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2022...
- Thread starter Moneybox
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Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
I'm only using Australian made. I pulled apart a heap of Holden rear axle CV joints and got 54 balls.
Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
All the black sand that I pan out has some fine gold in it. It often comes out of the pan with the magnet when I'm trying to get rid of iron. I'm trying to extract that gold from the black sand using mercury.
I gave the first batch of sand a tumble for a while with a spoon full of caustic soda. That's supposed to help clean the gold up so that it better attaches to the mercury. Then I poured off the excess water while introducing fresh, that should have removed most of the caustic and that brown mud that came out of the sand.
I added 150g of mercury and ran it for a few more minutes so that the mercury could grab the gold. Then I washed the bowl out into a pan. I tried to do too much because a pan full of black sand is too heavy for me to handle properly and it was impossible to agitate enough to get the amalgam and mercury to the bottom. I was losing mercury as I was trying to pan it out but I was panning over a second pan so I'll get another go at it tomorrow in the light.
The mercury is not much heavier than the black sand and it was oozing up through the sand and out of the pan. Hopefully I'll do better in the daylight taking smaller bites at it each time.
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Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
Well that was a bit of a challenge. If you think you can pan gold you can't necessarily pan mercury. Gold lays nicely in the pan until you want it out. Mercury lays hidden in the pan until it wants to get out then that nice fat little ball just rears its head and scoots right over the top of the sand and out of the pan
I added 150g of mercury to my sand and panned off 163g. Hopefully that means I've got 13g of gold for my efforts out of about ¼ of a bucket of black sand.
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Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
I guess I should mention that I have limited experience working with mercury but I have a very old and experienced miner advising and teaching me.
Safety is taken seriously. I'm wearing rubber gloves and full length sleeves and eye protection. The main risk with mercury is from inhaling the vapor so I'm working in a SS sink installed out in the open air by the shed. This week we have a breeze blowing as well as low temperatures and I'm working the mercury in water as much as possible.
The result so far is very pleasing with 58g of amalgam from 15L of black sand. All this sand has been down the sluice and through the pan so you'd expect it to be clean. Perhaps it went rusty because the water in the tumbler came out muddy each time.
The two little red stones in the pan (above) are gold so I tumbled the next two loads longer to clean it better before adding the mercury. I overcame my problems panning the mercury by taking it in small bites each time.
The tumbler worked well so I might finish that off tomorrow. The amalgam is stored in a glass jar under water until I can process it further.
Safety is taken seriously. I'm wearing rubber gloves and full length sleeves and eye protection. The main risk with mercury is from inhaling the vapor so I'm working in a SS sink installed out in the open air by the shed. This week we have a breeze blowing as well as low temperatures and I'm working the mercury in water as much as possible.
The result so far is very pleasing with 58g of amalgam from 15L of black sand. All this sand has been down the sluice and through the pan so you'd expect it to be clean. Perhaps it went rusty because the water in the tumbler came out muddy each time.
The two little red stones in the pan (above) are gold so I tumbled the next two loads longer to clean it better before adding the mercury. I overcame my problems panning the mercury by taking it in small bites each time.
The tumbler worked well so I might finish that off tomorrow. The amalgam is stored in a glass jar under water until I can process it further.
Coota
Mick
Phil, I use a Bluebowl to recover the amalgam/mercury. 100 percent recovery and quick. You can run it a lot faster than when just recovering fine gold
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Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
Thanks Coota, I'm looking for something quicker and easier than panning. I've repanned the sand and it's clean but it took several hours out of my day.
I'm aiming to get a cone but everything I've seen is way too big. Something like this would be perfect. I've used this on several occasions and it works well but I don't own it and don't like using other peoples gear. I'll most likely end up building it.
Phil have a look at a Betea pan it may be what you are after. Mackka
I've bought balls from AWIS in NSW and Melbourne Lacework in Melbourne. They come in various sizes from, I think, 12mm to 50mm.
https://artisticwroughtiron.com.au/https://www.melbournelacework.com.au/
Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
I will take a photo tomorrow!! This is a new type!You mean a cone? Just drop in if you like
The frame could be easily refabricated. I imagine the cone is worth quite a bit? (for those that want one??!!!!)
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You mean a cone? Just drop in if you like
hey Phil, I use a Gold Cube to do what your talking about, fast and easy
Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
Nice one Simmo, yes they do work well. Not suitable for my little bits but ideal for the final cleanup on a wet plant. A friend of mine, the guy advising me on my current project has a plant setup with that as the main gold collection at the end.
He puts the dirt over a grizzly to remove the rocks then feeds it through an impact crusher. Then it heads off into the ball mill and when it leaves there it's ground into a slurry that goes straight into the Knelson concentrator. Then he brings the concentrates home and puts it through the Cone above. Then if he's still got a bit of black sand he uses a spiral wheel. That's a whole lot of work for a bit of gold
He puts the dirt over a grizzly to remove the rocks then feeds it through an impact crusher. Then it heads off into the ball mill and when it leaves there it's ground into a slurry that goes straight into the Knelson concentrator. Then he brings the concentrates home and puts it through the Cone above. Then if he's still got a bit of black sand he uses a spiral wheel. That's a whole lot of work for a bit of gold
Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
Today I went out early for a spin on the dryblower. I only got about an hour and a half done and I needed to move the machine. It was either that or move the pile that had built up under the end of the output conveyor. After I moved it I couldn't start the Honda again.
When we returned from Darwin I had a couple of outboard fuel tanks with 2-stroke mix. I didn't want to throw it out because, well where do you dispose of it anyway? So I shared it around, some in each quad, some in the Honda generator and what was left went in with the petrol in one of the jerrycans.
Well what a pain that was. When we got home Mrs M's little Honda quad wouldn't go. I had to replace the sparkplug and drain and refill the fuel. My was ok until I got to Flat Creek station in Queensland and I had to drive around on full choke all day. I took the carburettor off twice, removed and cleaned the jets and reassembled it without success. In the end all it needed was to have the fuel flushed that I did up near Victoria River in WA. Next I tried to run the generator but found it needed a new sparkplug and once again I flushed the fuel tank.
Well just before I headed east last I ran into the same problem with the Honda GX270 in the dryblower. I'd filled it from the contaminated jerrycan. Yesterday I needed fuel and grabbed one of the jerrycans out of the trailer, it just happened to be contaminated with the same 2-stroke fuel so today I paid the price of trying to save fuel.
After changing the sparkplug I added a fuel from a fresh can of 98. Hopefully it'll swallow the last of what was in the tank because it wasn't until I'd refuelled it that I realised what had caused the problem.
I have no idea why all the 4 stroke Hondas packed it in after a little dose of diluted 2-stroke outboard fuel. The dryblower started first pull on the new sparkplug. By then the wind had changed and I couldn't load the dryblower without working in a cloud of dust so I shut it down and went home.
When we returned from Darwin I had a couple of outboard fuel tanks with 2-stroke mix. I didn't want to throw it out because, well where do you dispose of it anyway? So I shared it around, some in each quad, some in the Honda generator and what was left went in with the petrol in one of the jerrycans.
Well what a pain that was. When we got home Mrs M's little Honda quad wouldn't go. I had to replace the sparkplug and drain and refill the fuel. My was ok until I got to Flat Creek station in Queensland and I had to drive around on full choke all day. I took the carburettor off twice, removed and cleaned the jets and reassembled it without success. In the end all it needed was to have the fuel flushed that I did up near Victoria River in WA. Next I tried to run the generator but found it needed a new sparkplug and once again I flushed the fuel tank.
Well just before I headed east last I ran into the same problem with the Honda GX270 in the dryblower. I'd filled it from the contaminated jerrycan. Yesterday I needed fuel and grabbed one of the jerrycans out of the trailer, it just happened to be contaminated with the same 2-stroke fuel so today I paid the price of trying to save fuel.
After changing the sparkplug I added a fuel from a fresh can of 98. Hopefully it'll swallow the last of what was in the tank because it wasn't until I'd refuelled it that I realised what had caused the problem.
I have no idea why all the 4 stroke Hondas packed it in after a little dose of diluted 2-stroke outboard fuel. The dryblower started first pull on the new sparkplug. By then the wind had changed and I couldn't load the dryblower without working in a cloud of dust so I shut it down and went home.
I've used F10 fuel treatment in everything I own for years, bloody brilliant and cheap compared to fixing fuel issues or throwing away old fuel. I've even doubled my fuel filter replacement intervals as there's only ever a few specs of dirt or rust flakes in them when I've inspected them.
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Gavin of Garfield
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MB I would say it sounds more like the fuel had gone off being the issue more so than the fact it was 2 stroke mix. Petrol hasn't got a great shelf life and the hotter the temps the shorter that life is.
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