WHAT TO DO WITH BLACK SAND???

[blynch35]

I have heard that you can sell black sand and or melt it for super fine gold in it, is this true and what else can you do with it?

 

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[Fullpan]

I can get more than 5 gallons a week in my dredge. Closer to two gallons a day. As for the economics of refining it, I don't know if it would be worth it. Never had them assayed.

Jason - I'm talking about the leftover bs after cycling through at least 2 rounds of gold extraction.

Kuger - had many buckets rendered worthless (except for using as a stool) when as a noob, I tried to carry too much dirt in
them and ripping the standard handles off. Bs buckets full weigh about 400lbs, haha!

 

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[Ayeyou]

It is true if you are a recreational panner and get only a pound or two of blacksand a year it is just not worth bothering with. However if you get even a 5 gallon bucket of it it is. As far as the trucking to a refinery eating any potential profits from refining the blacksands lets look at my numbers because that is exactly what I will be doing. Based on the various assays I have had done the average grade of my blacksands is 1644 grams per ton gold plus silver values of 103 grams per ton.That is 53 ounces gold and 3.3 ounces silver per ton. I will be shipping the sands to a refinery in Trail which is about 230 miles from my claims. I got a quote for trucking a tandem dump and pup trailer load of this material which came in at $1800. per load. Refining cost are $300 per ton.The load will be 30 tons each.Cost then are 30x$300 =$9,000. plus the trucking $1800 dfor total cost of $10800 per load. Now lets look at gross proceeds. Refinery tells me to expect a minimum 85% recovery of assayed values [they never get 100%] so the numbers are this. 53 x $1600 =$84,800 per ton 3.3 x $30. = $99 per ton .
So gold and silver gross per ton value $84,899.00 x 30 ton per load = $2,546,970.00 X 85% =$2,164,924.50 minus cost of shipping and refining of $10,800 =$2,154,124.50 . gross profit per truck load of blacksands. That is worth fussing over. Based on recovery of blacksands at my mine I will have a load a month to send to refinery. This revenue is almost equivelant to the proceeds from the coarse gold mined on my claims. Below is a picture of the gold I recovered from just twenty pounds of my concentrates using mercury. It is only about 25% of contained assay values but it proves that invisible micron gold can add up to very visible profits.

 

[Fullpan]

WOW - I learned something new today - thnks, Ayeyou. Does your refinery have a min. wt. limit? Also can you briefly
describe their recovery process?

 

[WildWill]

Holy hell, what a good post. Can't believe the amount of bs Ive tossed out, time to save it up

 

[Goodyguy]

Holy hell, what a good post. Can't believe the amount of bs Ive tossed out, time to save it up

I've tossed out a lot of bs in my day too

 

[Jason in Enid]

I've tossed out a lot of bs in my day too

HAHA!

 

[phishisgroovin]

Hogwash.

Whats washing the pig got to do with it?


(Sorry couldnt help myself) Tee hee hee!

 

[blynch35]

wow those are some nice numbers

 

[specksandflecks]

Well I found this some time ago when trying to research potential BS values. Without paying the assay fee of course. Lets see if this works... OK seems to be working for now.

Taken from: (source)

Bulletin - Google Books

It goes on with a few more pages like this..
Then there are a few pages like this..

And continues on until page 164..
If you use the link at the top of this post it takes you to Google books where the text is more legible.
The first page looks like this and the material relevant to this thread begins on page 150 as shown above.
Funny thing is I posted this link in it's own thread a couple weeks ago and hardly anyone noticed as there was little discussion.
Anyway big thanks to all who have contributed to this black sand thread, especially the pros thanks for keeping the dream alive!

 

[dieselram94]

What else could be done with black sand? First extract every trace of gold out of it, box it up with a funnel and send it to current administration with a note telling them where to pound it!
What ever you do with it just get all the gold out of it......

 

[NJnuggetpirate]

We sell it to tropical fish stores for use in aquariums.

does that mean theres a possibility the gold is still in the sand when you sell it or do you you clean gold out first

 

[bigjoek]

Black sands make great thermite.

 

[MrLee]

Make one hellofa catbox...

I did this with my 1/8 concentrates. The wife was happy, cat.... not so much. So we mixed it in with normal cat litter and walah! Cat is fine now and we save $$. Now, where is that picker I lost....

 

[Ayeyou]

WOW - I learned something new today - thnks, Ayeyou. Does your refinery have a min. wt. limit? Also can you briefly
describe their recovery process?

I am sure they have a bottom line as far as size of concentrate shipping but I really am not sure what that is. I will be talking with them in the coming week and will find out for you. All I know is they will process a tandem load. They use a cyanide leach on the gold concentrate but because my concentrates are very high in sulphides they roast them first to break down the sulphides and release the micro gold they contain. After the cyanide leach they recover the gold with a carbon in pulp process as described below.............

Loading gold into carbon



Leached pulp and carbon are transferred in a counter current flow arrangement between a series of tanks, usually numbering 4 to 6. In the final tank, fresh or barren carbon is put in contact with low grade or tailings solution. At this tank the fresh carbon has a high activity and can remove trace amounts of gold (to levels below 0.01 mg/L Au in solution).

As it moves up the train, the carbon loads to higher and higher concentrations of gold, as it comes in contact with higher grade solutions. Typically concentrations as high as 4000 to 8000 grams of gold per tonne of carbon (g/t Au) can be achieved on the final loaded carbon, as it comes in contact with freshly leached ore and pregnant leach solution (PLS). This can be measured by comparing the amount of gold extracted from the carbon to the amount of carbon used.

[edit] Removal of gold from carbon

The final loaded carbon then is removed and washed before undergoing "elution" or desorption of gold cyanide at high temperature and pH. Ethanol can also be used to desorb gold from activated carbon, but safety concerns have slowed its acceptance in the gold extraction industry.


I am still actively looking at other refining processes that I may be able to set up in my shop which is only 30 minutes from my mine. I am considering putting in a small plant using the new bio leachants but I wont make that decision until the end of the coming season. It may just be more bother then its worth.

I wanted to post this extract from an old minister of mines report from Canada.It speaks to the possible values of Black Sands.I have had to edit the names of the creeks and rivers out because I am in the process of waiting for my own assays from samples I took there to come back. If they are any where close to this old reports statements I will be claiming what is surprisingly open to claim ground.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Seems to me that casual miners (most of us on here) should encourage our local prospecting club to gather everyone's black sands as a fundraiser for the club...pay your annual dues with sand! The club could likely accumulate enough to be worth getting it assayed and processed. What do you all think of this? Anyone done it?

 

[419GottaMinute]

A buddy witha claim in iowa hill piles his blavk sand next to his shack; says its his retirement fund. Lol his pile is about the size of a small car.

 

[Fullpan]

Excellent idea Kevin - If all clubs contributed to the pot, then make one shipment per year, I'm sure they could finance their X-mas parties anyway! Some
clubs do a version of this now with aluminum cans.

 

[AlwaysBusyJ]

Excellent idea Kevin - If all clubs contributed to the pot, then make one shipment per year, I'm sure they could finance their X-mas parties anyway! Some
clubs do a version of this now with aluminum cans.

I think I might have to mention this idea to my club. We're having several beach outings this year and the area has literally tons of black sand. Of course I think there is a law out here that says you can't remove more than 10 gallons of material, but if everyone had 10 gallons of black sand, that would be well over a ton! Might be interesting to see what that would be worth.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks guys, I am going to promote this idea here in Denver too. If each of you takes 10 gallons, you will be amazed since 5 gall of wet black sand is over 200 pounds!!

That stuff is dense ya know!

 

[AlwaysBusyJ]

Thanks guys, I am going to promote this idea here in Denver too. If each of you takes 10 gallons, you will be amazed since 5 gall of wet black sand is over 200 pounds!!

That stuff is dense ya know!

Tell me about it! First time I tried to go beach prospecting, I lugged half a bucket of BS half a mile from the beach to my car. NEVER doing that again!! I thought my arms were going to fall off! It wasn't until after I got back that the old timers tell me to take a wagon with me... Lesson learned!