Need someone with xrf

[joseph1990]

I have about 16 grams of copper gold alloy and want someone to assay the contents.
I would just need the results fast as possible but you can keep the product. I'm thinking there is at least 10% gold with a micrograms of silver. Need a response as soon as possible.

 

[nickvc]

Not meaning to be rude but what is the source of this material? If it’s e scrap unless it’s been processed to a certain degree the chances of it been anywhere close to 10% Au is slim to none.
If the gold content is very low then an xrf reading is worthless in most cases so a proper assay will be needed to find out the precious metal content especially if you are looking at buying this material and even then be cautious that the seller hasn’t cherry picked the sample.

 

[joseph1990]

Not meaning to be rude but what is the source of this material? If it’s e scrap unless it’s been processed to a certain degree the chances of it been anywhere close to 10% Au is slim to none.
If the gold content is very low then an xrf reading is worthless in most cases so a proper assay will be needed to find out the precious metal content especially if you are looking at buying this material and even then be cautious that the seller hasn’t cherry picked the sample.

No, it's not e-scrap. It's black sands but I used microwave to smelt. I'm just testing if theories related to dielectric volatisation of molecules do in fact lead up to increased agglomeration. I will post a pic later

 

[nickvc]

I would really love someone to come out of the I have found a gold mine and look at all these values with a smile on their face, so far as far as I can recall it’s not happened, if it’s you keep us informed..
I have to say get real, most places in the world have been mapped and surveyed so if you really find a honey spot it’s experience or sheer luck, in my country it’s never going to happen but in a global situation who knows.

 

[joseph1990]

I would really love someone to come out of the I have found a gold mine and look at all these values with a smile on their face, so far as far as I can recall it’s not happened, if it’s you keep us informed..
I have to say get real, most places in the world have been mapped and surveyed so if you really find a honey spot it’s experience or sheer luck, in my country it’s never going to happen but in a global situation who knows.

It's not the normal black sand from the ground, it's artificial from gold plating so there is gold but the amount is unknown. From my calculations it should be 4.75 grams but could be more, for someone to take the gold and shoot a xrf on it for free 4.75 grams I'm thinking is a good deal but I could be totally wrong and it contains less than 2 grams but I doubt it will be less than a gram. Regardless of the matter, I'm really trying to master a process which to me is priceless since I can use it for years and decades.

 

[jonn]

I'd be happy to test it for you Joseph. Pm me

 

[joseph1990]

just went to the local refiner with xrf, place looked very shady. Gave him the two pieces then he proceeded to run it through xrf. He then stated to me it 3% gold, I told him to melt it to get a better understanding but he said that it should be accurate enough even with the small sulfides dots on the surface.
He then proceeded to weigh and then said that it weighed 20 grams. I unfortunately told him that it weighed 18 grams in my introductory statement....he said my weight was probably more accurate.
Should I be worried?

 

[nickvc]

As the source is from a plating shop it could contain a variety of metals some of which can cause problems in recovery, my advice is to take 3-5 small samples from throughout the pile and process them, make each sample the same weight and see what they produce, I think your calculations are way off and the xrf reading will be closer to the truth but at that low a reading who knows. Bear in mind your were expecting it to be nearly 20% gold and no platers ever wasted that much gold without an attempt to recover it.
A picture of the material before melting might help you get advice as to how to recover the values.

 

[joseph1990]

As the source is from a plating shop it could contain a variety of metals some of which can cause problems in recovery, my advice is to take 3-5 small samples from throughout the pile and process them, make each sample the same weight and see what they produce, I think your calculations are way off and the xrf reading will be closer to the truth but at that low a reading who knows. Bear in mind your were expecting it to be nearly 20% gold and no platers ever wasted that much gold without an attempt to recover it.
A picture of the material before melting might help you get advice as to how to recover the values.

So yeah he said 91% copper then proceeded to tell me it's 3% gold
This is the first piece I had inspected the second piece is somewhere in my car.
Any tips on setting traps for shady people/corporations?

 

[nickvc]

If you have access to nitric then simply weigh the other piece and put it into a beaker cover with water and heat and slowly add nitric until all reaction has ceased, decant and rinse well with water and dry any remaining powders and weigh once fully dry.
With that much copper the gold should be fairly clean and if not simply dissolve the powder in reactants of your choice filter and precipitate then dry and weigh. If there is any silver in the mix you can either cement it out or add Hcl or salt and recover it as a chloride.

 

[joseph1990]

If you have access to nitric then simply weigh the other piece and put it into a beaker cover with water and heat and slowly add nitric until all reaction has ceased, decant and rinse well with water and dry any remaining powders and weigh once fully dry.
With that much copper the gold should be fairly clean and if not simply dissolve the powder in reactants of your choice filter and precipitate then dry and weigh. If there is any silver in the mix you can either cement it out or add Hcl or salt and recover it as a chloride.

Do you have a recommendation on filter paper?

 

[nickvc]

You can use a coffee filter paper or even the charmin plug, paper balled up and put into a funnel, for a cheap test use whatever is easiest to source or male.

 

[joseph1990]

You can use a coffee filter paper or even the charmin plug, paper balled up and put into a funnel, for a cheap test use whatever is easiest to source or male.

Ok, buying some nitric will post results on here. Will take me a week or two

 

[g_axelsson]

If you don't have any experience working with nitric I suggest that you don't start working on that one unique sample. You should do some tests so you are ready for what the reactions are. Boil over, that red NOx cloud, tin in nitric acid, silver...

Hoke has a number of suggested experiments, do them first, it will save you time in the end.
http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/Hoke_acquaintance_experiments

Göran

 

[cincyfriz]

I have an Olympus XRF . If it isn't against the forum rules I would be happy to test the material for you. Just text me 513-201-7511 .