Simple solution to fine gold recovery

[johnedoe]

This was developed by Randy Clarkson, an expert in gold recovery designs.

A simple gizmo to help miners snag lost gold..... New gizmo could help placer miners snag lost gold | Yukon News

Also this by Randy Clarkson on fine gold recovery which is somewhat misleading in that this is mostly about commercial ops and 1" minus classification is considered fine....... The Clarkson Study Fine Gold Recovery

Here is a PDF presentation of the process....... http://www.geology.gov.yk.ca/pdf/141114_Nov1014_Grinding_for_Gold_Presentation.pdf ....... Thank you arizau for finding that PDF

Enjoy the learning.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Hey Kevin,

If memory serves me, you recently received some of the black beach sand that OregonViking offered. I often mine the same stuff and I find that that sand is virtually all minus 100 mesh but since I do not have the smaller mesh screen set that you and Dave have I don't have a clue what the break down of sizes are below 100 mesh. Any chance you can screen a tablespoon or so of it and let us know the break down? A bonus would be if you were to pan the fractions too. I'm pretty sure what he sent you is raw beach sands that were concentrated by wave action. I have panned as little as a mere pinch of randomly selected, naturally concentrated beach black sand and have separated gold from it. The gold was almost invisible and there were several specks to be seen.

Thanks

Yes, I'd be happy to do that. I haven't processed the sands yet because I plan to have my wife video the whole process and she's been slammed by a pre-holiday rush at work. I hope to do the video on New Year's Eve or day.

I plan to classify thru all three of my -100 screens and pan each separately to see what we learn.

I also mean for the video to be a demo of he process I use with my cons all the time...which doesn't usually include screens smaller than 100 mesh.

...I think I can achieve both of these goals at once

 

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[mytimetoshine]

Update:


https://youtu.be/ugbgzetwhvw



found this which i also thought people may find interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrhAi4cr784&feature=youtu.be

 

[russau]

Nice videos! we have some real heavy rains coming in in a few days so ill get my pan/tub/cons/camara out to do some panning of OVs Oregon cons! I got most of my cleanup equipment out and ill try to do some of it also as good as a F.O.G. can do considering everything!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Update on my progress:
The grind(ing) continues. The weather and holidays haven't been helping much when it come to progress. I really need to build me a garage/shop to work in. So far I've been able to run about 10-12 pounds of -50 magnetic sands through the rod mill and have recovered a couple of pounds worth of non magnetic materials out of them so far. Every batch has been examined with the microscope and has shown some gold. Once every thing has been ground down to -100 or finer, I'll amalgamate the gold out of the non magnetic materials and then run the magnetic materials over a miller table to double check them. After that, they're bound for the garden area.

Once I get through all of this grinding, I'll be doing it more often so I don't have such a massive amount of materials to run. I started this off with a can full of -20 another of -50 and 3/4s of a can of -70. At only a cup or so at a time, I'm going to be at this for quite a while to come.......

 

[mytimetoshine]

I've noticed that I continue to get a better crush after every run. Same speed, same rods. I think the ABS may be hardening or the rods or both.

I wanted to see if a steel drum made a difference because ultimately we need the materials to be sievable for this to be anything more then a chance to see and get color in your winter down time.

Made a trip to HD and 2 inch pipe sold in 10 ft sections was 45 bucks!! Nothing precut. I did find a connector that was a perfect 2x4 but was threaded. The steel threaded caps were very heavy and expensive so I tried PVC caps but the threading didn't match and would not screw all the way on.

I decided to just use my rubber caps but was worried the sharp burs on the metal thread would tear up my caps and wouldn't be water tight. I did a water test and it leaked like a siv from the threads. Added some Teflon tape and bam water tight and smooth surface for the caps. Unfortunately the grind was not better...in fact much worse... crushed only HALF as much as what I'm currently getting.... headscratcher for sure... well I guess the next step is to increase rod size....

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Fill un threaded pipe with lead. File the lead ends.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Update:

I haven't updated recently because I'm in the nitty gritty repetitive process to run a large enough test sample with my miniature mill.

Recap. I'm running a 10 lb batch of -20 +50 sand that was previously panned out 1/2 teaspoon at a time. The mill is 2x4 inch and can only handle 1 1 /2 tablespoons of sand. I add 2 tablespoons of water seems to be best.

I have been consistently getting gold so it's just a matter of running the whole batch so I can reliable say what percentage of hidden gold it conatins.

1 1/2 tablespoons per run and I try to do 3 runs at a time. 15 minute runs equals about an 1hr total time investment.

10 lbs rufflly 4500 grams at 45 grams per run. That's only 100 runs!... lol. I know this may seem like a waste not up sizing to a higher capacity barrell, but I have my reasons. A: I'm also testing the motor on the drill to see how long it will last. I'm a little over half way so if it last all 100 runs and then gets me started at least running the next size up thats valuable data in the long run. And B: I refuse to cut more rod with out a proper work bench and vice. Which I'm happy to say is almost finished as well.

So, I just finished my run for the night and guess what was staring back at me? Yes gold, but not just any gold a big fat sassy pancake. He'll I would have been happy with this thing as the best piece of the day at the river. I know I've come home without before!

.01 on the scale..OMG the scale moved!!! Now we're cooking with peanut oil! When I finish the run I'll post the gold take. I think some eyebrows might raise when you see.

 

[KevinInColorado]

YES!!!! Great job!
Love how that big piece looks like it got rolled out like dough with a rolling pin

 

[mytimetoshine]

YES!!!! Great job!
Love how that big piece looks like it got rolled out like dough with a rolling pin

Yea and what about that donut hole?!?! First I've seen like that. My guess is that's where it was connected to the iron and as it flattened out the remaining bit of iron crushed away and left the hole.. that my theory anyway.

 

[mytimetoshine]

We are on a roll ladies and gentleman. The scale didn't move this time.. but it sure wanted too!

 

[Rockwerx]

We are on a roll ladies and gentleman. The scale didn't move this time.. but it sure wanted too!

Keep up the great work! Looks like your setup is working. I am still collecting junk to make a mill. In the mean time I sure appreciate reading about yours and other people's test results. Good luck with your experiment!

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

We are on a roll ladies and gentleman. The scale didn't move this time.. but it sure wanted too!

You need a scale with one more significant digit

 

[mytimetoshine]

Finally finished up the run and the results are in.

Quick recap:

The test run was 11 lbs of -20 +50 sands. About 3 inches on a 5g bucket. Ran through my tiny DIY rod mill. It can only hold 45 grams per run about a tablespoon and a half.

...110 separate 15 minute runs AND cleanups later and I'm finally done.

I'm pretty happy with the results. Lots of gold that was not visible prior to milling, which we all ready knew based on the Clarkson presentation. But what I'm really happy about is all the components held up way better then I ever imagined. The drill motor seems just fine. The ABS barrell is in excellent shape and even those rubber end caps never failed. Didn't even half to bust out the clamps. I figured they would give out quickly but no, they work perfect. 110 runs!!!

Now it took everything I had to not upgrade to a bigger mill. But I really wanted the controlled test results so I can compare later. That being said I don't think that 2 Inch will be used much in the future. I'm gonna go with a 3 Inch next and either 6 or 8 inch long haven't decided yet.

Anyways.... long awaited results. Gold from nowhere... TAH-DAH!

 

[Nano]

Hello. I enjoyed reading the whole thread. Have any of you guys experimented with using cornflour to recover superfine fines? My experiments are encouraging.Washing the waste with a cornflour solution may give even more. I use the same cornflour over and over.But I am trying to trap stuff small enough for plants to transport through their veins.I got the idea of cornflour from some green chemistry paper online about cornflour as a possible replacement for cyanide. A final wash of the milled rock.Cornflour is a dream to work with. Lovely close up photos.Very cool thread.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Hello. I enjoyed reading the whole thread. Have any of you guys experimented with using cornflour to recover superfine fines? My experiments are encouraging.Washing the waste with a cornflour solution may give even more. I use the same cornflour over and over.But I am trying to trap stuff small enough for plants to transport through their veins.I got the idea of cornflour from some green chemistry paper online about cornflour as a possible replacement for cyanide. A final wash of the milled rock.Cornflour is a dream to work with. Lovely close up photos.Very cool thread.

Are you talking about corn starch? Research was done at Northwestern about 3 years ago.

Selective isolation of gold facilitated by second-sphere coordination with ?-cyclodextrin : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group

 

[Nano]

Are you talking about corn starch? Research was done at Northwestern about 3 years ago.

Selective isolation of gold facilitated by second-sphere coordination with ?-cyclodextrin : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group

No that wasn't it but cheers for the reading material.I will check it out. Yeah.Corn flour in the U.K.Cornstarch in the U.S. There is nothing selective about my experiments.I never found a method to go with the paper. My extract with the starch is full of all metals. Not just gold. Selective would be nice. The starch slurry has so much iron in it that you can draw on the side of the bottle with a magnet when it is in a liquid state. I am trying for stuff I can't see. I am playing about with plants and I need stuff small enough for them to be able to transport it in their internals. My experiments are largely useless and have no point to them. I just like observing. Just wondered if anyone else was playing with cornflour.I like it thus far.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Please don't let this turn into a cornstarch thread...

 

[Nano]

Fair enough

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Please don't let this turn into a cornstarch thread...

There is some interesting stuff there and it is actually alpha-cyclodextrin (not just starch) with KAuBr4 and it is very selective for gold. We probably should start a thread on it.

Of course, if you read the paper, they are using HBr (conc. hydrobromic acid; not nice stuff) and HNO3 (conc. nitric acid) which is just about as bad as using cyanide. This combination is similar to aqua regia, but more expensive and more hazardous for the average individual without proper lab environment.

I am doing some research here at the Air Force Academy about applying cyanide to boutique miner situations. I think I will expand my research to see how quantitative this is; as well as costs compared to cyanide and actual environmental hazards of using conc. hydrobromic and nitric acids vs cyanide with close attention paid to waste products.

Maybe a moderator can move all this, starting with Nano's first post on it to a new thread under Prospecting titled "gold extraction with alpha-cyclodextrin."

 

[mytimetoshine]

We probably should start a thread on it
Maybe a moderator can move all this, starting with Nano's first post on it to a new thread under Prospecting titled "gold extraction with alpha-cyclodextrin."

This