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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[NJnuggetpirate]

ahahaha kevin luckily for me im pretty good with my pan and a small small amount of sand wont hurt

 

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[KevinInColorado]

LOL, oh good

 

[NJnuggetpirate]

everyone like there own style i find the instead of pulling up i use the circular motion which does the same

 

[bigjoek]

Im a back and forth guy myself. Once I get a small amount crammed up agaonst the edge. I found for me personally if I do the circular motion I wash a lot of gold down the sides with a large amount of sand covering it ,even if I go slow. I noticed if I go up and down or back and forth whatever, then I can control the amount of sand coming down a little bit better.

 

[reptwar1]

Yes, you can do all of those things; however, you need to know what your black sands are carrying first. You can either pay for an assay, or if you're lucky enough, research one that's already been done for your particular area. Then, you'd follow the recommended procedure to liberate (roasting, crushing, amalgamating, leaching, etc.) the gold and other precious metals from the black sands.

My partner had a bunch of black sand that he'd been lucky enough to find the reports on for the area. He had to roast them, then crush them, then tumble them to a fine, fine powder, then amalgamate just to get the gold--after all that on his own, he didn't want to go any further to even try to recover anything else.

There used to be outfits that would buy bulk black sands from you (as long as they had certification of the area's history), and there were other outfits that would process them (probably still are), but then you had to pay them.

All the best,

Lanny

I buy black sands. Paying cash for Nome beach sand or black sand concentrates from dredging and or sluicing operations. Im in the process of building a recirculating sluice/ miller table combo prototype and need as much black sand as I can get. Posted 6-2014 I will be buying black sand for at least the next year. Paying 50 cents per pound + shipping. 479-857-4138

 

[KevinInColorado]

Sounds like a fair, and at the same time, potentially profitable price to offer. A friend of mine and I did a fire assay on a sample of my non-magnetic heavies (after I'd removed all the gold by mechanical means down to -200 or so). The assay showed 3oz per ton of metals, 2.6 of gold with a little silver, tungsten, etc for the other 0.4 oz per ton. That's $3000/ton of value and while you are only offering 1/3 of that, the shipping puts your offer OVER 50%of value for material that will take some pretty fancy tools to extract the remaining gold. Seems fair to me.

If you want the magnetic sand, which I presume has less gold in it (or un-separated mixes of both), that's even more generous of you. Which sort of material do you want?

PS happy to sell you some, send me a PM with USPS mailing details and I'll tell you where to send the check!

 

[chlsbrns]

I cant help but post a reply here.I am a placer miner in B.C. and have to laugh when I see people who really do not know of what they speak and yet offer answers to others. Black Sands can and do hold values in Precious metals.Not all black sands do but any taken from known mineralized areas such as gravels that contain placer gold almost always do. The value of the gold , silver and platinum can vary widely even on assays taken on samples from the same gravels. I have had four assays done on my black sands from my mine.I first remove all visible gold on my Miller Table and it is the leftover "tailings" that I sent for assay . They are all different which is to be expected. They range from a low of 188 grams or 6 ounces per ton gold to a high of 2449 grams per ton gold and 206 grams silver per ton. That is just under 80 ounces of gold and 6.5 ounces silver per ton of black sand. That is a dollar value at todays prices of $132,500. per ton. Considering a ton of black sand can fit into 8 five gallon pails I would say that black sands are a very valuable commodity and if you produce more then a few pounds should never be discarded without paying the $80 for an assay. And yes I do recover all kinds of gold from my black sand tailings.Here is my last assay.View attachment 740618

A 55 gallon drum of dry BS is about 2,000 lbs. It costs about $400 to ship 5gal/200 lbs from Vancouver, Wa to the east coast. It costs about $1600 to ship 55gal/2000 lbs from Vancouver to the east coast. Theres lots of $$ to be made by anyone with the knowhow to get the gold out!

 

[Oregon Viking]

Ahhhh lets do some panning!!

 

[Clay Diggins]

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.



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

 

[chlsbrns]

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.

View attachment 1218235

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

Sodium hydroxide = lye. The same lye that you bashed in another thread as being so dangerous.

We arent the slightest bit interested in processing anyones BS.

The process that we use is not only fast and effective at capturing large amoints of gold that you cant see or recover, it is also very inexpensive, simple, profitable and safe. We could easily process a ton in less time than you could pan a 5 gallon bucket. You go ahead and spend hours panning BS. If you send it to me when you are done I would get more gold out of it than you got!

We don't use sluices they lose way to much gold we use fluid beds so we capture pretty much everything over 200 mesh. We are currently averaging about 10 oz per ton of BS tailings. It takes a few hours for us to process a ton. Do the math but don't try to tell me it's not profitable!

" Invisible gold doesn't just suddenly become visible because it was treated and crushed"

When you have a pile of it, it's visible!

The image below was posted on the first page of this thread.

 

[chlsbrns]

Not profitable? LOL!

 

[CO2]

I took my last year's black sands and poured them down the waterfall on "Marigold Mountain", down "Marigold Creek" and through the "Denver Basin". Then I poured some gold-bearing non-concentrated river sand down the creek. I have no idea if the BS helped the marigolds grow, I just wanted the creek to flow like a real creek and have real gold in it. Pouring water down the waterfall waters all the marigolds. I planted late or I would have had a ton of blooms in the photo. Hopefully they will have reseeded themselves and will pop back up next year.



(top to bottom: Marigold Mountain, Marigold Creek, and the Denver Basin)

I don't understand why it posts my photos sideways.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I don't understand why it posts my photos sideways.

Because you were holding your phone sideways when you took the picture.



Chelsey:

We don't use sluices they lose way to much gold we use fluid beds so we capture
pretty much everything over 200 mesh. We are currently averaging about 10 oz per ton of BS tailings.
It takes a few hours for us to process a ton. Do the math but don't try to tell me it's not profitable!

No matter what other members post, this member of the collective will
always be correct. All will be assimilated into this process. Other methods
are irrelevant.

Resistance is futile.

 

[chlsbrns]

Ok you got me! I'm going to get them to throw everything away except our pans buy some picks and shovels, and a sluice but im still going to one up you and get a mule!

 

[CO2]

Because you were holding your phone sideways when you took the picture.

But, I wasn't holding my phone sideways. That's why it took the picture in portrait instead of landscape. When I view it on my phone gallery the orientation is correct.

Anyhow, run it through a blue bowl. That's what you should do with your black sands.

 

[DizzyDigger]

But, I wasn't holding my phone sideways. That's why it took the
picture in portrait instead of landscape. When I view it on my phone gallery the orientation is correct.

Try saving the image to your computer desktop, then correct the
orientation with Paint or any other program that allows you to change
the orientation of an image.

All I do to fix it is save it to my desktop, correct the orientation
using Microsoft Office Picture Manager, then re-post it. Takes
all of 30 seconds.

 

[johnedoe]

OK.... interesting thread.
So do we actually have someplace to sell our black sands?
Because I got to tell ya...... I can process some serious sands.

 

[chlsbrns]

OK.... interesting thread.
So do we actually have someplace to sell our black sands?
Because I got to tell ya...... I can process some serious sands.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/312670-what-do-black-sand.html#post3166253

 

[johnedoe]

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/312670-what-do-black-sand.html#post3166253

Thank you young lady..... I will give them a call.

Also found this report on their site....... http://pubs.dggsalaskagov.us/webpubs/usgs/b/text/b1660.pdf

 

[Jason in Enid]

edit - nevermind I should have read thew whole page first!