Old Prospector Makes Good

[PGMMEX]

Hola a todos
Después de aproximadamente 13 años de ausencia de este foro, no podía recordar mi nombre de usuario o contraseña.
Ahora los niños han crecido un poco y comencé nuevamente a reciclar computadoras viejas y cualquier deseo electrónico interesante con mi antiguo equipo y conocimiento.
Soy del sur de Alemania y desde ayer tengo 60 años. Espero poder encontrar nuevos aportes después de todos estos años y probablemente contribuiré a responder algunas preguntas.

¡Atentamente!

 

[Nountaineer]

I made a discovery and now need help. I am in Arizona and already own a rich silver deposit here. I have waited 35 years to find another deposit. It is a rich jarosite platinum/gold deposit with other PG metals present. I need help with processing this ore. I need a good flux recipe and help getting my propane furnace as hot as possible since this is high temperature ore.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I made a discovery and now need help. I am in Arizona and already own a rich silver deposit here. I have waited 35 years to find another deposit. It is a rich jarosite platinum/gold deposit with other PG metals present. I need help with processing this ore. I need a good flux recipe and help getting my propane furnace as hot as possible since this is high temperature ore.

Usually an assay will make these things easier.
And setting up an operation yourself might be very expensive so you might consider getting someone to refine it for you.

 

[Nountaineer]

I was told to take it to Utah, to BASF/ Englehard but need cash to buy truck and trailer to haul it. That is why I need to process and sell some of it. It is very rich, base ore is .03 percent for each metal. The higher grades run $50000/ton and better!

 

[Yggdrasil]

I was told to take it to Utah, to BASF/ Englehard but need cash to buy truck and trailer to haul it. That is why I need to process and sell some of it. It is very rich, base ore is .03 percent for each metal. The higher grades run $50000/ton and better!

As I said, I don't think you will attract much interest without an assay, preferably a NiS assay.

 

[Nountaineer]

I was told to take 1000 lbs to them for assay and costs around a thousand dollars.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I was told to take 1000 lbs to them for assay and costs around a thousand dollars.

I do not know much of the specifics, but that seems like a lot of ore.
It is expensive I know that.
There are other assayers for PGMs around, I do not know where or who though.

 

[goldshark]

I have seen a lot of this in my 50 or so years of mining related endeavors. Guys with mills can say they want 1000 # of your high grade, and we'll see how rich it is. They run it, keep the cons, then say we will keep the cons because it was a break even run for the mill. One of many such scams, and it may even be legit. Long story short, a simple, honest representative assay, will tell the story. No real need to run 1000#. I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but if you cannot afford to get 1000# across a couple of states, you will not be able to finance a mining operation on your own, unless of course it is a super rich, easily processed deposit. There are ways to finance it by a variety of investors though. It can get complicated financially, something I would not prefer to do, but poor people have to make poor choices. You could also look to sell it outright. Good luck.

 

[goldshark]

I was told to take it to Utah, to BASF/ Englehard but need cash to buy truck and trailer to haul it. That is why I need to process and sell some of it. It is very rich, base ore is .03 percent for each metal. The higher grades run $50000/ton and better!

Have you had any tests done on the ore to determine the optimum liberation size, and the method best suited to recovering those values? How did you determine the .03 % for each metal yields? Is it easy to get a milling permit where you are located? Is this ore stockpiled on the surface, or underground? How wide is the deposit? What kind of permits do you have in place? Only reason I am asking, is because I am looking for a winter work project. PM me if you like.

 

[Nountaineer]

I have seen a lot of this in my 50 or so years of mining related endeavors. Guys with mills can say they want 1000 # of your high grade, and we'll see how rich it is. They run it, keep the cons, then say we will keep the cons because it was a break even run for the mill. One of many such scams, and it may even be legit. Long story short, a simple, honest representative assay, will tell the story. No real need to run 1000#. I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but if you cannot afford to get 1000# across a couple of states, you will not be able to finance a mining operation on your own, unless of course it is a super rich, easily processed deposit. There are ways to finance it by a variety of investors though. It can get complicated financially, something I would not prefer to do, but poor people have to make poor choices. You could also look to sell it outright. Good luck.

Thank you, BASF purchased Englehard last year and they are the premier platinum refinery in the USA and well known. My super high grade is about $50k/ton.

 

[Nountaineer]

Have you had any tests done on the ore to determine the optimum liberation size, and the method best suited to recovering those values? How did you determine the .03 % for each metal yields? Is it easy to get a milling permit where you are located? Is this ore stockpiled on the surface, or underground? How wide is the deposit? What kind of permits do you have in place? Only reason I am asking, is because I am looking for a winter work project. PM me if you like.

All by x-ray spectroscopy and assay yield same results . General ore runs.03 percent for both. High grade has same gold but double the platinum. Super high grade has been panned only. Mine is a back yard operation to begin with to purchase a truck and trailer then haul it to the refinery in Utah. I want to learn how to extract the platinum group compounds and crystals for processing. I believe it also contains rhodium.

 

[Yggdrasil]

All by x-ray spectroscopy and assay yield same results . General ore runs.03 percent for both. High grade has same gold but double the platinum. Super high grade has been panned only. Mine is a back yard operation to begin with to purchase a truck and trailer then haul it to the refinery in Utah. I want to learn how to extract the platinum group compounds and crystals for processing. I believe it also contains rhodium.

What kind of assay has been done?

 

[nickvc]

To add to Yggdrasil’s post above I will point out that xrf results especially with low amounts of PGMs are notoriously unreliable even on bars, unless they have the correct menu loaded they will guess what’s there.
Have a proper assay done it could save you a lot of time and money long term.

 

[kurtak]

All by x-ray spectroscopy and assay yield same results

An XRF is VERY unreliable for testing (assaying) rocks/ore

They make XRFs with different "programs" depending on the needs of the user

Examples; - Scrap yards buy XRFs programed to read the metals (&/or alloys) that commonly come into their scrap yard - so a scrap yard XRF usually won't have precious metal in the program - therefore - if you shoot a precious metal (like gold) the XRF guesses at what it is looking at & then calls it something that is in the program --- in the case of a scrap yard XRF looking at gold it will call the gold tungsten because gold is not in the program but tungsten is in the program

Likewise - jeweler's & we buy/sell precious metal stores buy an XRF programed to read precious &/or their common alloys metals but they won't have other metals in the program - like arsenic - so if you shoot a rock or piece of ore that has arsenic in it with one of these XRFs - when it sees the arsenic it is again going to guess at what it is seeing & call it one of the precious metals that is in the program - they usually call the arsenic one of the PGMs when in fact it is arsenic

So if the XRF you used is ether one of these type XRFs you can not depend - at all - on what the XRF is telling you & in fact the XRF is more then likely lying to you

Then there is the XRF that is programed with a Geo Chemical program - these are actually programed for reading rocks/ores --- they have more elements/metals in the program then the other two types XRF - so somewhat more accurate

However - they are in no way reliable as a true assay - at best - they really only give you an indication of whether the rock/ore is worthy of taking the next step of having a true assay done - or not

So where &/or who did you take your ore to have it XRFed --- if it was to a "we buy gold" store --- the XRF read out likely can NOT be relied on AT ALL

Kurt

 

[Nountaineer]

What kind of assay has been done?

We did our own assay with lead and tested by x-ray spectroscopy to confirm.

 

[Nountaineer]

An XRF is VERY unreliable for testing (assaying) rocks/ore

They make XRFs with different "programs" depending on the needs of the user

Examples; - Scrap yards buy XRFs programed to read the metals (&/or alloys) that commonly come into their scrap yard - so a scrap yard XRF usually won't have precious metal in the program - therefore - if you shoot a precious metal (like gold) the XRF guesses at what it is looking at & then calls it something that is in the program --- in the case of a scrap yard XRF looking at gold it will call the gold tungsten because gold is not in the program but tungsten is in the program

Likewise - jeweler's & we buy/sell precious metal stores buy an XRF programed to read precious &/or their common alloys metals but they won't have other metals in the program - like arsenic - so if you shoot a rock or piece of ore that has arsenic in it with one of these XRFs - when it sees the arsenic it is again going to guess at what it is seeing & call it one of the precious metals that is in the program - they usually call the arsenic one of the PGMs when in fact it is arsenic

So if the XRF you used is ether one of these type XRFs you can not depend - at all - on what the XRF is telling you & in fact the XRF is more then likely lying to you

Then there is the XRF that is programed with a Geo Chemical program - these are actually programed for reading rocks/ores --- they have more elements/metals in the program then the other two types XRF - so somewhat more accurate

However - they are in no way reliable as a true assay - at best - they really only give you an indication of whether the rock/ore is worthy of taking the next step of having a true assay done - or not

So where &/or who did you take your ore to have it XRFed --- if it was to a "we buy gold" store --- the XRF read out likely can NOT be relied on AT ALL

Kurt

Tested by buyer of jewelry scrap and is accurate. I did tests on a variety of samples and is reliable but they do assays also to confirm it.

 

[Martijn]

You don't need to assay anything. You said you own a rich silver claim and found a rich platinum/gold deposit. So that is a fact, no need to check twice. Keep it quiet, mine the silver, scale up as you make a profit and claim the platinum/gold deposit to take your equipment and experience over there.

 

[Nountaineer]

You don't need to assay anything. You said you own a rich silver claim and found a rich platinum/gold deposit. So that is a fact, no need to check twice. Keep it quiet, mine the silver, scale up as you make a profit and claim the platinum/gold deposit to take your equipment and experience over there.

Thank you, it is owned by a corporation and I have been given exclusive access to the ore from It. No need to claim it.

 

[Southfork]

The corporation should have their own assays. Maybe they would sell you a copy?

 

[Darkthirty]

Thank you, it is owned by a corporation and I have been given exclusive access to the ore from It. No need to claim it.

Wouldn't the corp be interested in funding on a partner basis?