Hello From Alaska

[allanwcoty]

I'm dealing with a couple of miners that have hard to recover gold dust and flake so I figured I would look into the chemical recovery side. Will do lots of reading here first and try to avoid the chemicals. Anybody in the Fairbanks area to do any mentoring? Happy & Safe New Year to all. allan

 

[Noxx]

Welcome on the forum Allan.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.


John-Nicholas

 

[allanwcoty]

Name : Allan W. Coty
Sex : Male
Age : 43
Location : Fairbanks, Alaska
Profession : Pipefitter(Const. Grunt)/unemployed
Hobbies : Prospecting & Outdoor activities
Interrests : Inexperienced salvage collector
How long have you been refining gold? : Still studying
What are you looking for in our community? : Looking to Learn how to work with chemicals safely and efficiently.
How did you discovered our Forum? : Through the Prospectors forum on the Alaska Gold Forum.
Other : This Forum is loaded with lots of useful information and helpful people. Thank You.

Any prospectors/miners that want to share information on their black sand/heavy mineral seperations, I'm all ears.

One sample I'm working with comes from the Nome Beach sands, Heavy garnet and black sands with gold and lead laced throughout. Someone tried to show me how to concentrate it using a gemini table but there was still plenty of gold in the tails. Very fine and flat.

Second sample is from near Fairbanks and also has garnet and black sands with iron pyrite(sulfides), gold and scheelite(tungsten ore) which I can't seem to get the gold to seperate out from. Very fine and very flat gold. Actually rides sideways or on top of other grains and won't settle to the bottom. This sample has a magnetic fraction that is a conglomeration of grains and does have gold tied up in it. I am looking at crushing with a Hammer mill when I can find access and then try and pan out? Some unknown metallic balls about 1mm that has been suggested may be PGM's but am still waiting on a analysis.

Sorry for being lengthy but as to HF, I'm guessing that's Hydoflouric Acid? Doesn't seem like anybody likes it, is it that much worse than other acids? I'm working with a retired Prof. that is using it to dissolve silicates, does it dissolve gold and PGM's? Have a great day. allan

 

[Noxx]

HF is not liked much because it's costy, and dissolve mostly everything (even your glassware...)

 

[Lou]

HF does not attack any of the precious metals, but it does attack many glasses. The reason no one likes it is because it is very dangerous to your health, one small spill will equate to losing a finger, or at the very least, having a very painful, slow-healing acid burn.