newbie question:outdoor chemical separation from ore

[larz_d567]

hey all,
great website. lots of info that is helpful and new to me. i was curious if anyone had any input as to how to process a LARGE amount of gold bearing sand and gravel. the area is known for its micron gold, and there was quite a bit of gold recovered using a sluice, so there are high hopes. i dont know much about the chemistry but have been looking for some good info and this website seems like the ticket. searching for the safest and most efficient method to process. there are thousands of pounds to process. looking for the proper current output, the chemicals that work the best (cyanide?). these may sound like stupid questions but i think this is the right forum to post on. other miners are just worried about thier dredges and highbankers and dont seem to know much about it.
thanks for any info posted

-larryD

 

[semi-lucid]

Hello Larry

From what I read recently, Existing cyanide operations in Montana are allowed to continue operating, but new operations are banned.

John

 

[larz_d567]

i figured that cyanide leeching was banned. thats why i am asking about a proper method that might work to leech or separate the gold from the material

 

[semi-lucid]

The proper method may be cyanide. Depends on your material.

 

[Richard36]

What are you doing to concentrate your material? If it were my operation, I would washplant the paydirt to collect the gold and black sands, then run the recovered heavies in a concrete mixer with some mercury and water to amalgamate the free milling material, then run this material through a " blue bowl" to recover the mercury-gold amalgam. This amalgam can then be placed in a glass coffee pot, from an electric perc set up, with a solution mix of 1 prt Nitric Acid / 1 prt Water. Place this on the hot plate for the pot, (You might as well buy an electric perc set, it will be part of your recovery equipment), and slowly let it warm up. As it does, it will dissolve the mercury into solution, leaving the gold as a sponge, or as very fine needles if quite pure and free of silver.Pour the bulk of this solution into a large plastic container, a feul can complete with a plastic cap will work fine. save this solution, the mercury can be recovered by diluting the nitric solution with an equal part of water, then placing it in plastic 5 gal buckets with a piece of copper plate suspended from a string tied to a board placed over the bucket. This will allow you to recover the mercury out of the nitric solution by having the mercury adhere to the copper plate, thus coming out of solution. Anyway, moving on,Take the remaining Nitric solution with the Gold, and filter it through a coffee filter in a large plastic funnel, with the funnel in an appropriate glass or plastic container to catch the filtered solution. Rinse this filtered gold with water to remove all traces of mercury and nitrates. Put this solution in the plastic container for the spent nitric acid. The Gold thus recovered can be dried and smelted with a flux mixture of 2prts Borax / 1prt Sodium Carbonate,(Soda Ash) / 1prt silica. (Use two parts flux to one part material being smelted.) This melt can then be poured to a lightly greased mold to cool. The slag is prone to fracture as it cools, throwing razor sharp fragments in various directions, so wear eye protection, and don't stand over it watching it cool. When cool, turn over the mold and tap it on a steel plate. The slag and ingot should fall free from the mold. Tap, or Whack, the contact area of the ingot and slag with a hammer. The slag should snap free from the Bullion. I hope this has been helpful. Sincerely; Rick.