Large volume fire assay

[MrAlaska907]

Hi community,

Looking for some guidance and direction in a non typical fire assay kiln. Most online assay sites all want rather smaller samples say around up to 10kg fires. So, in regards to the situation I'm looking for answers to. In dealing with micro inclusion and sulfide deposit of AU in different pyrite and other blasts containing much ladder sub atomic particles. So in my research, they say any washing or processing losses the micro AU particles that will float. Along with lead, zinc, silver , all those other mineral inclusive. Studies say fire-assay in smaller batches has more waste and loss of gold. The larger of firing to lose less. So to make a long story short. Does anyone have a large scale oil that does large fire assay cooks of say 50-100kgs of ore in large oven? To have less waste and do more ore at one time like the old Egyptian days with a huge crucible? Any help would be cool. I can tinker on small scale projects but looking to processes tons in holes in for several or more lbs... If low end calverite ore has 1% included AU of 1 ton that's 20 lbs of gold. Now that seems a high number and if anything of that number I'm dealing with, looking to fire assay large volume! Concentrates hydrothermal auric AU blasts of pyrite,load mining, industry standard.

 

[4metals]

I'm not really sure you are looking for a fire assay at those kinds of quantities. The largest sample size I have ever fire assayed weighed one assay ton which is 29.166 grams. That size sample (weighed exactly) will produce a result equaling 1 milligram of gold per ton (2000 lbs) of ore.

This size sample required a large charge of flux and considerable litharge to produce a cone for cupellation.

A 50-100 kg sample size would require a substantial flux charge and issues with lead.

I am not so sure you want a fire assay in the typical sense of fire assay!

 

[goldshark]

Just curious, what is a large scale oil? Much of your post does not make sense to this community, with the jist that you want to do larger scale assays.Smelting is expensive, that is why it is performed on concentrated ores ( concentrates ). To understand that there are better ways of processing bulk ores with all the metals recovered in 1 smelt, is like making scrambled eggs with a bunch of bacon and vegetables cooked in, and then having to pick out all the ingredients to get them to a refined state, very difficult. It seems that you have a lot of reading and apprenticing to do, if you really want to pursue your course. It is a fun and interesting career. I'm not sure this is the place to be for you , yet. You should maybe start with some basic chemistry courses, then read up on some metallurgy, and ore processing, to better understand the processes involved. When you get to the refining stage, this forum is a very good resource of knowledgable folks, willing to help most.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi community,

Looking for some guidance and direction in a non typical fire assay kiln. Most online assay sites all want rather smaller samples say around up to 10kg fires. So, in regards to the situation I'm looking for answers to. In dealing with micro inclusion and sulfide deposit of AU in different pyrite and other blasts containing much ladder sub atomic particles. So in my research, they say any washing or processing losses the micro AU particles that will float. Along with lead, zinc, silver , all those other mineral inclusive. Studies say fire-assay in smaller batches has more waste and loss of gold. The larger of firing to lose less. So to make a long story short. Does anyone have a large scale oil that does large fire assay cooks of say 50-100kgs of ore in large oven? To have less waste and do more ore at one time like the old Egyptian days with a huge crucible? Any help would be cool. I can tinker on small scale projects but looking to processes tons in holes in for several or more lbs... If low end calverite ore has 1% included AU of 1 ton that's 20 lbs of gold. Now that seems a high number and if anything of that number I'm dealing with, looking to fire assay large volume! Concentrates hydrothermal auric AU blasts of pyrite,load mining, industry standard.

I think you mix assaying and smelting.
Even though they might have superficial similarities they are indeed two different animals all together.
Smelting can be for all kinds of reasons.
Fire assaying has one objective, smelt a representative well mixed ore to find out what it contains.
This creates a usually lead button that contains “all” metals in the ore.
The button is then coupelled so only the PMs remain.
This small bead are then assessed and parted to analyse its content.

 

[MrAlaska907]

Typically I believ that fracking with mineral digestion is used you know for large scale. Say that it's only a few tons of selected down pockets and clefts that have been human concentrated and it's crushed to 70% pass 200mm fine dirt. Without washing it the.true fire on fire method will recover the silver as well. I know there is more silver then gold in some of these deposits. So I'm looking at fire assay of large batches to be.clean and non chemical.

Just curious, what is a large scale oil? Much of your post does not make sense to this community, with the jist that you want to do larger scale assays.Smelting is expensive, that is why it is performed on concentrated ores ( concentrates ). To understand that there are better ways of processing bulk ores with all the metals recovered in 1 smelt, is like making scrambled eggs with a bunch of bacon and vegetables cooked in, and then having to pick out all the ingredients to get them to a refined state, very difficult. It seems that you have a lot of reading and apprenticing to do, if you really want to pursue your course. It is a fun and interesting career. I'm not sure this is the place to be for you , yet. You should maybe start with some basic chemistry courses, then read up on some metallurgy, and ore processing, to better understand the processes involved. When you get to the refining stage, this forum is a very good resource of knowledgable folks, willing to help most.

 

[MrAlaska907]

I think you mix assaying and smelting.
Even though they might have superficial similarities they are indeed two different animals all together.
Smelting can be for all kinds of reasons.
Fire assaying has one objective, smelt a representative well mixed ore to find out what it contains.
This creates a usually lead button that contains “all” metals in the ore.
The button is then coupelled so only the PMs remain.
This small bead are then assessed and parted to analyse its content.

That would be fair. I just thought a fire smelt is under the field category of assay work. So anyways micro gold, simple sulfide pyrites with inclusion. Losing gold from small smelts looking for large volume firing with cupellation so the ore isn't washed or processed into concentration cause of the micro gold loss that floats off.

 

[Yggdrasil]

That would be fair. I just thought a fire smelt is under the field category of assay work. So anyways micro gold, simple sulfide pyrites with inclusion. Losing gold from small smelts looking for large volume firing with cupellation so the ore isn't washed or processed into concentration cause of the micro gold loss that floats off.

That is all processing.
The fire assays and other assays decide the way of processing.

 

[goldshark]

To keep the cost to a minimum, a well planned fire assay will give you results that are fairly accurate. Once you get a good assay, you can ramp it up to a 10 assay ton analysis, but this is usually reserved for an investor splitting hairs as to wether or not the grades will make or break the bank.