Gold Extraction using borax

[GoldCheddar2005]

Has anyone tried this?

http://www.geus.dk/program-areas/common/the_borax_method_2011.pdf

[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/X6Sawj0HyF0[/video]

Further information
Senior Research Geologist, Peter W.U. Appel
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.geus.dk/geuspage-uk.htm

Thought it had merits

 

[G0lddigg@]

I use borax for my fine gold when smelting just a a mappro gas bottle with adjustable flow rate and a tiny crucible. Works well. Alway end up with a nice button to play with

 

[GoldCheddar2005]

Looks to be safer, could you do it with silver

 

[G0lddigg@]

Im not proficient with melting temperatures but when my last button was tested at the gold buyers it came up 6% silver from memery being mostly creswick gold. So cant see why not.

 

[GoldCheddar2005]

I m looking for safe methods, because with all the silver I have seems a waste to not try and do something with it

 

[G0lddigg@]

Why not can't hurt can it. My only advice would be to get a deep wide crucible because a small one forces air back against the torch and starves oxygen :|

 

[GoldCheddar2005]

Might be worth a try! Ceramic or Graphite?

 

[shivan]

Cheddar are you talking about melting scrap silver? If so it will melt but I don't think the borax will remove the alloys just impurities.

 

[gcause]

NQMiners den can supply you with the crucibles GC have a chat to George about smelting

 

[Heatho]

This vid is a touch confusing as the Borax is'nt as far as I can see doing any extracting until smelting, seems to be crushed, milled, then sluiced and panned out, then Borax just added to the final concentrate for smelting.

I guess in the final concentrate the Borax may help release the Gold out of the heavies better than Mercury can.

If you have panned/sluiced cons it may work well but not on crushed Sulphide ores it won't, they'd still need to be roasted I think.

 

[GoldCheddar2005]

Cheddar are you talking about melting scrap silver? If so it will melt but I don't think the borax will remove the alloys just impurities.

Silver ore, I have plenty, time to do something with it

I emailed my support chemistry lecturer to ask her, my get brownie points but interesting to find a way to process my silver ore

 

[G0lddigg@]

the benefit for me is that I can smelt what i call crap gold that is really fine messy stuff, stuff thats stained black, bits of pyrite, lead etc after smelting all that's usually left is gold, silver and copper the rest apparently ends up in that yukky brown crap that smashes off the button. I wouldn't call it gold extraction its more refining.

 

[Heatho]

the benefit for me is that I can smelt what i call crap gold that is really fine messy stuff, stuff thats stained black, bits of pyrite, lead etc after smelting all that's usually left is gold, silver and copper the rest apparently ends up in that yukky brown crap that smashes off the button. I wouldn't call it gold extraction its more refining.

Yeah that's what I was thinking, it's actually more similar to Cupellation.

Have a read on Cupellation GC, very interesting stuff. Can be done on a very small scale, basically the same as "Fire Assaying".

 

[thedigger]

Hi Chedder
There is a book called "Recovery and Refining of precious Metals" C.W.Ammen
That will answer most of your questions

If you have a lot of silver you will need oven and use a Salamander clay graphite crucible.
Your ore will probable carry a percentage gold.

I hope this helps

TheDigger

 

[GoldCheddar2005]

http://www.miningandmetallurgy.com/gold/cupellation

Just looked this up! Very interesting

 

[bazza2210]

This vid is a touch confusing as the Borax is'nt as far as I can see doing any extracting until smelting, seems to be crushed, milled, then sluiced and panned out, then Borax just added to the final concentrate for smelting.

I guess in the final concentrate the Borax may help release the Gold out of the heavies better than Mercury can.

If you have panned/sluiced cons it may work well but not on crushed Sulphide ores it won't, they'd still need to be roasted I think.

I use borax when melting down my alluvial gold - to me it acts a a really good flux allowing the gold to melt and combine easily, any black sands etc float on top of the molten gold and when cooled just chip off.

cheers
Barry

 

[Goldtarget]

Sorry to hijack the thread but can pyrite be melted to extract the gold content did I read that right? I'm interested if so I have a few good samples collected up from panning

 

[thedigger]

Put it in a steel pot and heat on a fire (outside)burn off pyrites, and put it in a a pyrex pot and boil in spirits of salts,pour of acid add bicarbinate soda and wash,then you will know whether it contains gold.

TheDigger

 

[gcause]

Chapmans refining flux is the go the black sands turn into a glass like substance that you just shatter off leaving the gold.

Here's a video that shows the whole process:

[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/e_AjDqp9-hA[/video]

 

[Guest]

A tip for anyone interested;

Borax is a fantastic preventative for Termites. For anyone that has exposed timber near or in soil, treat it with borax.

Regards

Lambi