muriatic/clorox droping with smb
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eeTHr
Well-known member
solarsmith said:
If there is no Au in this first test batch, does anyone know what the brown red cloud could have been (mentioned in solarsmith's first post)?
Richard36
Well-known member
Hello Solarsmith!
Now this is a thread I can get into!
Recover every bit of sulfide that you can get out of that rock, it is the Gold bearing mineral within it, provided it does not contain free milling gold, as you figured it might. You are correct, sulfides more often than not contain gold and silver, and in some cases they will contain platinum.
Roast those sulfides at 800F for a couple of hours to drive off the sulfur, at which point, they should be a reddish brown color. This will convert the sulfides to oxides, which will be a whole lot easier to work with.
At this point, your muratic/clorox method should take into solution all the metals that it contains. Test that solution with the Stanous chloride solution to see if it contains any gold. The stanous chloride must be fresh, It does not store well. I make mine by placing a sniping of tin/lead solder in a test tube with muriatic acid, and heating the tube with a propane torch. The acid will turn colorless, and at that point, it will have enough to do the test. I keep a small vial of aqua regia with dissolved gold in it on hand to test my stanous solution with to make sure that it is working, and you would do well to do the same.
As stated earlier, 1/2 oz per ton is not much when working a mine as a small miner, and you would be a whole lot better off if you could sell your sulfide concentrates, but there in lies the dillema, I have the same problem.
I have located a deposit close where I live that assays out at 1.17 oz tn. Au, and 3.51 oz tn. Ag. I lack facilities at the moment to work with sulfides on a large scale, so have been looking for a place to ship them for processing, or to outright sell them. As a result, I have not started operations because of the cost involved, and a lack of market for the concentrates. I have made the mistake of starting operations with out processing facilities or a known market once before. It was a costly learning experience. One that I will not repeat, and hope that you do not do as I have done.
If you can recover your gold with this muratic/clorox method, I will reconsider my stance immediately.
I hope that you can.
I hope to hear back from you on this.
Questions and comments are welcome.
Sincerely; Rick.
Now this is a thread I can get into!
Recover every bit of sulfide that you can get out of that rock, it is the Gold bearing mineral within it, provided it does not contain free milling gold, as you figured it might. You are correct, sulfides more often than not contain gold and silver, and in some cases they will contain platinum.
Roast those sulfides at 800F for a couple of hours to drive off the sulfur, at which point, they should be a reddish brown color. This will convert the sulfides to oxides, which will be a whole lot easier to work with.
At this point, your muratic/clorox method should take into solution all the metals that it contains. Test that solution with the Stanous chloride solution to see if it contains any gold. The stanous chloride must be fresh, It does not store well. I make mine by placing a sniping of tin/lead solder in a test tube with muriatic acid, and heating the tube with a propane torch. The acid will turn colorless, and at that point, it will have enough to do the test. I keep a small vial of aqua regia with dissolved gold in it on hand to test my stanous solution with to make sure that it is working, and you would do well to do the same.
As stated earlier, 1/2 oz per ton is not much when working a mine as a small miner, and you would be a whole lot better off if you could sell your sulfide concentrates, but there in lies the dillema, I have the same problem.
I have located a deposit close where I live that assays out at 1.17 oz tn. Au, and 3.51 oz tn. Ag. I lack facilities at the moment to work with sulfides on a large scale, so have been looking for a place to ship them for processing, or to outright sell them. As a result, I have not started operations because of the cost involved, and a lack of market for the concentrates. I have made the mistake of starting operations with out processing facilities or a known market once before. It was a costly learning experience. One that I will not repeat, and hope that you do not do as I have done.
If you can recover your gold with this muratic/clorox method, I will reconsider my stance immediately.
I hope that you can.
I hope to hear back from you on this.
Questions and comments are welcome.
Sincerely; Rick.
solarsmith
Well-known member
My roasting furnace is almost done, pics soon! been busy getting the new froth cell column together.
Iv now heard that 500 degrees and also 800 degrees may work for roasting... Iv also read that rock salt in the mix during a roast is a good idea... was there any other things I should put in it?
thanks BRYAN
Iv now heard that 500 degrees and also 800 degrees may work for roasting... Iv also read that rock salt in the mix during a roast is a good idea... was there any other things I should put in it?
thanks BRYAN
Richard36
Well-known member
solarsmith said:
Excellent, I look forward to seeing those photos.
As far as roasting your sulfides, I got my book out to check up on myself.
You should first give them a "Reduction Roast" in a sealed steel container so that no air can get to the sulfides. The addition of powdered charcole, or carbon may be added with the sulfides, and might be necessary.
Roast them in this manner for an hour at 750F after they have reached this temperature.
Then follow up with an "Oxidizing Roast", which is a roast with the sulfides exposed to the air.
The temperature for the 'Oxidizing Roast" is 1150F. After reaching temperature, roast for an hour.
I hope that this has been of some help to you and others.
Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome, as well as appreciated.
Sincerely; Rick.
solarsmith
Well-known member
http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx177/solarsmith2000/roastingore.jpg this is my new roaster I cant realy tell how hot its getting but the aluminum rivets in the handles melted realy fast.. the ore is just going though and oxide roast next I add the rocksalt for a chloridizing roast...
and then an acid leach... or should I put the ore concentrate in a small crucible with flux.? thanks BRYAN
and then an acid leach... or should I put the ore concentrate in a small crucible with flux.? thanks BRYAN
Richard36
Well-known member
solarsmith said:
Hello Bryan.
I appreciate your response, greatly!
If you have done the "Reduction Roast" to remove the sulfur, and reduce the metals present into a metalic form, then followed up with an "Oxidizing Roast" to convert the metals into "Oxides", Then roasted them again with Rocksalt, (which would free the chlorine in the salt producing Chlorine gas) the Chlorine gas would react with the oxides of the metals produced to create water soluable Chlorides of the metals within your ore.
The metals could then be removed from the ore by simply placing the chlorine gassed ore in some type of container setup that would allow you to filter water through it to recover the metals.
Of note here at this point,
The Rock Salt will no longer be salt if the roast was done long enough to drive off all the chlorine from it.
It will be sodium metal, (from what I have read anyway), and all other metals will be water soluable chlorides.
Any sodium that did recombine with chlorine, would of course be salt, and therefore would not be an issue.
Since sodium metal will react with water creating hydrogen gas, and burst into flame,
be carefull with this next step.
Use enough water to rinse your ore thoroughly to recover your metals, then evaporate the water to 1/3 of the original volume so that you have a concentrated solution.
At this point, GSP, Harold_V, or others with knowledge of Chlorides can give you further instructions.
I need to go reread my books to be of further assistance at this point.
The Chlorides of each metal can be recovered as individual metals.
My problem is that I forgot how, and need to reread up on that subject.
I hope that this has been of help to you, and others.
Sincerely; Rick. a.k.a. "The Rock Man".
Richard36
Well-known member
Just a thought,
Gold chloride will gas off in a fire assay unless converted to some other form,
so if the chlorine gas produced from the rock salt does change the gold to a chloride,
it might be lost as a fume during the roasting process.
If not, this would be an easy way to process sulfide ores.
The gold should be able to be recovered from solution with Ferrous Sulfate, or Sulfur Dioxide gas.
For those better informed than me,
Further comments, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely; Rick a.k.a. "The Rock Man".
Gold chloride will gas off in a fire assay unless converted to some other form,
so if the chlorine gas produced from the rock salt does change the gold to a chloride,
it might be lost as a fume during the roasting process.
If not, this would be an easy way to process sulfide ores.
The gold should be able to be recovered from solution with Ferrous Sulfate, or Sulfur Dioxide gas.
For those better informed than me,
Further comments, and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely; Rick a.k.a. "The Rock Man".
