As I read and learn more and more each day it becomes easier to see how things in the world are created, modified and evolve through science. I will like to share with you all the information I gather and have concocted into some useful tips for prospecting, minerals and how science can help. You may find you already do some of this yourselves either intentionally or not at times. Ill explain in a few posts some interesting facts about certain points of interests that I think some of you would like to know as well.
Some may have no interest in this information at all and may find it useless to them as there may be 'easier' options to what I explain.
Do not attempt any of my topics relating chemicals unless you really know what you are doing. I am not liable for acid burns or miss use of chemicals or any hazard you choose to play with. I am happy to help those who have some experience with chemical safety and use.
We are all out there in our wonderful country surrounded by minerals and wealth just as our anthem mentions with pride, so why chase only one of those minerals? I seek not only metal as gold, but iron, alluminium, copper, bismuth, tin, antimony.. etc and constanly look for any source or signs of a mineral I can use. Why? They also have a purpose and ill start straight off into it by explaining what I've found out about:
Tin
Atomic number: 50
Atomic weight: 118.710
Symbol: Sn ( from Greek Stannum )
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin
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As we know tin is found in our heavies very commonly by anyone who ends up with 'black sand' in thier concentrates. Most of us would get the annoyance of it all but there are some useful minerals and metals in there which can be put to use, so why toss them. You may be wondering why I am starting with Tin as its not very common as a metal these days and only used as a protection on some metals as it cannot corrode in water, air or acid. But it does have a use in a few ways for prospecting and lapidary.
First I will discuss Stannous Chloride which is Tin (II) and hydrocholric acid in a solution which can be used to identify gold. Yes identify gold. If you have read or watched the gold extraction and refining videos on utube you will see they use Stannous Chloride or SnCl4 we will call it from now, is used to tell if any gold is left present in a solution after extracting as much as possible. If there is gold present, SnCl4 turns dark or black and the process needs to be refined again to make sure all the gold has been extracted.
SnCl4 therefore should theoretically be used to identify if a rock contains gold in it by dabbing it with a cotton bud. Pretty fast identification rather than crushing and panning. I havnt tested this theory yet. Where can I get SnCl4 or how can I make it? Back to the black sand we go! It contains a hell of a lot of impurities in there not only just tin. It needs to be refined by chemical and magnetic separation. Ill only discuss that further if requested, but once extracted, the Tin Oxide - Cassiterite, goes through a high temp furnace at 1200c with carbon to create Tin the element in its natural form. SnCl4 is made via putting Tin into Hydrochloric Acid under boiling temps to extract the tin into the solution grabbing onto the chlorine atoms.
Tin has a big use in lapidary as a polish being used as Tin Oxide and can be made by heating concentrated nitric acid and adding Tin metal slowly to the solution which causes a violent exothermic reaction to create Tin Oxide powder. Highly not recommended for anyone to attempt without a proper laboratory setup and splash screen with an exhaust for ventilation.
Tin is just one of the many items we tend to toss away and the process is not a hard one to create it all at home and put to use some of those lost minerals!
Ill continue more only if forum users are interested, please let me know.
Some may have no interest in this information at all and may find it useless to them as there may be 'easier' options to what I explain.
Do not attempt any of my topics relating chemicals unless you really know what you are doing. I am not liable for acid burns or miss use of chemicals or any hazard you choose to play with. I am happy to help those who have some experience with chemical safety and use.
We are all out there in our wonderful country surrounded by minerals and wealth just as our anthem mentions with pride, so why chase only one of those minerals? I seek not only metal as gold, but iron, alluminium, copper, bismuth, tin, antimony.. etc and constanly look for any source or signs of a mineral I can use. Why? They also have a purpose and ill start straight off into it by explaining what I've found out about:
Tin
Atomic number: 50
Atomic weight: 118.710
Symbol: Sn ( from Greek Stannum )
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin
-------------------------
As we know tin is found in our heavies very commonly by anyone who ends up with 'black sand' in thier concentrates. Most of us would get the annoyance of it all but there are some useful minerals and metals in there which can be put to use, so why toss them. You may be wondering why I am starting with Tin as its not very common as a metal these days and only used as a protection on some metals as it cannot corrode in water, air or acid. But it does have a use in a few ways for prospecting and lapidary.
First I will discuss Stannous Chloride which is Tin (II) and hydrocholric acid in a solution which can be used to identify gold. Yes identify gold. If you have read or watched the gold extraction and refining videos on utube you will see they use Stannous Chloride or SnCl4 we will call it from now, is used to tell if any gold is left present in a solution after extracting as much as possible. If there is gold present, SnCl4 turns dark or black and the process needs to be refined again to make sure all the gold has been extracted.
SnCl4 therefore should theoretically be used to identify if a rock contains gold in it by dabbing it with a cotton bud. Pretty fast identification rather than crushing and panning. I havnt tested this theory yet. Where can I get SnCl4 or how can I make it? Back to the black sand we go! It contains a hell of a lot of impurities in there not only just tin. It needs to be refined by chemical and magnetic separation. Ill only discuss that further if requested, but once extracted, the Tin Oxide - Cassiterite, goes through a high temp furnace at 1200c with carbon to create Tin the element in its natural form. SnCl4 is made via putting Tin into Hydrochloric Acid under boiling temps to extract the tin into the solution grabbing onto the chlorine atoms.
Tin has a big use in lapidary as a polish being used as Tin Oxide and can be made by heating concentrated nitric acid and adding Tin metal slowly to the solution which causes a violent exothermic reaction to create Tin Oxide powder. Highly not recommended for anyone to attempt without a proper laboratory setup and splash screen with an exhaust for ventilation.
Tin is just one of the many items we tend to toss away and the process is not a hard one to create it all at home and put to use some of those lost minerals!
Ill continue more only if forum users are interested, please let me know.
