gold suspicious sample

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ahmadbayoumi

ahmadbayoumi

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
196
Location
Egypt
I have a small sand sample that is suspected to contain gold and I need to test this sample for gold.

I mean, I need to know if it contain real or fake gold.

So any help on this PLS

IMG-20170323-WA0000.jpg
 
Yes, I have access to acids (HCL, Nitric, .. and many other acids)

but what do you mean by "testing supplies" ?
 
This is the book for you.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=25181

Göran
 
Dissolve a small sample in AR (a few drops of hcl, a drop of nitric) add a little heat. Once the sample is dissolved, test with stannous chloride solution.
If its gold, you will see the purple of cassius reaction, it may even be concentrated enough to be more black than purple.
 
Thanks a lot Topher :)

Actually, I know how to dissolve gold in AR then test using SnCl2.

However, I though that if gold to be exist in the sand sample then it may be mixed with other metals or substances as in gold ore.

So does it mean that if gold to be exist this this sample it will be plain gold without being mixed with any thing else ?
 
So does it mean that if gold to be exist this this sample it will be plain gold without being mixed with any thing else ?
Click to expand...

That's not necessarily true but if you grind the sand up into a powder and digest it in aqua regia it will indicate if gold is present. It will not indicate how much is there, it is just a qualitative test.

But just because the gold is identified with aqua regia, actual recovery from the material will not be done with aqua regia. The AR is just a quick convenient test.
 
How did you get something you think is gold in with sand but yet there is no black sand?
 
Thanks a lot 4metals :)

Very interesting .. will start by grinding the sand to fine powder then will make the AR then test with SnCl2.

Smack .. Not sure i got your question so Please, elaborate :)
 
Dears,

Seems that the sample contains real gold :)

I made exactly as described; grinded the sand sample to powder then added enough HCL then few drops of nitric to make the AR then heated the solution a little bit till the sample completely dissolved then test with SnCl2 the light purple color appeared as per below picture.

The sample weight was less than 0.2g and I think light purple color was because the the sample was very light also.

I requested another larger sample of this sand Now the questions are:
1- how can I assay the larger sample to know exactly how much gold per kg for example ?
2- How can I recover the gold from the kind of sand ?

Test.jpg
 
Well that is a loaded question! Let me start by saying you have to get an idea of how large this area of gold containing sand is. So you need to go out and find the outer edges of this deposit by performing the same test you just did in each location. Then you need to determine how deep into the ground the deposit goes. Same thing take cores and test at various depths.

At the end of this you will have information saying you have an area of gold bearing sand 1 kilometer by 2 kilometers by 15 meters deep. Or maybe 1 meter by 2 meters by 15 centimeters deep. But either way you have to define the quantity of material that is holding this gold to take a good sample for assay.

Then you can say your sample represents an area of X cubic meters or X cubic centimeters and your sample, taken at various locations in the gold "field" will approach being representative.

when you know how much material is available you can determine how serious you get about sampling and assay. Also when you know how much total gold content you are looking at you will get a number which classically is calculated in ounces per ton of ore. If it is substantial then we need to discuss recovery.

I hope for your sake it is a large area, we have members here who are well versed in leaching gold from fines, and if you provide good starting information you will be paid with a bounty of good, free, knowledge.
 
Thanks a lot 4metals for your reply :)

Actually, I have no access for the area contains this sand as it's far away from my current location. it's almost more than 600km far.

But some one told me that he have access to this area and can provide 10s of tons of this gold bearing sand.

I can agree with him to make it by % (35%/65%) to avoid the assaying part.

Also I agreed with him to bring another 1Kg from the same and from the same area after 2 days to be able to make more accurate test to make and estimate.

Now , the most important would be how can I recover the gold from this kind of sand for mass production ?
 
ahmadbayoumi said:
Now , the most important would be how can I recover the gold from this kind of sand for mass production ?
Click to expand...

Actually the most important question is whether this really exists in this quantity. I would go and verify that before spending any of your time.
 
anachronism said:
ahmadbayoumi said:
Now , the most important would be how can I recover the gold from this kind of sand for mass production ?
Click to expand...

Actually the most important question is whether this really exists in this quantity. I would go and verify that before spending any of your time.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, and that's why I asked him for another 1kg for more tests and to make sure that this is real not fake.

However, I need to be ready in case it's real and I need to know how to process this for mass production again if this is real.
 
I agree with Jon 100%

You dont want to take another person's word for it.
Go first hand, get the samples yourself. A plane ticket is a lot cheaper than spending thousands on a scam.
 
Perhaps not my place, but I think what Anachronism is telling you is that you should take the time to inspect the source of this material in person and obtain your own samples. Any yahoo can throw a kg of sand in a box with some gold flakes he recovered from an old computer board, and he's talking tens of tons shipped 600km? He is going to want money up front for shipping.
Scams happen, and this looks like one big time. Ask him when you can visit the site and collect samples and gauge his reaction to the request. I just spent half the day just reading older threads and saw several about being cheated when buying material, and while it may be a good lesson for the future, a better lesson is to avoid it.
Good luck to you sir, I hope all works out for you.
 
You don't send sand hundreds of kilometers, you put up a washing plant at the site to recover the gold. Anything else is just stupid.

As for sampling, I would never trust someone else to collect samples. I would do it myself with my own tools. Even tools can be salted with gold powder to give too high assays.

Göran
 
There is something about gold that makes people do weird things. I have seen guys spend thousands of dollars on a promise of material based on samples and never have the bulk of the material ever arrive. Goran is correct, ideally you set this up where you do not have to truck the material but it may or may not be in an area conducive to bulk leaching.

The furthest I would go with this is to advise your contact to make up the sample from a wide area, a little here, a little there, and have a fire assay done. Then, depending on the location and what you can do there, make decisions based on some real numbers. If this is a leach proposition based on tons, it will cost some upfront money to get going. Your best partner in a situation like this is someone who has money invested. Talk is cheap, and flows freely in this business.

To get an idea what is involved with a large scale leaching operation look up the posts by Deano on this forum. Dean is a knowledgeable gentleman on this forum who has done exactly this type of work his entire life and he has been generous enough to share his lifetime of experience with this forum. Take some time to read through these 2 threads as this is what you will be doing.

http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=21526&p=222458#p222215

http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=22978
 

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