Help! removal of silver/gold from ore

[flock]

I am overwhelmed. Too much information, too many different ways. I fell into the precious metal thing. A previous tenant left a dozen bags of ore, which I had no idea what they were. We did a field burn and burned the pile. We moved them and found 3+ oz. of silver (probably mixed with gold, supposedly). Anyhow, I have been crushing the ore and have had no luck melting the silver/gold within. A couple of times, I ended up with what looked like cement. Now, I'd like to not use anything too dangerous. Anything I can get at the supermarket/hardware store is fine, but just know, I live in Central Mexico and many things are harder to get here.
SO, advice please, the simpler the better, and I beg of you, please use layman's terms.

 

[Lino1406]

We did a field burn and burned the pile. We moved them and found 3+ oz. of silver - so you have the answer (of course you can do it ecologically)?

 

[jeneje]

Please explain "field burn"?
Ken

 

[flock]

Sorry, I couldn't remember where I posted this request. A field burn is where you burn a field. Just light the sucker and it takes off.

And I still can't get anything more to melt.

 

[rickbb]

All your "field burn" did was to burn off low temperature materials leaving behind any metals mixed in with the carbon and ashes. That kind of fire will never get hot enough to melt metal. (Well maybe aluminum.)

To melt metals you need a torch or metal furnace.

To separate gold and silver from iron, copper, lead, tin and so forth requires wet chemistry and/or smelting knowledge.

You can get that knowledge here but it takes time and dedication to learn.

 

[flock]

A field fire can get quite hot, as in I have come across lumps of metal in a field after a burn. And, mesquite is everywhere and burns along with the dried grasses. You can't even get near a field while it is burning.
Just found this, granted it is for a forest, but who knows:
How hot do Wildfires burn?
An average surface fire on the forest floor might have flames reaching 1 metre in height and can reach temperatures of 800°C (1,472°F) or more. Under extreme conditions a fire can give off 10,000 kilowatts or more per metre of fire front.

 

[UncleBenBen]

While I think he meant field burn as burning the ore while out in the field and not really setting a field ablaze. I saw this in the news from the recent fires in East Tennessee.



Those were probably some nice rims.

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

In Silver by Butts & Coxe, their opening chapter on the history of silver begins with man originally finding silver in an elemental state because of wild fires.

The metallurgical laboratories of stone age man were in the ashes of his domestic fires, and still more, in the paths of forest fires caused by the sun and lightning. The combination of burning organic matter and strong drafts of air promoted by convection must, in the presence of outcrops in galena, have produced reduction to molten metallic lead and its silver alloy and then the cupellation of the latter to silver. This latter process only requires the reduced lead to be kept molten in a draft of air, with conditions in which the litharge (oxide of lead) produced can remain melted until it runs off the surface or is absorbed in some suitable bed. The product would be a glittering lump of more or less pure silver, which could be hammered into flat ornaments as required.

Literally page 1... Good book though, should anyone be thinking of a Christmas present to ask for, it's a solid choice.

 

[rickbb]

Lead I can believe, and maybe that spurred interest in other minerals that led to silver etc.

But just stacking up some stuff and setting it on fire without forced air being injected somehow just isn't going to get there.

 

[flock]

Now these are not great photos by any means, but the one is a lump of metal I found in one of the surrounding fields, seems to be iron, and the other is the silver I found after moving the ore to new location. AND yes, we just set the field on fire and it burned through the pile. Mind you, we didn't know what it was at the time.