Million year old Rock

[Rocksmasher39]

Buenos dias! Good morning. I have a question , I'm trying to leach gold from a very heavy ( non magnetic) pre-cambrian stone that contained garnet. I'm trying to use the HCl and bleach method , but first I grounded up the very heavy rock to a fine gray powder, the smell is very strong , like a sulphur, volcanic smell , then I let it soak in chlorine bleach and HCl overnight, I then filtered it with filter paper and put it on heat,. For about 20 min then filtered it again onto a beaker and what came out was a lemonade yellow color liquid( not orange yellow how it's suppose to be), my question is this: why does the first filter paper contain a black , sooty grains mixed with gold glitter like specks? Shouldn't the HCL/bleach solution + heat have dissolved that?(btw posted are pics of the stone I'm referring to)

 

[Martijn]

Be very carefull with leaching rocks in acid. Some rocks can contain arsenic and more nasty stuff that can create deadly gases when put in acid.
Try to first pan out the heavies from the fine powder.
Roast the concentrate (don't breathe in the smoke) and then test a bit for precious metals to get an indication of whats there.

Rocks are usually fire assayed to see what they contain.

The shiny glitter bits sound like mica schist to me.
Could also be Pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral and looks shiny.

Some metals like iron dissolved in HCL are also yellow.

Orange color with gold in solution only happens when you have a lot of gold in it. That much will not likely be in one rock. Unless there are visilbe parts of gold in it.

Martijn.

 

[Rocksmasher39]

Be very carefull with leaching rocks in acid. Some rocks can contain arsenic and more nasty stuff that can create deadly gases when put in acid.
Try to first pan out the heavies from the fine powder.
Roast the concentrate (don't breathe in the smoke) and then test a bit for precious metals to get an indication of whats there.

Rocks are usually fire assayed to see what they contain.

The shiny glitter bits sound like mica schist to me.
Could also be Pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral and looks shiny.

Some metals like iron dissolved in HCL are also yellow.

Orange color with gold in solution only happens when you have a lot of gold in it. That much will not likely be in one rock. Unless there are visilbe parts of gold in it.

Martijn.

Thank you for sharing ! , I really appreciate this new info, I didn't even know there was anything like this mica stuff, thanks again for sharing light on this for me

 

[jadedalex]

Rock,
Don't be eager to start mixing chemicals. The chemicals used to extract precious metals are dangerous if misused, deadly if inhaled and certainly in need of great respect. You need to learn ALL the measures needed to be taken BEFORE you start fooling around with them. You might get away with cutting corners a few times but the last cut corner may cost you or someone around you your Lives...Read the information in the Library on this site. Pay particular attention to the SAFETY threads. They might keep you in one piece IF you listen...