Hi I have some pink / white rocks I pulled out of my creek. I think there is lines of gold but do not want to lose any by smashing the rock. Someone told me I could use sulfuric acid to dissolve the rock while retaining the gold. Is this advisable or not? I have gold panned the creek coming up with fine flour gold. Have not gone down to bedrock yet. I think with a lot of there is something there.
refining gold from rocks
- Thread starter kathy
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Welcome to the forum.
I fear sulphuric will not do what you want, the acid used to remove some of the rock involves the most dangerous acid mentioned on here and I'm not too sure you want to be anywhere near it and generally it's only used on specimen pieces used for display.
To test if it's gold dig a liitle out with a knife and flatten it with a hammer, if it shatters it's not gold but if it stays intact you have hope.
Pictures of what you have found would help as we have members who are very knowledgable about minerals and mining, I'm not one of them but I'm fairly sure that crushing will be needed to recover the hoped for gold and there are threads dealing with ores and how to recover and refine them and if it is gold and there's volume an assay will be helpful to see if it's worth the time, effort and expense that's going to be needed to extract it.
I wish you luck and hope you have found gold in your creek but I think you have some reading and study ahead if you want to recover it.
I fear sulphuric will not do what you want, the acid used to remove some of the rock involves the most dangerous acid mentioned on here and I'm not too sure you want to be anywhere near it and generally it's only used on specimen pieces used for display.
To test if it's gold dig a liitle out with a knife and flatten it with a hammer, if it shatters it's not gold but if it stays intact you have hope.
Pictures of what you have found would help as we have members who are very knowledgable about minerals and mining, I'm not one of them but I'm fairly sure that crushing will be needed to recover the hoped for gold and there are threads dealing with ores and how to recover and refine them and if it is gold and there's volume an assay will be helpful to see if it's worth the time, effort and expense that's going to be needed to extract it.
I wish you luck and hope you have found gold in your creek but I think you have some reading and study ahead if you want to recover it.
shaftsinkerawc
Well-known member
A lot depends on the rock type and whether or not it is gold or something else. A carbonate rock can be dissolved away from gold but you need to know what else is in the rock to do it safely. On a small scale a drop of hydrocloric/muratic acid dropped on the rock outdoors will fiz/effervesce indicating a carbonate host rock. A scratch across your golden lines will partially rule out gold if it leaves a powdered crushed line instead of a golden groove. Cost effectiveness of dissolving versus crushing and concentrating is another issue.
