The other day I started a thread of making jewelry out of my Alaska gold. Which brings me to the start of this thread.
I have several pounds of black sand from Nome and when it is in a container it appears to have a gold tint to it. Yes there are a few flakes of gold in there that I have not gotten completely out but for the most part it is pretty clean. So I want to melt this material down to recover the small gold that is attached to the sand granuals. I seen the picture Ken put up of the black sand with the gold attached. So I want to be sure I recover ALL my gold. Plus I just want to play. I was thinking of using my father inlaws presto-lite torch and heating the gold but am not sure it will get hot enough. I looked on the internet and there are 1000's of torches that say they run at 2500+ degrees. I am trying to do this as cheap as I can. But I do know I may be better off spending a few $$ now to make it easier down the road. I really want a kiln but that is out at the moment. Is there a reciepe that I need to know in order to melt the sands to seperate the gold?
Question 2
Is there a difference in melting the black sands vs melting the gold I have already recovered? Different reciepe? Thought it would be fun to make my own button of some type along the way
Thank you all for your help. Happy New Year!
Replies
I bought a book about 20 yrs ago it tells you everything you should know about refineing Gold and Silver.it is by Nola May Carter Samuels and Jesse Samules the last address is PO box 2146 St George Utah, the other books are Golden Rules to Cyanide Leaching and Recovery. this book is for miners just like us you dont kneed a course in chemistry to get good results. I put a couple pics of the book hope this helpsyou it did me.
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There are special chemicals involved, such as litharge used in the cupelation process, this must be done with plenty of ventilation as the fumes are toxic.
If you just use a torch on the black sands it will not separate the gold. Also there is the danger of sulfide fumes plus the chance there might to some mercury in the black sands. You need to do a lot of studying first.
In the old days black sands after separating were fired to produce iron.
Take a look at this, I need to build one for myself. http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=7387
Well Hawdy Aka, Sounds like to me you should try and put it in a Small Rock Tumbler and Powder it. then you can Classify. As for the Smeling a Scorifaction Dish is Needed with a Tortch they are prety cheep A&B has em for $3. and Propain, Smelters, crusibals, and more I orderd a Catolog and H-light Items. The Iron will Melt at a Differn * than the gold. you will need a "Recipe " of things to pull it out in a Slag. 99.9%