Difficult gold

Nightjar said:

Phil,
Make your self a small recirculating 12V sluice, pans are a PITA.
Plastic boxes from bunnings, connected together with an overflow pipe.
PVC pipe laying around
10mm square door seal for riffles
Couple of layers of shade cloth in bottom section to catch anything that escapes.
**Most important** A bottle of el cheapo dishwasher liquid (The blue solution used to shine your plates.)

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1414/1621933373_sluice_12v_bilge.jpg

Click to expand...

Peter I have the Gold Rat magic mat that I put the concentrates over before getting about a pan of dirt back. It seems to do a good job of catching the gold even though the water is flying over at 17,000 L/hr but it still includes all the black sand and lead. There's an awful lot of very fine balls and chunks of lead that just doesn't want to part from the gold in the pan.

I think Simmo has the right idea. I shouldn't waste my time on separating it just shove it all in a furnace and burn off the waste.

Hello Moneybox.
What I do is boil it in hydrochloric acid,and then pour off the acid and then put bicard soda on it,that really gets at the ironstone.That helps a lot.

Why not build a Martin/Miller table. (several other names)
Looks like just what you need, very easy to make and effective for sorting those fine black metallic sands!

Martin,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71LH99UXn78

Miller,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EsOYqSWrk0

goldtrapper said:

Why not build a Martin/Miller table. (several other names)
Looks like just what you need, very easy to make and effective for sorting those fine black metallic sands!

Martin,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71LH99UXn78

Miller,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EsOYqSWrk0

Click to expand...

Thanks goldtrapper, I have considered a Blue Bowl or something but I think I'll go with Simmo's suggestion of just shoving it all in the furnace with some flux to take the impurities.

Be careful with the fumes Phil.

When all material looks melted, make sure you give your crucible a bit of a shake and a swirl. It helps all the gold collect together.

If your in NSW, add all the mineral layers to get an idea of what you might be dealing with?
Tin and graphite are a challenge

Bentonite helps.. vary the concentration around the size/weight of solids.

Hey money box send it to me Ill clean it up for you cheers Muk.

This is where I'm up to. Hopefully I'll get time tomorrow to tidy it up so that it actually looks like gold. It's been sitting in the Alibrite for about 30hrs so some of the black scale has gone but its still ugly.