Iron after electrolysis

[OroMontalban]

I would appreciate any comments on the elimination of iron after electrolysis. I did AR on sand sample and proceeded with electrolysis to recover microscopic gold. Gold sits at bottom of small beaker but is covered with what I think is a dark grey to black iron particles. Can I heat up entire sample (iron and gold) in Hydrochloric acid for the elimination of the iron?
Best regards

 

[4metals]

If this is the same thread about the sand with microscopic gold posted elsewhere, I think there are many considerations that need to be made before jumping into this. First being access to the beach to work on this material on a scale that will be required. Second is if the gold is detected and quantified to be worthwhile, aqua regia is a very expensive way to go and leaves you with a waste to process.

I think that if a dissolve in AR yielded a positive stannous test, the next step would be to drop all of the solids and filter them and do an assay fusion and cupellation to quantify the gold content.

Only then, when you are analytically convinced there is a payable lode there will the discussion of best leach methods be addressed. Cyanide is a viable option but not in a public space. Is this your land to work on or will this be a bucket full at night type process?

 

[OroMontalban]

If this is the same thread about the sand with microscopic gold posted elsewhere, I think there are many considerations that need to be made before jumping into this. First being access to the beach to work on this material on a scale that will be required. Second is if the gold is detected and quantified to be worthwhile, aqua regia is a very expensive way to go and leaves you with a waste to process.

I think that if a dissolve in AR yielded a positive stannous test, the next step would be to drop all of the solids and filter them and do an assay fusion and cupellation to quantify the gold content.

Only then, when you are analytically convinced there is a payable lode there will the discussion of best leach methods be addressed. Cyanide is a viable option but not in a public space. Is this your land to work on or will this be a bucket full at night type process?

I'm using AR as a qualitative test to find areas in our property for microscopic gold, but this particular sample there is this dark Grey to black precipitate on top of the small amount of microscopic gold. Instead of just dumping the sample into my trash gold container was wondering if heating the sample in HCL will remove what I think is iron from the sample. Yes I need another process for large scale micro gold recovery instead of AR that I need to consider soon, yes cyanide is an option but need to be open for others , I rather use a mechanical process but for microscopic gold is just impossible.
Thank you so much for getting back to me with your comment.

 

[haveagojoe]

If it's Iron you can remove it with a magnet.