Jewelers sweeps from polishing wheel with rouge mixed in.

[kadriver]

I would like to know if anyone has worked with jewelers sweeps from a polishing wheel?

The jeweler has about half a sandwich bag full of this black material.

I told him that I could probably burn it down to ash and then process the ashes to recover the gold - it probably has other metals in it too though.

Can anyone give me some guidance with this. Should I attempt to do this?

Thanks - kadriver

 

[nickvc]

Kevin I wouldn't bother with that small amount. Sweeps are usually done by kilo amounts and even though polishings tend to be the richest sweeps I wouldn't expect much more than 20 grams a kilo maybe a little more if he only polishes gold and a large % is 18k.
If I remember right Harold V has done a post on treating sweeps and it's spot on.
Try and get him to let you do his lemel it's much closer to what you've already done but will throw a problem or two into what you've learnt already and if you can do that then try his sweeps.

 

[Oz]

I am assuming that by "lemel" you mean bench filings?

 

[Harold_V]

Nick has given words of wisdom, but, in truth, running a small lot such as has been described would be an excellent learning experience.
The only exception I might have to Nick's comments is in the content of the waste material. Do not be deceived by polishing wastes. Depending on the work habits of the bench man, they can yield some very high grade results. Some of them do the bulk of finising at the bench, while others rely on abrasives and heavy buffing at the polishing lathe. After incineration, if the color is a deep purple, the yield should be a pleasant surprise.

Processing polishing wastes is labor intensive, but it can be very rewarding. What's particularly satisfying is starting with what looks like trash, and ending up with pure gold.

If you're interested in reading about a method that works to satisfaction, here's a link where I talked a reader through the process. If you read and follow the advice dispensed here, you should be successful.

Oh, yeah! Read Hoke!

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1253

Harold

 

[kadriver]

WOW - you guys are really helpful. I will read Hoke on doing sweeps and view the info you suggested Harold.

By the way, when I logged on to this forum, My anti-virus software intercepted and attemp to infect my computer.

Anyone have some insight into this? Does it happen often? Are there viral folks lingering in here among those who are trying to be helpful?

Thanks to all - kadriver

 

[nickvc]

In my experience Harold only sweeps that included wheel dust from carborundum wheels ever exceeded my estimate but that over here in the UK was always treated as bench sweeps,they always failed to be 9k but returned .25% Au on incoming weight approximately.They needed incineration and could only ever really be treated by dissolution to recover the values. I've seen volumes of carborundum wheel lemel stuck in a large sticky mess in a crucible many times...people know better! it's all gold honest the carborundum weighs nothing, my refiner is stealing my gold!

 

[Harold_V]

In my experience Harold only sweeps that included wheel dust from carborundum wheels ever exceeded my estimate but that over here in the UK was always treated as bench sweeps,they always failed to be 9k but returned .25% Au on incoming weight approximately.They needed incineration and could only ever really be treated by dissolution to recover the values. I've seen volumes of carborundum wheel lemel stuck in a large sticky mess in a crucible many times...people know better! it's all gold honest the carborundum weighs nothing, my refiner is stealing my gold!

Chuckle!

Oh, yeah!

I learned, early on, the the furnace is a great device, but not for all things.

Truth be told, processing polishing wastes would be far better accomplished in a furnace, but one must have the proper flux, and have a collector, to say nothing of a prolonged soak in the furnace. That tends to be rather costly in the way of deterioration of the furnace, and is definitely not the realm of crucible use unless one doesn't mind losing a crucible in only a few heats (no more than six, at best). I did such processing directly in the furnace I built and experienced excellent results, with slag that assayed too low in value to be reprocessed. Furnace life was not good.

The process I describe (wet process) does not provide a total return, but it does provide a return on the preponderance of the values, and at a cost that makes it a worthy venture. The material lost to the process would be unlikely enough to cover the cost of a better process. As a bonus, if the preliminary work has been tended to properly, the resulting gold is of excellent quality.

Harold