Introduction- Help and Advice

[JAM123]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to start out by saying this form is great, The amount I've learned just reading threads was extremely helpful.

Here is where I'm at I'm new to mining and recently got into it after 40 years of waiting for a claim to become available. I now have the claim, I have 1000T of stockpile that I took 9 samples of from various parts of the pile that all assayed over 10,000ppm Ag (I had it professionally assayed). The test I sent the samples in for did not look for gold however on a few of my smelting tests I got a small piece of gold at the end of the cone mold.

I am planning to go bulk sample this winter to get a better idea if this will be economical, I see a lot of Canadians on here and was wondering if anyone could recommend a mill and refiner in AB,BC,NWT. I would also be willing to work with anyone on here that has some experience, potentially even their own mill/refinery. I am located in Edmonton AB.

I have played around with gravity separation methods but the best I can get is about 60% recovery is that normal?

I like the idea of flotation but I don't have the slightest clue on where to begin, as well as the environmental repercussions are something id like to avoid.

I have melted down and cupelled just the raw ore with good results but I don't think that would be economical given the cost of flux.

I've seen lots on the nitric acid digestion but they were all at small scale, is this something that can be efficiently scaled? would I need a concentration method prior to the digestion?

sorry for all the newbie questions, any help is appreciated!

Matt

 

[haveagojoe]

I am not a pro and have no expertise in this area but I understand that it is not recommended to perform chemical processes on ores particularly when their content is unknown since it can produce undesirable and possibly dangerous results.
What gravity separation methods have you tried? From what I have seen, good separation can be achieved using a well-tuned shaker table, maybe you have seen the Mount Baker guys on youtube? Their kit is very impressive, see here.

 

[JAM123]

I am not a pro and have no expertise in this area but I understand that it is not recommended to perform chemical processes on ores particularly when their content is unknown since it can produce undesirable and possibly dangerous results.
What gravity separation methods have you tried? From what I have seen, good separation can be achieved using a well-tuned shaker table, maybe you have seen the Mount Baker guys on youtube? Their kit is very impressive, see here.

Thanks for the reply! I've watched a ton of his stuff. I've tried panning, sluice and spiral chute and that is where I got my rough 60% recovery by smelting both my concentrate and then my tailings. my best result was from panning, another potentially helpful bit of info is that it was all milled to 100 mesh prior to the gravity separation experiments. The content of the ore is known from the lab assay. I wanted to gather some thoughts before buying a shaker table, if my recovery is still only around 60% with the shaker table then I would need to explore different methods, Thanks again!

 

[goldshark]

Thanks for the reply! I've watched a ton of his stuff. I've tried panning, sluice and spiral chute and that is where I got my rough 60% recovery by smelting both my concentrate and then my tailings. my best result was from panning, another potentially helpful bit of info is that it was all milled to 100 mesh prior to the gravity separation experiments. The content of the ore is known from the lab assay. I wanted to gather some thoughts before buying a shaker table, if my recovery is still only around 60% with the shaker table then I would need to explore different methods, Thanks again!

Silver minerals have a tendency to slime (disassemble from the gangue material ) into considerably smaller fractional sizes. This means floatation will probably be your best bet for optimal recovery ( 90% or better ). Depending on what minerals and their state of oxidization has occurred, may lead to other leach recovery systems. Check out a process called lixiviation. No cyanide, but usually sodium hyposulfate (ite ). A lot depends on the ore minerals, including base metals, to determine the appropriate chems. This is usually performed by a lab specializing in ore metallurgy.

 

[goldshark]

Google the process on line for more info. 911 Metallurgist gives a very good overview of the process.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to start out by saying this form is great, The amount I've learned just reading threads was extremely helpful.

Here is where I'm at I'm new to mining and recently got into it after 40 years of waiting for a claim to become available. I now have the claim, I have 1000T of stockpile that I took 9 samples of from various parts of the pile that all assayed over 10,000ppm AG (I had it professionally assayed). The test I sent the samples in for did not look for gold however on a few of my smelting tests I got a small piece of gold at the end of the cone mold.

I am planning to go bulk sample this winter to get a better idea if this will be economical, I see a lot of Canadians on here and was wondering if anyone could recommend a mill and refiner in AB,BC,NWT. I would also be willing to work with anyone on here that has some experience, potentially even their own mill/refinery. I am located in Edmonton AB.

I have played around with gravity separation methods but the best I can get is about 60% recovery is that normal?

I like the idea of flotation but I don't have the slightest clue on where to begin, as well as the environmental repercussions are something id like to avoid.

I have melted down and cupelled just the raw ore with good results but I don't think that would be economical given the cost of flux.

I've seen lots on the nitric acid digestion but they were all at small scale, is this something that can be efficiently scaled? would I need a concentration method prior to the digestion?

sorry for all the newbie questions, any help is appreciated!

Matt

Welcome to us.
And you are already getting help I see.

 

[4metals]

I have moved this thread to the Prospecting Mining, Ore and Geochemical section where more members doing this type of work are likely to see it.

 

[Deano]

People who want to go mining usually fail for one of two reasons.
1 With the amount of reports and permits required for an active mine either you as a single operator will spend more time doing paperwork than actually mining or you will incur the cost of having someone doing this part of the operation for you. This cost is usually large enough to sink all unallocated funds you thought were going to be spent on mining.
2. Not enough work is done to establish ore grades and reserves as well as access roads and processing and tailings dam sites.
You are at the start of a long road which will be made easier for travel if you can meet up with good professional advisors.
Most small operators do not want to spend money on what is the first of a list of essentials, namely good representative assays.
Either they want to believe that hope is a substitute for knowledge or they need to do everything on the very cheap.
The important term above is representative assays.
Human nature is always to select the best looking rock samples for assay, this effect is enhanced if your ore is galena or similar which stands out from the country rock.

 

[Deano]

That was an interesting result when typing as the mouse battery failed, at least it posted what was written instead of deleting all of it.
Continuing the advice above in the immediately prior reply, what you really need is help from an experienced advisor who can tell you what your steps need to be.
The best place to find such an advisor is to talk to local small miners who have used or are still using such a person.
If you can you ideally want someone local as this minimises travel costs, you cannot do all site and sample advice by zoom calls.
On the understanding that this is just general advice and not specific to your claim, I would be looking to run a mill and float set up and sell the float cons to someone who is set up to do the chemistry of metal recovery.
Most larger smelters and refiners will pay for gold values as well as silver, you are not going to get full value for the gold but you are also not paying for the refining of the gold, greed has sunk more projects than you would believe.
If you are going to outsource treatment of the cons then you will not get the full value of those cons, whoever does the refining needs to pay for the processing and make a profit too.
The above seems obvious but many people fail to think that although they are not getting full value for metals in the cons, they are not having the cost of treating the cons themselves nor the disposal costs for the wastes.
Deano

 

[SRM]

For Canadian assayers, I usually use Bureau Veritas out of Vancouver and SGS (several locations). 60% recovery for is pretty low but it depends on the gravity method, size and purity of the mineral. There are any number of good met labs in Canada that can help once you get to that stage. In the meantime, scrupulously document your activities including date time depth location (both gps and on a map) of samples, analysis type processing and results. Once you get into a full blown geochemical or drilling program, you will need a rigorous QAQC program if you hope to attract investors or even sell it.

You first need to sort out the size shape distribution and quality of the deposit.

Just my opinion

SRM

 

[SRM]

Teck has a large smelting and refining complex in Trail BC.

 

[jobinyt]

In general, if all you have is 1000 tons of ore, you're probably limited to a do it yourself project. If there might be a significant ore body you might have enough of a start to approach a junior exploration company. Before doing so, research the kinds/terms of ageements they make and what evidence it takes to get their attention

If you think there is significantly more ore and you are interested in a DIY project, a cheap 60% recovery may be a great way to fund greater development. High recovery rates require much greater capital costs - and higher per ton operating costs - and elapsed time -optimization of which requires both significant tecnical and economic understanding.

 

[JAM123]

Google the process on line for more info. 911 Metallurgist gives a very good overview of the process.

The website has great info thank you !

 

[JAM123]

That was an interesting result when typing as the mouse battery failed, at least it posted what was written instead of deleting all of it.
Continuing the advice above in the immediately prior reply, what you really need is help from an experienced advisor who can tell you what your steps need to be.
The best place to find such an advisor is to talk to local small miners who have used or are still using such a person.
If you can you ideally want someone local as this minimises travel costs, you cannot do all site and sample advice by zoom calls.
On the understanding that this is just general advice and not specific to your claim, I would be looking to run a mill and float set up and sell the float cons to someone who is set up to do the chemistry of metal recovery.
Most larger smelters and refiners will pay for gold values as well as silver, you are not going to get full value for the gold but you are also not paying for the refining of the gold, greed has sunk more projects than you would believe.
If you are going to outsource treatment of the cons then you will not get the full value of those cons, whoever does the refining needs to pay for the processing and make a profit too.
The above seems obvious but many people fail to think that although they are not getting full value for metals in the cons, they are not having the cost of treating the cons themselves nor the disposal costs for the wastes.
Deano

Thanks for all the info!

The permitting admittedly has been a pain, but its being handled by a 3rd party with experience.

The sampling program was done to try to randomize as best as possible it was tempting to just grab the shiny rocks but my thoughts were like yours, it wouldn't give a realistic expectation for the stockpile.

I understand that everyone needs their cut to make it work, I was considering even just selling the ore as a whole and avoiding the entire concentration process.

 

[JAM123]

For Canadian assayers, I usually use Bureau Veritas out of Vancouver and SGS (several locations). 60% recovery for is pretty low but it depends on the gravity method, size and purity of the mineral. There are any number of good met labs in Canada that can help once you get to that stage. In the meantime, scrupulously document your activities including date time depth location (both gps and on a map) of samples, analysis type processing and results. Once you get into a full blown geochemical or drilling program, you will need a rigorous QAQC program if you hope to attract investors or even sell it.

You first need to sort out the size shape distribution and quality of the deposit.

Just my opinion

SRM

Thanks for the info!

Everything has been well documented and mapped to this point, We used ALS for our assays.

I'm confident with some fine tuning of equipment I could get better than 60% but I also like the thoughts of some of the methods above that are +90%.

 

[JAM123]

Teck has a large smelting and refining complex in Trail BC.

Do you or anyone on here have some contacts for Teck? Id be interested in reaching out.

Thanks!

 

[SRM]

Do you or anyone on here have some contacts for Teck? Id be interested in reaching out.

Thanks!

Yes but.......Teck is normally a concentrate purchaser/processor. Right now, most of my contact are off for the holidays.

 

[JAM123]

Yes but.......Teck is normally a concentrate purchaser/processor. Right now, most of my contact are off for the holidays.

I sent a PM

Thanks!