Ferrell
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 14, 2011
- Messages
- 83
Sorry, I wasn't sure what subject line to use with this. I'll post pics so you can see what I'm talking about.
First, we know we have gold and silver in our ore, as it's been tested by 3 different labs (one only tested for gold), but no one tested for the platinum group. We also know it's pretty much all (probably 95%) microscopic and must be collected using chemicals, as it's not free gold and can't be panned. The gold tested (depending on the ore sample) from 5 to 9 oz per ton, the silver approx 3-4.
My husband & I have been running test samples on 2 1/2 -3 lbs of ore, using 2 /12 to 3 gal of thiosulphate leach, then dropping with ferrous sulfate. Our understanding is, that if done correctly, thio leach will only capture gold, silver, and platinum groups. We've kept our ph between 9 and 9.2 until time to drop, so we know we're not losing or prematurely dropping any gold. Once we do the drop, we're getting about 150-180 ml of bright orange precipitant (measured prior to washing, right out of the separatory funnel, so a small amt of leach comes with it).
It's almost impossible to catch this stuff on a filter (even a very tight, good quality one) as the precipitant is incredibly fine and goes right through until the filter eventually clogs. So we've been draining it off into a heavy glass container, hitting it with 10% hcl to clean, then following up with water to wash again. We let it settle, pour as much fluid off as possible, then slowly cook to dry.
Here's our questions;
Does anyone have a better way of cleaning this product without losing it through a filter? Yes, we can repour the precipitant back through the filter once it clogs, but it's also so fine that it's almost impossible (once it totally dries) to scrape much off the filter. I suppose if we had 4 times the quantity at a time (and we will have once we start doing larger runs) we'll have a lot more on the filter, but that brings up another problem. The filter clogs somewhat fast and by the time there's a thin layer of precipitant on it, it's difficult to get more wash fluid to drain off. So, suggestions on washing, or is what we're doing good enough?
Now, once it's washed, what do we do with it? Just evaporate off the fluid over low heat, scrape it out of the container into a container? We did put some of the dried precipitant onto a spoon and heated it to about 700 degrees or so last night, (the spoon was turning red on the tip, but we have a heat gun & it was reading around 700--up to 800 a couple of times). The powder turned a deep red-brown. Pics attached.
Next question, and this is the one we're really hoping to get an answer to:
Is there any way of testing the precipitant at home to see what metals we're pulling, or do we have to spend big bucks and send a variety of samples to a lab? We're working on a limited income for now, and while we'd love to be able to send them in (and eventually will) we're hoping there might be some poor man's tests we can do. Any ideas?
Thanks so much.... here are the pics I promised. The really deep orange precip on a filter was from an experiment we did putting some gold coated industrial pins in thio solution for 30 min., then dropping the same way we have our ore samples. Is it possible we picked up some copper that lay under the surface of the gold, as well, based on the deep orange hue?
The lighter orange color filter was from our ore, after washing, prior to heating.
The closeup of the beaker showing the precip on the bottom was a very small sample, less than 800 ml, and it was still dropping when I took the pic. The pic of the flask shows the golden color we're getting right after adding the ferrous. There were tiny particles dropping but it doesn't show up on camera.
First, we know we have gold and silver in our ore, as it's been tested by 3 different labs (one only tested for gold), but no one tested for the platinum group. We also know it's pretty much all (probably 95%) microscopic and must be collected using chemicals, as it's not free gold and can't be panned. The gold tested (depending on the ore sample) from 5 to 9 oz per ton, the silver approx 3-4.
My husband & I have been running test samples on 2 1/2 -3 lbs of ore, using 2 /12 to 3 gal of thiosulphate leach, then dropping with ferrous sulfate. Our understanding is, that if done correctly, thio leach will only capture gold, silver, and platinum groups. We've kept our ph between 9 and 9.2 until time to drop, so we know we're not losing or prematurely dropping any gold. Once we do the drop, we're getting about 150-180 ml of bright orange precipitant (measured prior to washing, right out of the separatory funnel, so a small amt of leach comes with it).
It's almost impossible to catch this stuff on a filter (even a very tight, good quality one) as the precipitant is incredibly fine and goes right through until the filter eventually clogs. So we've been draining it off into a heavy glass container, hitting it with 10% hcl to clean, then following up with water to wash again. We let it settle, pour as much fluid off as possible, then slowly cook to dry.
Here's our questions;
Does anyone have a better way of cleaning this product without losing it through a filter? Yes, we can repour the precipitant back through the filter once it clogs, but it's also so fine that it's almost impossible (once it totally dries) to scrape much off the filter. I suppose if we had 4 times the quantity at a time (and we will have once we start doing larger runs) we'll have a lot more on the filter, but that brings up another problem. The filter clogs somewhat fast and by the time there's a thin layer of precipitant on it, it's difficult to get more wash fluid to drain off. So, suggestions on washing, or is what we're doing good enough?
Now, once it's washed, what do we do with it? Just evaporate off the fluid over low heat, scrape it out of the container into a container? We did put some of the dried precipitant onto a spoon and heated it to about 700 degrees or so last night, (the spoon was turning red on the tip, but we have a heat gun & it was reading around 700--up to 800 a couple of times). The powder turned a deep red-brown. Pics attached.
Next question, and this is the one we're really hoping to get an answer to:
Is there any way of testing the precipitant at home to see what metals we're pulling, or do we have to spend big bucks and send a variety of samples to a lab? We're working on a limited income for now, and while we'd love to be able to send them in (and eventually will) we're hoping there might be some poor man's tests we can do. Any ideas?
Thanks so much.... here are the pics I promised. The really deep orange precip on a filter was from an experiment we did putting some gold coated industrial pins in thio solution for 30 min., then dropping the same way we have our ore samples. Is it possible we picked up some copper that lay under the surface of the gold, as well, based on the deep orange hue?
The lighter orange color filter was from our ore, after washing, prior to heating.
The closeup of the beaker showing the precip on the bottom was a very small sample, less than 800 ml, and it was still dropping when I took the pic. The pic of the flask shows the golden color we're getting right after adding the ferrous. There were tiny particles dropping but it doesn't show up on camera.
