Leaching With Eco-Goldex Question

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

I'm very novice in regards to precious metals extraction using leaching ... only a little more than maybe a few hours of research on the topic ... but one of the key issues/concerns i see is in regards to disposal of the treated black sand .....

my study so far indicates you have to do a thorough job of washing/rinsing all the black sand to remove "all" the pregnant solution from the sand ... but, after the washing/rinsing stage; what are the black sands classified as? ... if 99.99% of the solution is washed out of the sands, and then the sands are layed out to dry in the sunlight for days - what are the sands classified as from an enviro point of view? ... any insights at all appreciated ..... is there a standard procedure for disposing leached computer scrap? - as i haven't come across much intel about it yet.

Do you think the Eco-Goldex system is environmentally friendly enough for the washed/rinsed post-process black sand to be considered non-hazardous?

 

[galenrog]

If you use Eco-Goldex, you will be disappointed. The reasons have been discussed several time on the Forum.

Before purchasing, it that is your intention, please use the forum search function and study all threads that come up.

Time for more coffee.

 

[Martijn]

All the times this forum had questions about eco goldex shows the company is more concerned about selling a product than good user manuls and customer service.
I thought it was cyanide based. ?

Anyway, what galenrog said.

 

[Martijn]

I heard that after roasting, grinding another run of roasting and grinding black sands sometimes liberates more gold.

 

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

If you use Eco-Goldex, you will be disappointed. The reasons have been discussed several time on the Forum.

Before purchasing, it that is your intention, please use the forum search function and study all threads that come up.

Time for more coffee.

I've read quite a bit of the content on this topic from this website already ... but will keep reading/documenting more ... thanks for the advice.

Also ... I would only be interested in doing a small experiment with it at first ... and my default position on pretty much any type of experiment would be; low expectations.

 

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

All the times this forum had questions about eco goldex shows the company is more concerned about selling a product than good user manuls and customer service.
I thought it was cyanide based. ?

Anyway, what galenrog said.

From what i deduce ... the way the product is delivered in a system of different dry chemicals, it dosnt' meet the definition of cyanide ... however, after you combine some or all of the suggested ingredients - they form somewhat of a potent chemical concoction of some type ... i dont know enough about chemistry yet to know all the ins&outs.

 

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

I heard that after roasting, grinding another run of roasting and grinding black sands sometimes liberates more gold.

There's different levels of quality to black sand ... some of the rarer deposits can hold much higher values on average than the bulk of the alluvial gravel deposits ... which means they are more amenable to recovery methods involving a higher output of energy/costs ... while lower grade material is more amenable to the lower energy/cost recovery methods.

 

[Yggdrasil]

From what i deduce ... the way the product is delivered in a system of different dry chemicals, it dosnt' meet the definition of cyanide ... however, after you combine some or all of the suggested ingredients - they form somewhat of a potent chemical concoction of some type ... i dont know enough about chemistry yet to know all the ins&outs.

I think they have several products.
And most have a Ferri/Ferro cyanide as the main ingredience which is not entirely Cyanide per se. But the leaching agent is the CN ion which is the Cyanide ion.
The problem with many of these agents is that they are wrapped in with different proprietary mixes which will refuse to give up the Gold unless you buy their magic anti magic concoction.
So we recommend using plain chemicals which is much cheaper and another upside is that you don't need any magic to get your Gold out.

 

[Martijn]

From what i deduce ... the way the product is delivered in a system of different dry chemicals, it dosnt' meet the definition of cyanide ... however, after you combine some or all of the suggested ingredients - they form somewhat of a potent chemical concoction of some type ... i dont know enough about chemistry yet to know all the ins&outs.

can you name the ingredients?

 

[nickvc]

If you have washed the black sands and then laid them out in sunlight then any cyanide will be destroyed, uv light destroys any of the cyanide complex that could possibly remain.

 

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

can you name the ingredients?

No ... i cannot .... here's a quote from a research paper i found .....

"The Eco-Goldex mixture contains several substances, which
are individually weaker than cyanide, but their combination has a significantly stronger effect, which could even compete with cyanide." .....

https://lutpub.lut.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/164734/LUT_Masters-thesis_Richard-Tache.pdf

 

[Martijn]

So this company provided chemicals without any way to inform yourself about the dangers or search for an MSDS? How can you safely perform the refining?

You will learn one thing from this: how to follow steps without understanding what you are doing and being stuck with buying that product since you do not know how it works. And if the steps are applicable to your 'ore' you could have succes.
If not, you will end up here asking for help.

It sound like a great sales line. it's better than cyanide, and possibly could even compete? if its stronger, it should work better and be able to maybe compete?
A company that truly thrives on the gullibility of customers.
Can you share all the info that is actually given?

 

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

Can you share all the info that is actually given?

The 2 main pages where they keep their articles for public access are located here .....

* Articles - Eco-Goldex

* Instructions - Eco-Goldex

* The MSDS for their "E" series product (for e-waste) .....
https://eco-goldex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1-E-Eco-Goldex-E-Series-MSDS-2019-002.pdf
* The MSDS for their "O" series product (for mining ore) .....
https://eco-goldex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2-Eco-goldex-MSDS-August-12-2020.pdf

 

[4metals]

Heavy sands is up against a difficult situation as the chemistry many would choose is unavailable to him in Canada. Since eco goldex is also Canadian possibly he can have samples processed in their lab as a potential
customer. As far as the original question about the spent solids being hazardous that can be answered by having a TCLP test performed on the residues to determine if it is hazardous. And even if it is hazardous because “something” leaches out to fail the material there are chelating agents available to treat solids to lock up these metals and pass the test.
Heavy sands is obviously doing what we always suggest, which is read and study the forum, but he is faced with limitations most of us are not faced with. I think one of his best options is to determine the effectiveness of eco goldex or similar products on his material and, with the help of forum members and tech staff at eco goldex, work towards a solution.

 

[Heavy-Black-Sand]

Heavy sands is up against a difficult situation as the chemistry many would choose is unavailable to him in Canada.

Thanks for remembering my situation ..... unfortunately, Canada has become somewhat of a proving grounds for UN/WEF policy (which i suspect has something to do with Trudeau's growing unpopularity) ..... i sometimes refer to Canada when speaking to my US friends as "UN occupied territory" ..... if you Amercians don't fiercly protect your freedoms, you will soon be facing the same problems that we face up here.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Please don't stray into politics. It is against forum rules and only serves to divide our members.

Dave

 

[tasgold]

goldex results from 100kg of ram after following instructions -= 0 gm of gold

 

[FrugalRefiner]

goldex results from 100kg of ram after following instructions -= 0 gm of gold

Very sorry to hear that.

Any gold that was originally in your material is still there amidst the solids left over from leaching, or in the solution. As many have cautioned, getting the gold back out of these leaches can be problematic.

Read through all the posts on these leaches. You may need to buy their special precipitant to get your gold, but if you've processed 100kg it may be worth it.

Dave

 

[Martijn]

goldex results from 100kg of ram after following instructions -= 0 gm of gold

Have you followed the precipitation pdf in the instructions?

The 2 main pages where they keep their articles for public access are located here .....

* Articles - Eco-Goldex

* Instructions - Eco-Goldex

* The MSDS for their "E" series product (for e-waste) .....
https://eco-goldex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1-E-Eco-Goldex-E-Series-MSDS-2019-002.pdf
* The MSDS for their "O" series product (for mining ore) .....
https://eco-goldex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2-Eco-goldex-MSDS-August-12-2020.pdf

There are two ways, chemical precipitation or with zinc strips.

 

[billgold]

Their process uses urea and zinc strips - two chemicals I would rather avoid as unnecessary and troublesome.

From the MDS, one of the chemicals is a ferrocyanide complex.

They have a warning to make sure enough zinc is used that new zinc strips are no longer reactive. This is to ensure that there is no more reactant in the solution that could partly or completely redissolve the gold/silver/PGMs.

I find it interesting that there is no mention of stannous chloride or testing the solutions with it. Is it useless in a solution containing a cyanide complex?