Has anyone refined with borax?

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JoryWLU

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Oct 25, 2024
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Location
Barrie
I been trying g to learn more about refining with borax. Haven't been able to find a good video on it.

If you have refined with it. Looks like you sprinkle a bit on top of the slag layer. But shouldn't use to much. Is there like a weight ratio. Any info about borax would help.
 
I been trying g to learn more about refining with borax. Haven't been able to find a good video on it.

If you have refined with it. Looks like you sprinkle a bit on top of the slag layer. But shouldn't use to much. Is there like a weight ratio. Any info about borax would help.
I just typed in "borax use in smelting" and came up with plenty of reading material on the www. Search smelting or fluxes on this site and the web. Self education is the best method, when you've learned all you can and you are capable of asking intelligent and pointed questions is when knowledgeable people are willing to engage in revealing discussions.
 
I just typed in "borax use in smelting" and came up with plenty of reading material on the www. Search smelting or fluxes on this site and the web. Self education is the best method, when you've learned all you can and you are capable of asking intelligent and pointed questions is when knowledgeable people are willing to engage in revealing discussions.
Ok I will leave the site. No worries. All the best.
 
Ok I will leave the site. No worries. All the best.
If you are serious about learning the refining craft, your best chance at success is right here on the forum. There are many knowledgeable members who will engage with your questions.

As far as borax is concerned, the best borax to use is anhydrous borax but don't expect it to help purify your melt, it will not. It will allow the molten metal to flow easily out of the crucible, but by itself, without help of other flux components or lead to perform the oxidizing of the impurities, it will do little to purify the melt.

Think twice about pulling the plug, you will not regret it.
 
I been trying g to learn more about refining with borax. Haven't been able to find a good video on it.

If you have refined with it. Looks like you sprinkle a bit on top of the slag layer. But shouldn't use to much. Is there like a weight ratio. Any info about borax would help.
Why don't you start reading the links I gave you.
Most refining videos on youtube are misleading and some even downright dangerous, unless you study you will not know what is what.
Good videos can be a good addition to reading and may increase the understanding of certain aspects but they can not fill in the finer details.

And as replied to earlier, borax is a protective flux that do not refine the Gold much if at all.
For ores in particular fluxing and the use of collector metal can give you a good dore that can be refined further.
There are written piles of books on the subject.
So if you are serious about it start your studies and this is the best place to ask informed well founded questions.

Edited to add a word for context
 
I been trying g to learn more about refining with borax. Haven't been able to find a good video on it.

If you have refined with it. Looks like you sprinkle a bit on top of the slag layer. But shouldn't use to much. Is there like a weight ratio. Any info about borax would help.
Borax can be used in a couple of ways;
1. Sprinkle some in with placer Au, which usually has some minor black sand and/or silica, or other heavy minerals. Quantity will vary depending on the amount of impurities. More is added with higher quantities of impurities. Borax will act as a common collector for the non alloyable components ( minerals other then Gold/Silver ) of the melt. There is no ratio that can be given, as placer cons will vary from clean up to clean up. Trying to smelt a lot of black sand, with very little Au ( Gold ), generally results in a glassy mess, with poor or no recovery. I would say a 25% Au to 75% black sand ratio would be the very bottom of the scale I would use Anhydrous Borax only, as the flux/mineral collector.
2. Borax, in combination with other chemistry, such as Sodium Hydroxide/carbonate, Litharge ( Lead Oxide ), Silica, Carbon compounds, Fluorspar, and a host of other combinations, to balance the acidic or basic components in whatever you are trying to smelt. To understand more of what I am talking about, read up on assaying or smelting in the library section of this forum.
If you want some quick, but relatively inaccurate videos on smelting ores, watch some videos put out by Mount Baker Mining and Metals on Youtube. He explains the process accurately, with the exception of the do's, dont's, and why's, of accurate chemistry.
Sreetips, on Youtube, frequently melts some dirty Gold ( jewelers sweeps ), which he occasionally adds some Anhydrous Borax to, for collecting the crud.
To answer your other question about sprinkling it on the slag, no- it is the slag. You might add it to the other chemicals in the slag, if you used other components, to again adjust the PH of your melt, for better viscosity ( ability to pour out of the crucible ).
The term refining, as referred to in refiners language, is to improve the metal content towards its ultimate elemental purity.
Using fluxes only separates the precious metals from the other less worthy mineral components. It really doesn't "refine" PMs to increase the purity of the metal. Certain flux mixtures will, but for now, I am trying to give the basics on how and when to use Borax only.
 
Does anyone actually think this video will help the OP learn how to do something he cannot do using only borax? This video is processing sulfide ores and he adds lead and borax and a few additional flux ingredients, as well as iron to reduce and collect the metals. The OP is looking to process gold filled. This is a good video but in the wrong place.

Our purpose here is to guide members in the right direction, not overwhelm them with methods used for a different purpose.
 
Processing gold-filled has to use chemical methods. There's generally just too much copper, which doesn't separate well in a smelt from the PMs. Sulfuric stripping methods are best for GF material... but given the OP is clearly very new to this, I would not suggest he play with sulfuric, as that's something only those experienced in chemistry should dabble with.
 
Does anyone actually think this video will help the OP learn how to do something he cannot do using only borax? This video is processing sulfide ores and he adds lead and borax and a few additional flux ingredients, as well as iron to reduce and collect the metals. The OP is looking to process gold filled. This is a good video but in the wrong place.

Our purpose here is to guide members in the right direction, not overwhelm them with methods used for a different purpose.
He aked about refining with borax and smelting in this post. He even mentioned slag. Did not see him mention anything in this thread about gold filled.
I think he needs to understand more about pyrometallurgy.
 
He aked about refining with borax and smelting in this post. He even mentioned slag. Did not see him mention anything in this thread about gold filled.
He has about 3 threads going and the scrap he mentioned is gold filled. What he needs to learn more about is what material he is dealing with and tie his question to a specific scrap type. Then he will get useful answers.
 

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