I am a Mineral Processing Eng. Specialized in Gold Ores AMA

[newguy]

Only option with fire is Cupel.
You can maybe slag off some of the Lead/base metals with the correct flux.

Do you need to add Lead in the first place?

as a collector i guess. should i try smelting without a collector? if so would i let it cool and break it out or poor it?

 

[Yggdrasil]

as a collector i guess. should i try smelting without a collector? if so would i let it cool and break it out or poor it?

No if you insist on using fire the only option is smelting with flux.
How do you concentrate your ore and do you have a proper assay?

 

[4metals]

as a collector i guess. should i try smelting without a collector? if so would i let it cool and break it out or poor it?

You may be a new guy but I guess we have to tell you how this forum works. You have just plopped down a post in the middle of a thread that has nothing to do with your question. That is rude and distracting. You have opened another thread already and you were getting responses there. Why did you feel the need to drop in here?

Please, in the future do not post a totally off topic post in the middle of an active thread.

 

[Barstool miner]

I live in an area that was dredged commercially during the gold rush. Tons of dredge tailings piles. This area also has a lot of Pt in the tailings as the primary method of gold recovery was mercury and Pt is not attracted to mercury like gold is, so the dredge operators didn't try to save the Pt and it was allowed to wash back into the discharge tailings.

In your opinion, what is the best way to try and recover the Pt from the existing tailings? Would another wash plant (designed for heavy metals) be the only answer?

Welcome aboard,
James

how to seperate lead from value in bigger portions than cupellation allows?

Use a large cone-shaped Mold. Melt the gold alloy, pour the liquid alloy into the mold, and cool it very slowly. Gold is heavier than Lead so this alloy
will stratify upon cooling and then cut the Gold from the lead. The surface tension of Gold is higher than that of Lead you could use a porous ceramic
filter to separate the two metals. Old Dredge Tailing piles will have to be run over a Sluice to collect Platinum, Gold, Black-sand from the tailing piles
You will also have to use a wet magnetic separator, There are several of these systems running on the Sacramento River in California

 

[goldshark]

Use a large cone-shaped Mold. Melt the gold alloy, pour the liquid alloy into the mold, and cool it very slowly. Gold is heavier than Lead so this alloy
will stratify upon cooling and then cut the Gold from the lead. The surface tension of Gold is higher than that of Lead you could use a porous ceramic
filter to separate the two metals. Old Dredge Tailing piles will have to be run over a Sluice to collect Platinum, Gold, Black-sand from the tailing piles
You will also have to use a wet magnetic separator, There are several of these systems running on the Sacramento River in California

Life would be a lot simpler for us, if the Gold/Lead alloy would separate out due to the difference in specific gravities. Just cut it off at the differentiation line after the pour solidified in a cone mold. I would love to see you demonstrate this technique. I learned from a Colorado School of Mines professor, whom I proposed the same question to, that that is not the case. Reflecting back at that moment with the professor, he just held his head, and tried not to bite my head off for my stupidity, a very patient man.
That being said, I still wonder if Au/Pb alloys could not be separated in a centrifuge, at still molten temperatures.
Another potential, but hardly worth while technique, is to use the differing vapor temperatures of the 2 ( or more ) metals in the alloy;
Lead (Pb)- Boiling point 1749 C / 3180 F
Gold ( AU ) BP 2856 C / 5173 F
Both start to volitize at melting point, but increase rapidly at higher temps.
The con here, is the loss of Au, and the large amount of heat and toxic fumes produced. Not enough pros here to use the evaporation technique.