chlorine solution passes through it, takes the gold
to itself; and upon the charcoal being burned
away, say in an iron pot, the pure gold remains.
This, then, is the chlorination process, which, we
think, our readers- even those quite unacquainted
with chemistry- will clearly comprehend. Whether
this process, admirable as it is in many cases,
should be used at any particular gold mine is a
question for serious consideration. As a rule, the
stamper battery and amalgamation with mercury
and concentrating the pyrites is the best. In
some cases, however, such as the celebrated
Mount Morgan stone, chlorination is of the
greatest advantage on account chiefly of the ex-
treme fineness of much of the gold.
Edited by moderator to add reformatted text:
(on page 24)
Chlorination
------------
The chlorination process of extracting gold from its matrix, and from from concentrates,
is often freely alluded to in newspapers and amongst(sic.) miners; and yet, as a rule,
the principle is but vaguely understood, even by men who make mining their business.
Our explanation will be principally for persons who understand but little, if anything, of chemistry.
To the scientific man the great affinity of chlorine for the precious metals has been known almost ever since the distinguished German chemist,
Schule, first discovered chlorine, about the year 1774.
Chlorine, then, is an element, that is a simple substance, out of which nothing can be produced but itself, chlorine.
It is a gas, and has many remarkable properties- bleaching almost all colored substances,
and being very heavy as compared with common air, and being also very deleterious to breathe.
It is largely consumed by man and the lower animals in food as common salt, which contains a little more than half of pure chlorine.
It comes into use in mining in consequence chiefly of its great affinity or liking for gold and silver.
If it can get sufficiently near it will seize hold of them,
appropriating a certain portion to itself, making what is called chloride of gold or silver.
It being so abundant in nature, salt being so common, it is made cheaply- a little dilute sulphuric acid put on salt liberates chlorine gas,
and its attraction for silver can be witnessed by the curious any day in the Sydney Mint by watching
the chlorine gas being put into the bottom of the molten gold in the pot, and as it bubbles up to top seeing it seize hold of the silver,
carrying it to the top of the gold as a chloride of silver.
In using chlorine to extract gold you simply crush the stone or matrix so fine that it can get at the gold and take hold of it as a chloride.
The easiest way to do this is to put the chlorine in solution in water, and so powerful is its action on gold that it dissolves that metal,
holding it in solution as water holds sugar.
There is no difficulty in making a solution of chlorine, as at ordinary temperatures water dissolves about twice its volume of chlorine.
Thus then having liberated the gold from the stone by crushing, and having made chlorine gas,
as can be done cheaply, say from common salt, and having passed the chlorine so made through water, and thus made a solution of chlorine,
and bringing it and the crushed stone together, in a short time you have your chlorine solution,
containing all the gold in solution that was in the crushed stone.
Having then the auriferous chlorine solution decanted or run off from the sludge or crushed stone or pyrites,
you put something into it which will deposit or throw down the gold.
Either one of two things, both of them very cheap and easily obtained, will do this effectuallly(sic.), viz., a solution of sulphate of iron,
common green vitrol(sic.), or pieces of common wood charcoal.
The first will throw all the gold down as a powder; the other, wood charcoal,
will take to itself the gold out of the solution as a brown film, and upon the charcoal being burned away the pure gold remains.
This is the rationale or reason of what is called the chlorination process, and any person of ordinary capacity,
upon reflecting upon the foregoing, will not fail to comprehend the method used through the aid of certain machinery,
which we will presently describe.
It may help to understand this subject if we remind the reader that
each of the three chief processes of extracting gold from its matrix or stone or pyritous matter
consists in bringing it into contact with some substance which has so great an affinity or liking for it that it is taken up or amalgamated,
and then the amalgamating substance got rid of or the gold taken from it.
Thus in the common stamper battery or grinding mill mercury is the amalgamating material, as all miners know, which takes up the gold.
In smelting, matter containing gold is put by intense heat, often assisted by fluxes of various kinds, into a state of fusion,
and then brought in contact with molten lead, which, like mercury, has an intense affinity for gold,
and it is thus extracted- the lead in the one case and the mercury in the other being ultimately taken from the gold by evaporation,
or as regards the lead by cupellation, which is in effect evaporation.
As regards the third great process, viz., extracting by chlorine, we have explained upon what principle that is carried out,
being, in fact, like the other two, merely making use of a substance which, by its great affinity,
will seize hold of the gold and collect it, so to speak.
Of the three processes, the crushing and amalgamating with mercury, the smelting and amalgamating with lead,
and the crushing and absorption by a solution of chlorine,
each is suitable according to the way the gold is found in the stone or auriferous material.
Rich pyrites or black sand, or concentrates, require smelting as a rule, because all the grinding,
to whatever degree of fineness it may be carried, will not liberate all the gold from the iron and metals,
so that mercury can act on it.
Again, crushing by stampers or grinding in mills will be suitable where much of the gold is fairly coarse,
and, as it is called, free in the stone.
And chlorination comes in and is useful where gold is free in the stone,
but is so very fine that in crushing in the ordinary way the mercury can't take hold of it but is carried away in the sludge or tailings.
Chlorination also is useful in extracting the precious metal from concentrates,
though in this case it may be found more suitable to sell them to the smelting works than to treat them by chlorine at the mine.
Having thus described what may be termed the principles of chlorination,
we now describe the appliances by which they are carried into effect.
First, the stone is crushed dry, and, as in the case of the iron-clad reef at Cargo where chlorination is carried on,
by heavy steel rollers driven by steam power.
Next the crushed stone is calcined in an ordinary reverberatory calcining furnace to eliminate all the sulphur and arsenic
which it is advisable to get rid of before treatment by chlorine.
Then the calcined crushed stone is put into a large iron barrel about 8ft long by about 3ft in diameter,
and lined with lead, because chlorine acts powerfully on iron as it does on gold and silver, but will not touch lead.
A (On page 25) sufficient quantity of water is put in the barrel to make a thin sludge,
then a quantity of chloride lime- that stuff much used as a disinfectant,
and which is simply common lime saturated with chlorine gas- is put to the sludge, and upon that a small quantity of sulphuric acid.
The barrel is then closed down air-tight, and made to revolve very slowly.
The acid acting on the lime evolves the chlorine, which is taken up by the water, and the chlorine solution takes up the gold in the stone.
After some hours of the barrel revolving, the whole contents are turned out into a cask or receptacle and allowed to settle.
The clear liquor is then drawn off, and made to pass through a cask or vessel partly packed with common wood charcoal,
which, as the auriferous chlorine solution passes through it, takes the gold to itself;
and upon the charcoal being burned away, say in an iron pot, the pure gold remains.
This, then, is the chlorination process, which, we think, our readers- even those quite unacquainted with chemistry- will clearly comprehend.
Whether this process, admirable as it is in many cases, should be used at any particular gold mine is a question for serious consideration.
As a rule, the stamper battery and amalgamation with mercury and concentrating the pyrites is the best.
In some cases, however, such as the celebrated Mount Morgan stone,
chlorination is of the greatest advantage on account chiefly of the extreme fineness of much of the gold.
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wndolickr
New member
Chlorine can be used on ore and to refine as well.
I put my ore in a 5 gallon bucket with a gallon of muriatic and three to four cups of water. Toss in a three inch chlorine tablet and hold my breath while I put the lid on. Poke a hole in the lid with my pocket knife and go upwind and breathe. After a day or two I give the bucket a good shake and filter my solution into another bucket. Stannous test to make sure I have gold in solution and let it sit in the sun without the lid for another day or two. Run another stannous test to make sure there is no gold in solution and drain. Clorox doesn't have the kick for the ore like a three inch tablet.
I put my ore in a 5 gallon bucket with a gallon of muriatic and three to four cups of water. Toss in a three inch chlorine tablet and hold my breath while I put the lid on. Poke a hole in the lid with my pocket knife and go upwind and breathe. After a day or two I give the bucket a good shake and filter my solution into another bucket. Stannous test to make sure I have gold in solution and let it sit in the sun without the lid for another day or two. Run another stannous test to make sure there is no gold in solution and drain. Clorox doesn't have the kick for the ore like a three inch tablet.
Welcome to us.
How do you treat your waste?
Is this a process you use?
Can you explain the intention for treating your "Ore" this way?
Some comments in bold inside the quote.
Here are some links to study for the safety , waste treatment and Gold chemistry, not much for ores though:
We ask our new members to do 3 things.
1. Read C.M. Hokes book on refining jewelers scrap, it gives an easy introduction to the most important chemistry regarding refining.
It is free here on the forum: https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=19798
2. Then read the safety section of the forum: https://goldrefiningforum.com/forums/safety.47/
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum: https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/dealing-with-waste.10539/
Suggested reading:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/forums/the-library.101/
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/when-in-doubt-cement-it-out.30236/
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threa...le-read-this-before-you-post-about-ore.33333/
Forum rules is here.
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/gold-refining-forum-rules.31182/
What causes the gold to come out of solution with this method?
Martijn
Well-known member
If i'm reading this correct, you could create gold chloride in a weak H2SO4 solution by adding a bleach tablet, of calcium hypochlorite without the use of HCl?!
That sound great for the sulphuric cell slimes.
With ores there remains the very important step of roasting to get rid of arsenic sulphur and other nasty components before adding acid.
It seems windowlicker forgot that part or that's why he steps back while leaching.
With cell slimes you don't have that danger. Worth a try imo.
That sound great for the sulphuric cell slimes.
With ores there remains the very important step of roasting to get rid of arsenic sulphur and other nasty components before adding acid.
It seems windowlicker forgot that part or that's why he steps back while leaching.
With cell slimes you don't have that danger. Worth a try imo.
Thank you so much! Been brainstorming a little too long until I read this article. Now I can breathe deeply and slow up- after I exit solution area! (He he) I have good material yet cannot smelt the amount in question.
I was considering ALS global, Though self sufficiency had me thinking perfect system versus measurable progress. Coming back to this forum really helped out. Thanks for the post.
I have read through the patent post here (What a chore).
In it the Sulfuric is dilute and its only task is the release the Chlorine from the Hypochlorite.
Where the process which Deano posted seem more suitable.
The Neutral Saline Hypochlorite process is a slow, cheap process well suited for ores.
Of course one can add Salt and Hypochlorite to the sludge from the Sulfuric cell.
Still I do not know how well it works with respect to speed and how much pH tinkering one need to do.
Easier to just add HCl and a bit of Nitric or Peroxide to finish it fast.
I have attached a reformatted text of the patent in this post :
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/gold-ore-and-bleach-insight.18828/post-240284
I found the original text utterly unreadable.
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/gold-ore-and-bleach-insight.18828/post-240284
I found the original text utterly unreadable.
Thank you Meatheadmerlin, for your translation. How can I make a printed copy? I have a copy of "The Metallurgy of Gold by T.K. Rose
