Bklopsy,
It would help if you explained what you did in detail. When you say you “lost a ½ teaspoon” it does not mean much, was it a powder from precipitate? Were you using a torch with a furnace like Steve sells or an open crucible/ melting dish, or an electric furnace. By lost to your crucible do you mean blown away or now the gold is part of the crucible/flux.
Here is a picture of one of my gold crucibles. It is a poor picture taken with my phone but it should show you well enough how a crucible should look if used for only fine gold with torch melting.