Little ingot from last season's crushing

[Since1981]

Happy will the results of this little activity. About 20g of fines from a couple of bags of rock. Crushed with the Compact Crusher, panned and then melted. Good use for a jam tin I reckon. Happy days!

 

[LORD]

That's Brilliant 1981 !
Well done :Y: Happy days indeed

 

[golddiggerart]

Ohhhhh GOLD! Very nice bar... :rainbow:

 

[silver]

Now that, is beautiful 1981 ! :rainbow: O

 

[davent]

OK, so I'm a numpty with things like this.....but interested, what's the tin lined with, can you explain how to make a similar ....thingy, and would 1 burner thing work?

Ta!

 

[Gem in I]

OK, so I'm a numpty with things like this.....but interested, what's the tin lined with, can you explain how to make a similar ....thingy, and would 1 burner thing work?

Ta!

Same here it looks like the lining is insulation for houses.

 

[Moneybox]

OK, so I'm a numpty with things like this.....but interested, what's the tin lined with, can you explain how to make a similar ....thingy, and would 1 burner thing work?

Ta!

Dave, it's not that easy to melt. I had trouble getting mine up to temperature so I had to shoot off to my brother's place and use his Oxy/Acetylene. Then you have to be careful to not get it too hot because it will turn to vapor at about 2400 C.

 

[mudgee hunter]

Mapp gas, what normally comes in a yellow bottle ( if one is color blind, might be light green to the rest, ha) burns hotter than propane.

 

[Since1981]

Hi Folks, the insulating material is refractory wool - just doesn't burn at really high temps. Doesn't even get really hot on the outside. Normal house insulation will burn/melt at these temps - do not use.
Line the jam tin sides and base, cut a circle of the wool for the lid, then cut a circle, or plug, out of the centre of that. Use tongs to remove the plug to give it a test poke with a carbon rod to make sure it's molten before pouring. Two holes for the jets about 15mm from the bottom. You could probably just use one, but two is hotter.
Fines go in a carbon cylindrical crucible with 66% borax, 33% carb soda in the equivalent amount of what you reckon the rubbish will be.
Takes about 10 minutes.
MAPP gas tends to burn a hole in the crucible, I've found, but I know some people prefer it.
Gloves, safety gear - molten gold means hot, and you've got to be quick on the pour as it doesn't stay molten for long out of the oven.
Great fun to extend the detecting season through the "home" months.
None of these rocks had any visible gold.

 

[Mr Magoo]

Very interesting Since1981. But it begs a couple of questions. The first would be how many Kg's of rocks are we talking about? and If there was no visible gold in those rocks what on earth did you base your selection on?

 

[Since1981]

Ha ha - just like your namesake! About 40kg. The rocks were taken from a section of adjoining bedrock from where I had found a small piece of reef (there's a vid [a bit long] on this forum somewhere showing some of that), so they were in proximity to a known find. My guess was that there would be traces of gold in the surrounding rock. Now I think there is probably more, which I will get next time I go back!

 

[7.62marksman]

Here is a link to my melting
Since this i have got it down pat no more alarms going off
The only thing i did make sure was that i had was the right borax and soda ash not from any shop but from a coy that supplies the mines and making sure the mix is right 3 to 1 borax to soda ash
Took a long time and you can only get it in 20kg bags quite a few hundred dollars at the end but worth it
All in all was fun to do and still enjoy doing it
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20143

 

[Mr Magoo]

Ha ha - just like your namesake! About 40kg. The rocks were taken from a section of adjoining bedrock from where I had found a small piece of reef (there's a vid [a bit long] on this forum somewhere showing some of that), so they were in proximity to a known find. My guess was that there would be traces of gold in the surrounding rock. Now I think there is probably more, which I will get next time I go back!

Wow!That is a pretty an awesome return. Well done with that. :Y: :Y: :Y: :Y: Impressed.

I hope you get many more equally productive bags.

 

[AKA_RedRimmed_Desert]

Once I saw a good video making your own little gold bars, maybe I can find it again. Anyway, he used a small kiln, with high grade crushed rock plus concentrates from mining equipment. The rock melted forming glass above the gold. Then all you need to do is break the quartz glass off the top.

 

[davsgold]

There are many different ways to make a kiln or furnace, I made mine from Hebel Block 200mm x 200mm x 600mm from Bunnings for about $13.00 just cut to size and drill some holes, you get 3 or 4 furnaces out of 1 block. I also have a youtube video of melting and pouring a 2 oz bar, but the forum won't let me post links.

cheers dave

 

[old hand]

there was a kit for sale at Laanecoorie gold bash [hobo s gold] I cannot remember the $ thanks regards john

 

[Bjay]

Has anyone sold their gold that they have melted down . Got a few small buttons from panning . Not wanting to sell them as I've told the kids that they can fight over my gold when I leave this place but just thinking buyers might be a bit suspicious ?

 

[davsgold]

Has anyone sold their gold that they have melted down . Got a few small buttons from panning . Not wanting to sell them as I've told the kids that they can fight over my gold when I leave this place but just thinking buyers might be a bit suspicious ?

Some of the gold buyers want/like it in a bar as they can use an XRF machine in it to determine purity, it's very hard to use the XRF on a handfull of tiny nuggets.

Of course this is mainly for the purpose of selling, if you not intending to sell then it won't really matter, but a nice shiny 2oz bar does look nice. :Y:

cheers dave

 

[davsgold]

Here is a video of the furnace in action

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/tW880L5LWkw[/video]

 

[davent]

Thanks mate, great video.