rhwhite67
Well-known member
Harold, Steve, Butcher, Irons, Noxx, anyone, please help.
I used the standard 4 parts (muratic)HCL / 1 part Cl leach with an added NACL solution mix and H2O to leach the gold out of a known gold ore of 6 oz to the ton.
The solution was a beautiful golden slightly reddish yellow and tested dark purple with stannous.
I filtered the solution, adjusted the ph to 3-4 and then used SMB/sodium bisulfate to drop the AU which came down/precipitated as a light to dark milk chocolate brown colored precipitant which clumped up nicely upon drying just as shown in the tutorials and Steve's videos.
I place the precipitant in a clay crucible and soaked it with an alcohol/borax mix to make sure that the precipitant had a good mix of borax in it when the alcohol evaporated. I then topped this mix with 1/4 inch of borax and fired it in my assay oven to 2150 degrees F for several hours until the melt swirled cleanly.
I then poured the melt which should have been a gold button on the bottom and a borax cap.
Here is the part i need help with as i have not had this happen before.
What poured was a borax cap and a brown goo/glass mix that looked just like/was the same color as the brown mud/precipitant bound up in the glass and no gold which should have been there. Not sure what went wrong as the gold precipitant did not seem to collect/fire down into a button as it should have.
I realize I will have to remelt this batch.
What is the best way to recover the gold in this melt.
Should I use a standard smelting flux of borax, soda ash, silica and flour or other reducer flux in a graphite crucible.
A long time friend who has done a lot of assay and metallurgy work over the years has suggested remelting with as silver oxide , borax, soda ash mix using the silver as a collector for the gold. However this would then require using nitric to separate the Silver from the AU.
Also what would you suggest doing to avoid this problem in the future.
This is frustrating because I currently have 10 lbs of this precipitant ready to fire and do not wish to lose this metal.
To all in the forum, Please forgive me I believe that I posted this in the wrong area previously. If I am correct it should have been posted here. I apologize for the discrepancy.
Again, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ron
I used the standard 4 parts (muratic)HCL / 1 part Cl leach with an added NACL solution mix and H2O to leach the gold out of a known gold ore of 6 oz to the ton.
The solution was a beautiful golden slightly reddish yellow and tested dark purple with stannous.
I filtered the solution, adjusted the ph to 3-4 and then used SMB/sodium bisulfate to drop the AU which came down/precipitated as a light to dark milk chocolate brown colored precipitant which clumped up nicely upon drying just as shown in the tutorials and Steve's videos.
I place the precipitant in a clay crucible and soaked it with an alcohol/borax mix to make sure that the precipitant had a good mix of borax in it when the alcohol evaporated. I then topped this mix with 1/4 inch of borax and fired it in my assay oven to 2150 degrees F for several hours until the melt swirled cleanly.
I then poured the melt which should have been a gold button on the bottom and a borax cap.
Here is the part i need help with as i have not had this happen before.
What poured was a borax cap and a brown goo/glass mix that looked just like/was the same color as the brown mud/precipitant bound up in the glass and no gold which should have been there. Not sure what went wrong as the gold precipitant did not seem to collect/fire down into a button as it should have.
I realize I will have to remelt this batch.
What is the best way to recover the gold in this melt.
Should I use a standard smelting flux of borax, soda ash, silica and flour or other reducer flux in a graphite crucible.
A long time friend who has done a lot of assay and metallurgy work over the years has suggested remelting with as silver oxide , borax, soda ash mix using the silver as a collector for the gold. However this would then require using nitric to separate the Silver from the AU.
Also what would you suggest doing to avoid this problem in the future.
This is frustrating because I currently have 10 lbs of this precipitant ready to fire and do not wish to lose this metal.
To all in the forum, Please forgive me I believe that I posted this in the wrong area previously. If I am correct it should have been posted here. I apologize for the discrepancy.
Again, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ron
