A 55 gallon drum 16 gauge carbon steel DOT 49 rating has a shipping weight limit of 947 pounds. The drum itself weighs ~ 70 pounds. That drum will cost you ~ $180 x 2 = $360.
Most 55 gallon drum handlers have weight limits of less than 1200 lbs so two 55 gallon drums would be needed even if you could buy a 2,000 lb drum. A one off LTL shipment of two sealed drums totaling 2,000 lbs from coast to coast costs in excess of $1,800. That's for dock to dock no backhaul. If you need an on truck handler for the drums the price nearly doubles.
Typically mines use 1 ton bags on dedicated FTL flatbed trailers to move materials interstate for processing. They can be moved by their straps with any rated forklift and will fit a standard 48" x 40" pallet if needed. Much cheaper shipping costs but transportation usually represents more than 35% of the cost of extraction.
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Two 55 gallon drums would require one off no volume shipping arrangements. Small load LTL custom shipping costs a lot more than FTL full load single destination trailer delivery. The regular carriers (UPS FedEx) have a weight limit of 150 pounds per package ($2 a lb for overage).
All in all you are looking at well over a dollar a pound to ship black sands. Where you would ship these or how much you would pay for processing is still a mystery. I don't know of any professional processors who could process a load that small and still leave you with a profit no matter how rich you think your ore is.
If you were to pour a few thousand bottles of 3% hydrogen peroxide on that BS you would get some interesting smells and water. From there you might consider actually studying what real professional miners do with their concentrates.
The simplest professional processes to recover free gold from BS use detergent washes, sodium hydroxide/chlorine conversion washes, oxidizer washes, dryers, crushers and amalgamate/retort systems. That's the simplest system. Most BS isn't that easy. Mother nature rarely gives up her bounty easily.
Notice that the final step is still to crush and amalgamate. Short of strong leaches or long term "patio" treatment your options usually come down to mercury amalgamation. Micron sized gold isn't susceptible to gravity separation. Invisible gold doesn't just suddenly become visible because it was treated and crushed.
Seldom is 2,000 pounds of BS profitable to process for "micron" gold. Even when it is profitable the most effective processing method is different for each ore and even varies quite a bit from batch to batch.
If you like experimenting with high heat or chemicals AND you study proper procedure and safety methods you can learn a lot about why black sands are seldom worth processing. You might even learn that some BS can be profitable to process - if you can get enough volume. Simply assuming that black sands are valuable is much like iron pyrite - fools gold.
Go play and experiment with your BS. You will learn a lot. Be careful and stay safe. Get a fire assay and XRF before you begin so you know just what metals you are dealing with. Several metals can kill you rather quickly if you don't account for their presence before processing. If you don't know exactly what you are doing learn before you burn. When you get done compare your cost/recovery to simple crush and panning. I think you will be surprised that simple is actually more profitable even if you don't recover all the gold.
With a little research you will find that there are two internet forums populated by knowledgeable working miners that deal with the subject of chemical/mechanical extraction of valuable ores. Dig around there, learn something and come back to this thread for a few chuckles. Luckily no miners have been harmed by this discussion. As far as the offers to buy black sand - has anyone here actually been paid for their black sands?
If you believe that just pouring a household chemical on your black sand will bring you wealth you should contact me by PM about my patent pending gold magnet, it's guaranteed by the Official Gold Magnet Institute to get 63% more gold than any other gold magnet!
Heavy Pans
I should have read thew whole page first!
