Ozone Treated Water

[Capt Nemo]

I learned this winter that ozone treated water can float gold. So if you have this type of treatment, run hot water and let the bubbles disipate before adding to a pan. Jet dry won't stop this type of floating.

What I was seeing was the gold becomming neutrally bouyant and floating over the black sand in the garnet sand. The gold when sucked up with an eyedropper would then become heavy and sit in the bottom of the pan.

The hot water from the tap would almost instantly become cloudy with the gas comming out of solution. Cold water would take longer to become cloudy. These microbubbles comming out of solution are what's floating the gold. If we look at the effects of pressure and temprature, it is the same as what happens to a diver getting saturated with nitrogen. Divers have to modify their tables for cold water because cold water can hold more dissolved gas than warm water and could lead to a case of decompression sickness. When the tap is turned on, the water is now depressurized allowing the dissolved gas to escape. The rate of offgassing will be dependant on temprature. Warm tempratures will cause faster offgassing.

In the case of the eyedropper, the gold moving through the tip moves through an increased pressure zone thus shrinking the bubbles and the current will remove the microbubbles from the gold.

So if you see anything gold acting light when using ozone treated water, suck it up and dump it back in the pan. If it acts heavy then, you found gold!

 

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[TommyB]

I service Ozone machines used in supermarkets in their seafood and poultry depts. to kill pathogens. The machines inject an extra molecule
of oxygen into the water effectively creating h3o. This is done with cold water and the Ozone dissipates within about 20 minutes.
So you're saying the extra O2 is making the non gold float?

 

[russau]

That is interesting !

 

[Capt Nemo]

I service Ozone machines used in supermarkets in their seafood and poultry depts. to kill pathogens. The machines inject an extra molecule
of oxygen into the water effectively creating h3o. This is done with cold water and the Ozone dissipates within about 20 minutes.
So you're saying the extra O2 is making the non gold float?

When the O2/O3 comes out of solution it will form microbubbles on the gold to make it light enough to float in the garnet sand like a mica flake. I haven't seen it completely break the surface, and I think the Jet Dry prevents that. But it's enough to easily wash it out of a pan, and the reason I kept finding gold in the safety tray. Using hot water after offgassing for finishing the pan, I stopped the losses in the safety tray. Most of the gold affected by this is -100 and smaller.

Just something to think about when using tap water for panning.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Here's a pic of the water offgassing. If one of those bubbles sticks to your gold, it can float it.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I use tap water that has sat for days (actually often for months in my panning tub in the workshop!). That way there's not H2O2 or chlorine either.

 

[Capt Nemo]

I use tap water that has sat for days (actually often for months in my panning tub in the workshop!). That way there's not H2O2 or chlorine either.

You have hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in your water?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Not that I know of

 

[goldenIrishman]

There's something to be said about being on a well. Out here the water is high in alkali content and in my recirc system and panning tub I add Borax to adjust the pH to netural.

 

[hvacker]

I don't think there is any benefit in floating gold. I think you want it to sink it. Soap makes water wetter so a couple drops of Dove should sink your gold where you want it. Most wild water is very hard and creates a problem with losses due to the gold floating. Borax is also a softener although the exact process like changing carbonates to bicarbonates but Dove might be easier.

One prospector collects the black sand along with the gold and puts it in aluminum pans and dries it so the gold doesn't stick to the black sand then uses a magnet to separate the two. But you need to sink the gold.

 

[triple d]

Flatter fine gold. There a greater surface area. To make it float and ride out of the pan or sluice. Most of the gold I lose is this type. Not much but a flake once in a while.