Placer gold clean up

[Anonymous]

I saw this forum in responce to an internet search about black sand cleanup.

I run a placer gold mine in sonora mex. we produce a lot of black sands. currently we are cleaning up using shaker tables, grinders etc. i have used mercury but really prefer not to use that anymore.

I have read about smelting gold, using borax etc. I am not an expert in this.

Can anyone send me in the right direction. we get about 100lbs of black sand concentrates daily and that number will rise as we increase production.

this is a commercial venture that will end up doing $1mm a month in gold.

i Know it sounds like you've run into a complete fool here.

any directional guidance is appreicated

tm

 

[swlaurier]

you could us the this system called cleangold. I have not used this item yet but i will in the near future.

http://cleangold.com/cleangold/home.html

you can also get cleangold system from this site in the states.

http://www.goldpanprospectors.com/sluicing.html


or you could use a leaching system.
i have found this site helpful.


http://webpages.charter.net/kwilliams00/bcftp/bcftp.htm


Brian

 

[aussco999]

Hey Trotwood:

I was on a placer project a few years back in northern Sonora up in the Valley of Altar area, just west of Caborca. It was a great project and I worked with some very good people, but the coming and going across the border every month was getting a little to unstable for comfort at that time. From what I’ve recently heard, it hasn’t improved much, if anything it’s gotten worst.

A 100 lbs. of black sands (a couple 5 gallon buckets) isn’t a lot per day, but it probably adds up after a while. I guess my first question would be, have you had the BS properly assayed for values yet? There use to be a fairly good and reliable laboratory located at the university in Hermosillo, but I would have to check some old files to give you a possible name there.

I don’t recall our placer project having a lot of black sands either, and if my memory serves me correctly (which is questionable lately), at the time we were running somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/3 oz/ton of gold in the BS. The price of gold at the time didn’t economically warrant installing a recovery system for the BS. If you think your values are high enough, at a 100 lbs. (+/-) per day, I would suggest a small batch ball mill running for several hours, then rerunning the BS back across a small clean up table,,, and call that good enough.

Trying a leaching system on BS is normally not a feasible option as the only real cost effective chemical for BS is cyanide. I’m currently working on a medium size hard rock project in southern Mexico and it’s taken almost 3 years to get all of the mining/mill permits in place, and that’s without using chemicals. I can’t even image the time and cost of a cyanide permit in Mexico these days.

Anyway, I wish you the best on your project and stay safe down there. It’s a great country with some good people, but there are some very bad Hombres running around causing all kinds of trouble now days.

Take care and good luck, :mrgreen:

John