Help with “curb appeal” of my placer gold

[Yukon99669]

I have a bit of placer gold that I recently processed. The material if from a new claim just south of Idaho Springs Colorado (off of Clear Creek)

So far it’s been through my Big Sluice, Mini Sluice, Magnetic Black sand removed from dry cons before Several Classifiers (most of it is between minus50 and minus100).
Then cleaned out remaining BS with my Blue Bowl.

I’m confident that 99% of black sand is gone. The Gold that is pictured appeared Very Gold while still in the Blue Bowl.

What is giving it such a dark appearance in the jar and how do I improve the brilliance?

I did tumble it for a Cpl hours (not overnight or days or anything) in some salt/soap/vinegar...and then tossed in a little CLR when it didn’t seem to be improving....maybe I need to let it go longer

Here are 2 pics. The one where it’s very dark is just a regular un-adjusted pic of the dry gold in the sun. The other pic I adjusted some photo elements to diminish some shadows and black point which really helped to see it as gold.

Any advice here would be hugely appreciated!!!

 

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[Yukon99669]

Here is an un-adjusted pic of the same material while still in the Blue Bowl.

At this stage I had already blown the material from the center to the outside several times. ...to the point that i saw no other non-gold material floating or sitting anywhere and the only material flowing out when the water reached level was very very very micro-fine gold.

I thought maybe that part would help if you could see what i was seeing.

 

[Reed Lukens]

This is what I use to give it the shine

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NCZU0A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You can melt your fines into a sponge to keep from loosing them and you can brighten your gold by heating it. It had been 10 years or so since I cleaned some nuggets this last winter and they were really dull before I torched them. You are not trying to melt them, you just apply the heat until they start glowing orange and you can watch the impurities burning off.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1844366&d=1593178313

We use food grade butane because we use this torch daily for cooking and torching meat. If you don't like eating the fat off of a steak, torch it until it's a bit crunchy and it becomes the best part. Cleaning gold is just an added bonus. Karen is one hell of a cook
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A8MRW2E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Reed Lukens]

Super fine gold starts out dull and after you have it brightened, you can fold a white piece of copy paper and then hand separate out the rest of the black sand.

Fine gold and hydraulic era amalgam. Notice the dark vial, it's straight out of nitric.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1391304&d=1481699349

Then here's how it ended up
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1391306&d=1481699401

 

[Yukon99669]

Awesome! Thanks for the tips!!

Do the impurities account for much in terms of weight? I’m assuming not as I’m sure it’s just a haze and even to scale isn’t near the mass to weight ratio of gold.

 

[Reed Lukens]

It depends on where the gold is from... It could be 50/50 gold and other minerals in some places mixed with iron, etc.

 

[et1955]

Very interesting post, I have mined for over 40 years and never have I found gold that small that is not brilliant, shaded or in light. Smaller it is, the purer it is, generally the larger the pieces can have impurities from my experiance. One place I mine, the nuggets are 45% silver and the rest is gold but the small flakes like you mined are brilliant but the nuggets are dark. What is the history of where the gold comes from in your area, please share you research with us.

 

[Yukon99669]

I went ahead and ordered a proper smelting furnace and some small graphite molds....they’re supposed be here Monday.
I wasn’t getting very far with my butane mini torch or my propane torch, and I really don’t like to piddle around all that much.
I’ll let you guys know how it all works out.

Et1955, I’ll do a little more research and let you know more about the gold in my area. I’m quite interested in figuring that out too. I can tell you that this claim is only a few miles south of Idaho Springs Colorado. There are tons of Load and Placer Claims in the area. We have another claim about 10 Miles N/W of Blackhawk Colorado. Some of this material is from there as well.
We live back and forth between Colorado and Alaska and have a claim on Quartz Creek outside of Cooper Landing. We have done very little work on our AK claim as we are usually tied up hunting and fishing (more for meat than pleasure)...and to bring our 3 boys up with some real values and skills while avoiding all these negative influences that this screwed up society seems to have)....I know most people in this crowd will get that.

 

[russau]

Why smelt your gold ? I understand melting it ,but smelting it will only raise your final cost . It wont be stamped with the purity ,even though you know what has been done. It still will need to be smelted by someone that can verify it's purity .

 

[Yukon99669]

That makes sense Russsu...

For starters I’m just attempting to roast the fine stuff...not melt or smelt.

I think I need some advice on what I’m doing here though.

I’ve gradually raised the temp on my furnace and am in the 950 Celsius range at the moment.

I’m using a Stainless Steel cup for my crucible. I like the smooth-ness of the SS and since I’m not melting anything I figured it was an appropriate choice...please let me know if it’s a bad idea if I’m just essentially trying to roast this stuff. What temp and for how long?
Nothing but the cup is glowing at this point...I’m assuming I need to get to a temp that’s barely below the melting point?? ...so maybe just a bit hotter?

Here is a pic of what I’m seeing. The cup on top is just to show what I’m using a bit better.

Thanks Again everyone!

 

[Reed Lukens]

I'm not understanding why your just heating it... Just take the temp up and then pour some bars. Every time you open a jar of superfines, you loose a bunch. I open it once to make buttons and be done with it.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Super fine gold starts out dull and after you have it brightened, you can fold a white piece of copy paper and then hand separate out the rest of the black sand.

Fine gold and hydraulic era amalgam. Notice the dark vial, it's straight out of nitric.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1391304&d=1481699349

Then here's how it ended up
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1391306&d=1481699401

Not trying to hijack this thread, but wanted to give Reed a shout-out:

Reed, you are indeed a knowledgable mining man!

All the best,

Lanny