Black Sand Samples

[alloy_II]

Samples from two different areas, once the weather improves - smelting will begin the top sample certainly shows promise, both by weight and microscope image.

For those interested in smelting the attached file is about the various flux's used and their purpose.

 

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[alloy_II]

Second batch.

After roasting the top layer is blonde, then brick red with non magnetic light colored blacks and dark black on the bottom.

 

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[alloy_II]

This morning a small sample of the black material brought to a red heat, no change also non magnetic.

Going to do a small batch in cyanide, hoping only gold is taken up leaving the platinum unscathed

When its time to process the lot, I'll use the cyanide I have on hand, once used up, I'm going to use copper as my collector metal for the smelting then part the copper eclectically.

 

[alloy_II]

Approximately 50 gram sample first leached in straight HCL, to the best of my knowledge palladium is the only sister that will give herself up to this single acid.

Gold and silver will not going to HCL as a single acid.

After filtering, added a small piece of copper to the leach, nice black precipitate, now I'm aware of the palladium.

The solids from the filter have gone into aqua regia, the leach is quite orange in color, OK I have platinum.

Now I've added sulfamic acid to kill the nitric acid, now waiting for everything to cool before filtering. Once I have a clean liquor I'll add a couple of crystals o ferrous sulphate/

If the ferrous sulphate shows me gold is present, then I'll keep adding more until there's no more precipitate coming down.

These tests are to tell me which elements are present.

Top two images copper precipitating palladium, bottom image filter solids now in AR, if you upsize the image you might actually see the gold.

Only not gold your expecting to see, but it's there.

 

[alloy_II]

Expected gold and platinum from the beaker on the left side, palladium on the right.

 

[alloy_II]

The green leach, ore sample from hot HCL, as mentioned this single acid will not take up gold or silver only palladium

From the electromotive series list posted you'll see why I choose copper to cement the values out,

I'm actually very surprised by the amount of palladium recovered from such a small sample.

The yellow beaker precipitated a wee bit of gold, using sodium metabisulphate. Probably not enough to show on camera. Once filtered I'll post an image.

Busy day, lawyer and such.

Correction, the black cloud was the palladium, the small addition of nitric brought out the silver which you now see a cement on the bottom.

 

[alloy_II]

The gold, better than I first thought. Precipitated with SMB so this will be almost pure gold.

 

[alloy_II]

Basically my mill grind is gold with silver which makes it the perfect candidate for cyanide.

Ordered today, for obvious reasons I have omiited the suppliers name and address along with the price.

 

[alloy_II]

The quartz that spent time in the firebox is much easier to break up into smaller bits.

 

[alloy_II]

From the experiment the first small 50 gram sample I figure my silver content is very high and it;s going to load up a ton of activated carbon.

In this experiment I'm using sulfuric to remove the silver with any base metals which the acid will take up.

To recover the silver from the acid it's first diluted with water then to the filtrate salt or hydrochloric acid is added. The silver precipitates as a white chloride.

Cautionary Note, the pulp will have to be thoroughly rinsed with distilled or rain water then roasted again to assure all of the acid has been neutralized.

In the old texts, Alchemy this is refereed to as Oil of Vitrol, at 93% it is like thick oil.

 

[alloy_II]

Ha ha, the boot. I'm going to electroplate it with copper.

From top to bottom.

The liquor from the sulfuric leach, the spoon brown mud, coffee carafe with AR, copper plate reaction with AR - turned black.

When crushing quartz DO NOT TOSS THE MUD. The proof is in the carafe.

The liqour from the acid leach, I'm going to evaporate it down to a concentrate then as it ools down see what type of crystals form. From these I should be able to identify the element.

 

[alloy_II]

Every time you move gold from one process to another you lose gold, just look at the amount of purple of the rim of the filter.

It's the effects of salt creep.

As they say though you never get it all.

 

[alloy_II]

An unexpected event.

As the milled quartz was being roasted the stuff in the stainless steel pan as I raked it with the hoe was very fluid. This allowed to heavies to settle to the bottom.

Dragging my fingers on that bottom one inch layer I can feel the difference in density.

View attachment 2031128
View attachment 2031129

Using a Cn leach as it thaws after a long cold winter, there's gold in the leach, I'll use activated carbon to recover the values.

 

[JohnWhite]

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Ed T

 

[alloy_II]

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Ed T

Is there an advantage of using zinc powder that I somehow overlooked, rather than using activated carbon.

Zinc reacts with cyanide to form toxic elements more toxic than zinc, while activated carbon does not.

Regardless how how the gold, silver and any possible platinum sisters have been recovered they still need to be further refined to separate them.

These activated carbon filters are cheap to purchase and they're available locally.

Each AC filter is good for 1000 US gallons, how much zinc would I have had to use for this volume of liquid.

 

[JohnWhite]

Is there an advantage of using zinc powder that I somehow overlooked, rather than using activated carbon.

Zinc reacts with cyanide to form toxic elements more toxic than zinc, while activated carbon does not.

Regardless how how the gold, silver and any possible platinum sisters have been recovered they still need to be further refined to separate them.

These activated carbon filters are cheap to purchase and i can get them locally.

View attachment 2079605

I am not sure…I have not tried it yet…I am still in the learning stage…If I were you, I would incorporate some type of mixer or bubbler so oxygen can work with the cyanide…And I am not sure if the ph needs to be Above 10 during the process…

Only time will tell…

Ed T

 

[JohnWhite]

 

[alloy_II]

I am not sure…I have not tried it yet…I am still in the learning stage…If I were you, I would incorporate some type of mixer or bubbler so oxygen can work with the cyanide…And I am not sure if the ph needs to be Above 10 during the process…

Only time will tell…

Ed T

You can use lime or sodium hydroxide to control the ph, wood ash ( potassium hydroxide ) might also work.

Hydrogen peroxide works as an oxygen source but have since switched over the a fish tank aerator.

There are several ways to neutralize the spent cyanide making it safe to dispose of, using activated carbon allows me to reuse the baron leach.

To make adjustments to the cyanide you'll need a supply of silver nitrate along with some laboratory apparatus.

.

 

[JohnWhite]

Once upon a time…I worked for a company that had a problem with a high ph caused by the use of sodium hypochlorite…I believe I suggested they use sulfuric acid to bring the ph into a neutral state to discharge it into the city water collection…I was in the spirit, I am not certain, but I believe you may be correct in using potash or lye in bringing up your ph…Bleach would dissolve your gold but it would raise the ph…

Who knows for certain…Maybe one day I will get to play with these things…

Ed T

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Once upon a time…I worked for a company that had a problem with a high ph caused by the use of sodium hypochlorite…I believe I suggested they use sulfuric acid to bring the ph into a neutral state to discharge it into the city water collection…I was in the spirit, I am not certain, but I believe you may be correct in using potash or lye in bringing up your ph…Bleach would dissolve your gold but it would raise the ph…

Who knows for certain…Maybe one day I will get to play with these things…

Ed T

ahem .... check that again?

 

[JohnWhite]

Maybe it is soda ash to raise the ph…I am still learning…

Ed T