Gold ore crushing & sampling video

Hi All
As there has been a bit of discussion regarding sampling & crushing hardrock I thought I would put together a video or two of my plant & technique. You;ll have to excuse the video quality , I'm better at finding gold than making how to vids. Anyway its a 2 part series so far. The first video is of the primary flail mill in action.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjkqgeOioDI[/video]

The second Video is of the rodmill that I process any of the oversize that doesnt go through the seive.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIO2oT5oyK4[/video]

That's a neat setup, thanks for sharing Jethro. How long would it take you to process a bucket of ore?

Cheers firvsharing and uploading your machines jethro, very useful and great to see you at work with safety considerations at play ( mask..goggles )

The last process filter seems interesting. Did you try a cyclone filter? If so..what didn't work?

What are you using for the rod mill screen. Is it thick and what hole size are you using

Hey Jethro

Thank you, I love it, I only got dolly pot from Ryan on friday and already I'm bulking up like Arnold Shvartsanoodle

Love ya work

Bazz

AR, don't forget the heavy duty work thongs

Bazz said:

Hey Jethro

Thank you, I love it, I only got dolly pot from Ryan on friday and already I'm bulking up like Arnold Shvartsanoodle

Love ya work

Bazz

AR, don't forget the heavy duty work thongs

Click to expand...

Talkin bout dolly pots.. I just smashed my finger between mine and the hammer rod...big blood blister 8.( ... thongs are quality mate.. best safety gear invented. Bali use invisble thongs

Ouch!

Hi Shivan, AR & Bazz.

Shivan, 90% of my prospecting is done in the group of rocks contained within the omeo metamophic complex, which is characterised by high sulphide content lodes containing gold in association with sulpides ie very fine gold. Ive found over the yrs that the ore needs to be ground very fine to release the gold. So im guessing that a 4 kilo sample would take about an hr to process completely through that setup to the point where i can roughly estimate gold content.

Hey AR yeah the mask is a must when dealing with rock dust especially mineralized rock. The glasses are also safety as I keep hitting my fingers without them, getting olds a beach. No havent tried a cyclone but I need to add a high volume water pulse under the screen in the classifier. 'The screen in the end of the rod mill is the same size as that used to sift the primary crushings in the first vid. The screen half way down the gravity classifier is also of the same material.

Bazz keep working that dolly mate I did that for a lot of yrs.

Thanks for the additional information, interesting! cause I'm up that way as well. I know close to nothing about the formations etc where I work, it's a good lesson about being educated about your surroundings.

Do you work on any kind of numbers, (the magic question) Kgs Vs Oz Troy or what ever

Cheers

Hi Jethro
I am also looking at the gold in sulpides,question is do you heat treat the concentrates so as you can get at the gold locked up.

Regards Frank

Bazz said:

Thanks for the additional information, interesting! cause I'm up that way as well. I know close to nothing about the formations etc where I work, it's a good lesson about being educated about your surroundings.

Do you work on any kind of numbers, (the magic question) Kgs Vs Oz Troy or what ever

Cheers

Click to expand...

G,day Baz Most of my sampling is from the old ore paddocks found around mullock dumps, so grade is not important. I just make a note to self to return if I get a good result. I recently found an easily accessable shaft that showed a very good result so i am going to have that one assayed once i determine the amount of ore tha may be left.

thedigger said:

Hi Jethro
I am also looking at the gold in sulpides,question is do you heat treat the concentrates so as you can get at the gold locked up.

Regards Frank

Click to expand...

G,day frank most of the sulphides, I've saved for processing at a later date. Ore from the old dumps is pretty much already oxidized by 100yrs of rainfall bushfires etc. so the gold is free after grinding in the rodmill.

Thanks for the post Jethro..looks good..

jethro said:

G,day frank most of the sulphides, I've saved for processing at a later date. Ore from the old dumps is pretty much already oxidized by 100yrs of rainfall bushfires etc. so the gold is free after grinding in the rodmill.

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Good point jethro. Once the ore is up and out of the ground water table and in the air, oxidation starts immediately. I found this out the harsh way and now have a rusted out hole in my metal pain from leaving sulfides in it for a month or two

Yeah AR, I find that if I leave the concentrates in the plastic pan for a week they start to oxidize & rust spots start to appear where the sulphides were. the sulphides actually cement themselves to the pan. sometimes the gold will stick too.

Hydrochloric acid or phosphoric acid will eat away rust if it becomes an issue down the line with gold sticking to it if that helps..

Hi Jethro
This is a very interesting subject and it is not cut and dry,
.I have samples from ore that was processed 20 years ago,and they will still not give up the gold.You could say not all ores are the same
I am sure that the more we look at the problem of these sulphides,the more we scratch our heads.
I have treated these ores in many ways to release the gold,heating them in the muffle oven to 800c,then treat them acid,along the way I check by looking at them under a microscope,what I can tell you that they do not realease the gold easly.

Regards for now
Frank

Have you tried forcing rust / oxidation with hydrogen peroxide on the ores? I havnt but its just a thought.
You could force it to rust with H202, amd then eat the rust with HCl. Might take a bit longer than you want to process it, but should work

By heating in the oven and boiling it hydrchloric acid does seem to break some of it down,but not 100%
Even when you refine some of these ores they seem to throw problems retrieving the gold from the solutions.

Regards Frank

Wow jethro, that's a great setup! It makes my dolly pot look redundant! Do you find you get more gold with the first crushing through the flail mill or the rod mill? Thanks for sharing.

yes frank I think it has to do with the type of sulphide / teluride that you have to begin with. I have an old book here called '' The Metallurgy of Gold ''. although it was written before the cyanide process was invented it is a facinating read as far as treatment of the various types of ores goes. also interesting on how little value was placed on what we now call OH & S.

AR im no chemist so i dont tend to go adding chemicals to unknown ores in case i cause a nuclear disaster 8) :lol: