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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
    
 USA
2209 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 13:30:19
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The following link is to a website that offers gold hunting expiditions in Georgia. (Georgia was the first state in the US to have a gold rush in 1838)
You must be logged in to see this link.
They also have hints as to melting gold. From their site You must be logged in to see this link.
What do I need to do to Smelt my concentrates???
Acetylene torch. Couple of small crucibles #2,3 or 4, preferably bentonyte clay / graphite will last longer. Your house mixed smelting flux. .....(see bottom for flux receipe) tongs,saftey equipment.
Okay, what do I do??? *SPECIAL NOTE* ***Wash and soak your clean blacksands with acidic acid [cider vinegar] for a day or so first. 1, Good clean blacksand concentrates.Preferably dry and ground to #70 - mesh in size. 2, Smelting Flux for precious metal, it's easy to make up a House flux for your needs. You may have to make minor flux receipe adjustments depending on the concentrates you are planning to smelt. Here is how. [adjust amount of total flux to your needs] use a tablespoon for measuring flux mix instead of pounds for each part. 1, anhydrous Borax, 5 parts. [regular Borax from the supermarket will do the same] 2, #70 silica sand, 40 parts. [get it at any home depot] 3, soda ash, 10 parts. 4, sodium nitrate, 20 parts [oxidizer]. 5, Now mix all of this together and store for when needed in a closed container,"keep it dry". 6, When ready to smelt your cons, add 1 to 2 parts of Flux to each part of Concentrates. Mix well and put the heat to it. 7, Put flux/cons mix into crucible and dampen with rubbing alcohol. 8, Fire up with a torch. 9, Once upto good hot temp take it upto 2000*F and hold until molten bright yellow white. 10, Prepare pour [ I use cast iron] mold by drying it out and heating it up [few hundred degrees]. Special Point, if the pour is to thick add some more borax to thin it out. 11, Get on all of your saftey gear, face mask,long sleeve gloves, apron also have a fire extingusher. 12, Once ready to pour, put grabbing end of tongs into torch flame for a few seconds to heat them up, [avoid themal shock to crucible]. 13, Now grab crucible and begin to pour into mold in one continuous pour.Make sure you have enough mold for "ALL" of the smelted material. 14, Once poured, set cucible on warm surface, not on cold [thermal shock]. 15, Let mold cool, let crucible cool and be sure you turned off the torch. 16, When cooled gold will be in the bottom, borax glass on top, pop it out and flip it over. Theres your Gold. Tap gently and it'll come apart.
Okay, what NOT to do???
1,Work over concrete, it explodes when hit with hot metal. 2,Never put hot on cold, thermal shock causes real problems. 3,Stay away from water also clear over head area from falling foreign material [boom]. 4,Work area all cluttered up with obstacles. You drop it and its all over, burn to the bone even death. 5,Let spectators into your immediate working area.
Why is Smelting so important???
Its a known fact that there can be 4 - 10 times more Gold in your concentrates than the visible Gold that you can see and recover. There are several ways to recover this material including leaching, smelting and others. But one of the most practicle and proven methods is to smelt the concentrates. Remember one thing, when smelting, you are now a chemist as well as a Gold Prospector. And careful attention must be paid to what you are doing at all times. A mistake can mean serious consequences too and include even death. Now to finish up with the process.
1, Once cooled down [several hours] flip mold and pop out the cooled pour. 2, You will see a layer of precious metal on top and a layer of Borax/silica glass below melted together. 3, using a small hammer or mallet, strike the edge of the metal and it'll separate from the glass. 4, That is your Gold with possible silver and platinum mixed in. 5, All of the other metals will have either burned off or will be suspended in the Borax/Silica glass layer.
In our next tutorial you'll learn how to refine the metals that you smelted into fine Gold .999 in quality. ***Footnote: Washing and soaking in acidic acid breaks down the sulfites and the considerable amounts of iron [Fe] that are in the concentrates. Rinse with water when done soaking "CAREFULLY" so not to wash out micro gold.
You may have to make minor flux receipe adjustments depending on the concentrates you are planning to smelt. Here is how. 1, anhydrous Borax, 5 parts. 2, #70 silica sand, 40 parts. 3, soda ash, 10 parts. 4, sodium nitrate, 20 parts [oxidizer]. 5, Now mix all of this together and store for when needed in a closed container,"keep it dry". .........(if this sounds a bit confusing, look up on the web or ebay for outfits selling smelting flux for gold) 6, When ready to smelt your cons, add 1-2 parts of Flux to each part of Concentrates. Mix well and put the heat to it. 7, Put flux/cons mix into crucible and put in cool furnace. 8, Fire up furnace and let it warm up slowly to about 500-600*F. 9, Once upto good hot temp [listed above] take it upto 2000*F and hold for at least 30 minutes. 10, Prepare pour [ I use cast iron] mold by drying it out and heating it up [few hundred degrees]. Special Point, if the pour is to thick add some more borax to thin it out. 11, Get on all of your saftey gear, face mask,long sleeve gloves, apron also have a fire extingusher. 12, Once ready to pour, put grabbing end of tongs into furnace for a few seconds to heat them up, [avoid themal shock to crucible]. 13, Now grab crucible and begin to pour into mold in one continuous pour.Make sure you have enough mold for "ALL" of the smelted material. 14, Once poured, set cucible on warm surface, not on cold [thermal shock].
Gold and copper melt within the same temperature of each other, about a 50 degree F difference. If you have some copper pipe or copper scrap lying around that you want to melt down for ingots or paperweights, this information may prove handy. We on the forum would never suggest that you melt pennies. That would be wrong. 
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deleted

4 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2008 : 01:09:32
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There's another video on the internet which shows how messed up this particular smelting recipe is. The gold the guys are trying to get by using this recipe is clearly shown in that video all bunched up in little yellow balls in the pitch black & brown glass slag from them following these directions. The 2 southern prospectors featured in the video state there was no gold to fall down at the bottom of a pour like it is supposed to do. And they didn't know how to get it out of the glass either.
Caveat User.
Just because instructions are free and put on the internet somewhere don't make something work right.
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just carl
Penny Hoarding Member
   

USA
601 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2008 : 07:21:13
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Just because instructions are free and put on the internet somewhere don't make something work right.
Unfortunately this is very, very true now with the internet. I really can not figure out why so many people waste time to produce extreamely well documented items that are completely false, fake, bogus, etc. Some even make completely rediculous web sites. To bad there are so many gullable individuals out theree that think if it's written, it is true. |
Carl |
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