Anyone got a use for black sand?

[AtomRat]

I score buckets of heavy black sands in cons from my local digging and wondering if theres something to do with it all.

Ive seen vids where a bloke smelts it to iron, thats not too usefull as I already have plenty of steel..

If anyone has seen uses for black sand, whether it be an abraisive for rock tumbling or using it to sand cast into, anything, id love to hear what you have seen it used as or for.

Sometimes these black heavies contain a yellow heavy of some sort too, any way of separating these?

 

[DeckyDan]

Sand blasting maybe

 

[Prospector B]

I've read somewhere that if you dolly the black sands up you could recover some gold from it. I think the recovery was greater than 10% by weight so if you have lots of it it could be worth you while. I think the gold binds to the iron so crushing it up is meant to free it. If it works let us know!

 

[AtomRat]

I've read somewhere that if you dolly the black sands up you could recover some gold from it. I think the recovery was greater than 10% by weight so if you have lots of it it could be worth you while. I think the gold binds to the iron so crushing it up is meant to free it. If it works let us know!

I mean after the gold has been recovered as much as possible. Just the left over black sand

I want to have a go at that rod mill for cons and it should crush a fait bit of the black sand down too but it will still be kept as a by product for use elsewhere if I can find a use.

Ive made ferrofluid with it so far for my girls to play with using neodymium magnets ( just by adding some cooking oil until a paste forms ).

 

[XIV]

Put it in a sand pit.
Who else has black sand, sandpits
Oh thats right. I do

 

[AtomRat]

Lmfao .. Put it in your cereal for extra iron?

 

[Terrraaustralis2014]

Just speaking my mind:

Maybe try to flog it as a cool base for a fish tank, or something along those lines?

...ugh, I dunno, too tired

Cheers, lol

:/

 

[Prospector B]

I mean after the gold has been recovered as much as possible. Just the left over black sand

Yeah me too! After all the gold has been removed if you grind it to the consistency of talc power then you can release more fine gold, and by that I mean micron sized gold. Doing a bit further research on it not all areas have a high concentration of gold to black sands i.e. gold locked in black sand, so your mileage may vary.

I cant find the site now where I found the information but there are a few other forums which mention it. Its probably not worth the while though, you would get more gold if you were to go back out digging. I'd go with the black sandpit idea!

 

[silver]

Maybe the black sand at the beach that has that gold colored sheene to it in the sunlight could be high in attached micro gold,...Mmmmm the plot thickens,... all those beaches,....all that black sand,..all those gold bearing rivers that put it there too(well at least the right ones found with research into the right areas)

 

[XIV]

Not all black sand is the same.
All heavy and look the same.
.tin
.manganese
.hematite
.magnatite
All metal elements and all look black.

A mate of mine smelted it and made a sword from it.
Looked nice but was brittle and no good to use

 

[MJB]

Funny you should say that XIV

Traditional Japanese swords are forged from Iron sand called Tamahagane (or something like that) I have seen a vid where they build a clay furnace and for 2 days kep shovelling in the black iron sand and fuel then they let it cool. Then they smash the furnace and drag out a massive lump of iron/steel. The swordsmith gets to choose only the purest and higher quality bits from the extremities of the lump and all the rest gets used to make tea kettles and farm tools.
The swordsmith has to further refine it to remove as many impurities as possible before its good enough to make a sword out of though. Maybe your mates forging technique needed some practice

 

[AtomRat]

My forge is struggling to hold up to iron temps but it was getting closer to the wet season so it couldve been my mistake to use it then, but ill certainly give it a go when its warmer and theres no moisture in the furnace, I dont want it to crack any more..

XIV - Ive identified all of the list you wrote in the sand. It made up from all of them, yep.

If its worth it, or even just for fun ill try to chemically separate or figure out a way to separate the minerals

its called a flower or a bloom I think when you get ore and turn it to pig iron and slowly add carbon.

A very tedious process and I wouldnt like to attempt it witout having a drop hammer + leafspring setup running. Lots of folding and welding