what would be the best way to process this vent dust

[steyr223]

Hello everyone
One of my gold board finders (so to speak) brought me some off whitish
powder he said he could see colors of gold, silver, copper and maybe steel

I took and put some in hcl and it digested very little
kinda looked like goo so I added some bleach and
it digested maybe 50% total
Stirred it ,heated it,smooshed it(is that a word)

While heating it seemed to digest more but came back
looking like clumpy hair and dirt that hung in suspension

By the way it definitely tested positive for Au with stannous
Will try to get pics
Thanks steyr223 rob

Edited subject due to lack of proper English

 

[micronationcreation]

If my memory is correct Hoke has a chapter dedicated to processing floor sweepings.

 

[nickvc]

I think more information as to it's likely make up or origin would be needed to give a decent response.
It looks like investment powder from casting but if it has steel in it I doubt that so I'm tempted to suggest incineration and screening as your first step but only once you know what it is or likely to be so you don't risk your health. Harold has given stirling advice about how to treat sweeps here on the forum and my only addition to his advice is that with floor or polishing sweeps you get roughly 90% of the values on the first recovery if done correctly so depending on the value recovered it might need a second treatment.

 

[qst42know]

I could see where scale from an over used investment flask or perhaps some bead blast media might put some steel in the mix (but I have no experience with the powder). That is if this was from the investment removal area dust collector.

 

[goldsilverpro]

It could be router dust. I don't know if they still do it but the edges of boards used to be slightly rounded off with a router. This made the finger insertions into the connectors much smoother and took the sharp edges off the rest of the board. It looks like router dust and, if it is, I would think that incineration would be the first step.

 

[steyr223]

Wow! Thanks guys
Now I realize these are sweeps that holkes talks about
I can do a Little study on the subject.

I never considered this but it is logical that dust and sweeps beingh
treated as the same

I am not sure if my friend said steel or if I just thought it
I will find out

Thanks steyr223 rob