Red magnetic ore

[honesto]

To Brandt,

the problem sometimes in locating for precious metal ores is that the ores cannot be seen. The best thing to do i think is to look for the precious metal halos.After that bulls eye the ore. This can be done by simple colorimetry. In prospecting carry for the precious metal halo carry nitric acid and test-tubes. Little samples will react with the little nitric acid to produce characteristic precious metal colors. Particularly when the material is contaminated with platinum group of metals. Purple of cassius when you are dead center on a high grade gold vein( Sometimes hair thin gold veins).
Hope to have contributed something of value...I have had more than 30 years experience in looking for ores as a prospector.Even at dilute nitric solutions characteristic precious metal colors will appear. For questions and clarifications feel free to post.

 

[Richard36]

[Chuckle],

It is a little more complicated than that.

The following reactions take place with high grade ore.

Aqua regia (Neutralized) + Stanous Chloride = Purple to Black for Au. [Relavent to gold content]
--------------------------------------------------- = Yellow for Pt.
--------------------------------------------------- = Blue-Green for Pd.
---------------------------- + Potassium Iodide = Red Solution for Pt.
---------------------------- + Potassium Iodide = Black Solution for Pd.
---------------------------- + Acetone or Ethanol = Black precipitate for Rd.

Nitric acid + Hydrochloric Acid = A white precipitate of Silver Chloride.

Hydrochloric Acid = Orange Solution, + Nitric Acid = Black Precipitate for Ru.

This will get you started, lol!

I hope that this has been helpfull.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".

 

[honesto]

Correct, and maybe i could start manufacturing those metals again from high grade au pgm ores found in my country. That is when i can find time and some extra funds and nice excuses to disappear in the boondocks. Rhodium is a nasty metal though , nearly took my thighs off one time.Thanks for the chuckle and the qualifying information.

Honesto

 

[Platdigger]

Rick, in your post you say: "Aqua regia (Neutralized)"

Do you mean "denoxed"?

 

[Richard36]

Thanks Honesto.

I wish you the best of luck in your endevors.

What's the story with your experience with Rhodium?
Thanks again for the compliment on the testing procedures for ores, and of course, the chuckle.

Rick, in your post you say: "Aqua regia (Neutralized)". Do you mean "denoxed"?

Yes, By the boil down method, or by using urea, I suppose.
I have never used urea, only the boil down method.

(Boil the AR three times, adding a little HCL each time to keep it liquid, and not dry out, or you will have to start over by adding more AR. Some sources say to add a little Sulfuric after the first boil down instead of HCL. The sulfuric helps to drive off the nitric portion of the acid.)

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".

 

[honesto]

I was in a third party dispute , where some australian mining guys where having problems detecting in their labs the presence of gold with platinum group of metals with the platinum bi-metals on the high side. Guys from the arbiter side (Americans) were laughing at them. I told them after months of their trying from ore concentrates similar to what is posted here, to bug -off and leave me alone and go home to australia.Red faced the australians asked me to take the complex ore to detectable levels please.I told not to mess with these stuff if they don't know the procedures. To quiet them and so that they could go back to australia with some respect , i agreed to make some detactable metals from my section of the quartered ore concentrates with one of them present at all times. Owing to lack of time and to protect hard earned secrets , i jury rigged a set -up.So i made quick work producing iridoplats, palladium, gold, silver... etc. They wanted a purer product for rhodium. I told them it would be difficult under these open furnace conditions , and i would not want to waste gold already made on stabilizing the rhodium metal. As we were debating while working with the melt, the rhodium containing melt destabilized and a particle hit my left thigh, my leg ballooned. I drank an anti -dote based on gold solution to stop it. That was a decade ago. Up to now i maintain good relations with the australians but sometimes they cause me headaches with their modern methods whew.

 

[Richard36]

Thanks Honesto.

That was a good story.

So Rhodium seems to be quite toxic then.
I am familiar with toxic solutions formed by dissolving metals in acids, and the possibility of them being abbsorbed through the skin, as well as toxic metallic fumes created by melting anything containing metal(s), and the hazards of breathing them.

Aside from the obvious burn recieved from being splatered with molten metal, or a very hot solidified fragment, I am not quite following you. Could you explain a little further why/how it poisoned you to the extent that you needed an antidote?

What is this gold solution antidote that you speak of?
How does it work?

I have not done much with the Pt Group, So this info would be of importance to me, Possibly to others as well.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".

 

[honesto]

Rhodium has catalytic properties. If i can recall , i rigged a lime block crucible into a miniature high temp micro bomb furnace with propane gas as the athmosphere (hydrogen source) and fuel source. The micro furnace was raised and near me. I did not have time to condition or to prep upthe lime block for humid conditions such as found in tropical open areas.As the melt proceeded the molten the button size metal started to vibrate, molten metal was reacting to athmosphere.The bomb cracked and i had no gold metal within reach to plunk into the melt, so that the metal would not react to open humid atmosphere .It was like sitting beside a jet engine. Anyway a piece of the vibrating metal entered my thigh and i had an instantaneous tumor on my thigh. The anti-dote was the gold solution used by rheumatoid athritis sufferers. Doctors usually inject this to the patients to the affected or inflamed area. Then i drank fresh milk, had a flushing fruit diet of grape fruit and mangosteen fruit. The metal when stabilized with gold ,will cease reacting in your body , the tumour will also deflate just as fast. Its a dangerous metal to work with especially if you don't have the proper safety equipment, tools, and the metal is an unstable catalyst .I have friends who have died from working with rhodium metal in switzerland in the jewelry business. Now i also carry instock for safety anti -tumor plants/cancer plants as part of my diet. Yellow ginger( curcuma longa var.culibra),red ginger, angelica keiskei from japan. Rhodium metal is much easier to recover from ores associated or bound by gold , or when associated with platinum proper, or in finished metal scraps where they are or already have been stabilized. Now there are safer ways of extracting pges if it is worth your while. Many thanks for allowing me to share what little i know , and maybe it will be of some use to you guys.My ores before came from ultramafics and sometimes more often than not was contaminated with thallium.