Water ph in recirculating system effect gold

[farmerbob]

I'm in VA and I’m running a 15 tph trammel with a low g centrifuge from an 1880's gold mine tailing piles. There is no water on the property and not able to put in a pond. We truck river water in from about 2 miles away. I live in lime country and the tailings are full of lime rock.

I'm using a 30 yard roll off dewatering box at the end of the centrifuge. The water from the dewatering box flows into 2 30 yard roll off tanks (about 5,000 each).

The problem that I have is that when the ph gets around 6.5 more flower gold gets washed out of the centrifuge. Our dewatering box has a cloth lining and we don't recycle a large amount of suspended particles.

I have not noticed any issues with my clean up system when it comes to changes in my ph.

Has anyone ever notices noticed changes in ph affect your gold loses?

 

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[GoldpannerDave]

I'm in VA and I’m running a 15 tph trammel with a low g centrifuge from an 1880's gold mine tailing piles. There is no water on the property and not able to put in a pond. We truck river water in from about 2 miles away. I live in lime country and the tailings are full of lime rock.

I'm using a 30 yard roll off dewatering box at the end of the centrifuge. The water from the dewatering box flows into 2 30 yard roll off tanks (about 5,000 each).

The problem that I have is that when the ph gets around 6.5 more flower gold gets washed out of the centrifuge. Our dewatering box has a cloth lining and we don't recycle a large amount of suspended particles.

I have not noticed any issues with my clean up system when it comes to changes in my ph.

Has anyone ever notices noticed changes in ph affect your gold loses?

How much clay is in the material? What is the normal pH of the water there with all the lime?

I understand that clay and lime added to sand (which I would guess is in the material) can lead to cement. I am thinking perhaps that as they mix and start to complex, they trap gold and carry it out.

 

[farmerbob]

We run very little clay and the clay is under the tailings. There is a lot of black sand, old river rock, and and a lot of decomposed lime stone chunks that dose not make it out of the trammel. You can pick up the decomposed limestone and turn it into gray sand with 1/4” chunks.

You do have a good point and something I need to dream about tonight.

The PH of the river water is 7.4 to 7.6 most of the time.
The general hardness is normally 280 ppm.
After pumping the water into a portable tank and then into the large tanks the PH is normally 7.2 to 7.4.
I know off gassing C02 can change the PH.
After we run for 40 to 48 hours the PH is down to around 6.2 and the general hardness drops to around 105 ppm.
I have found adding 4 oz of backing soda every 4 hours of run time keeps the GH and the PH up.