DIY Fire Assay of Gold Ore, Beginning to End | How much gold?

I perform a complete fire assay of two gold ore samples, including smelting, cupelling, weighing the gold bead and calculating the fraction of gold. I demonstrate the use of a DIY analytical balance and a home-designed magnifier.
Keywords: gold ore, fire assay, cupel, smelting flux, crucible, gold bead, litharge, weighing gold, gold prill, lead button, magnifier for gold ore

[@AUMINER1]

Excellent! The instruments you have created are as impressive as the fact that you figured out such a complicated and failure prone process in such a short amount of time. :)

[@jdeluisa]

I agree, very impressive microbalance. Obviously an engineer.

[@surefireKorea]

Your 3 kW pottery kiln is impressive. You make excellent use of low cost materials in its construction, yet are able to achieve excellent performance and quality. That, in itself, is the mark of an efficient and cost effective design. I learned something useful here. Thanks for your time and effort!

[@orophilia]

Nice comment, thanks. Kilns are interesting to design and build and much cheaper to make than a commercial model. There are pitfalls, however... -- Dave

[@asrar_altiqnia]

I am very happy to see someone who is proficient and distinguished in what he does. I applaud you for this wonderful effort. In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to the electrolysis of metals and mixing them with salts such as sea salt and placing copper electrodes at a specific voltage, for example 12 volts, 3 volts, or 1.5 volts. Leaving it to produce results from this solution, transforming them, precipitating them, and melting them so that we can see what this new birth is. This is just an example of many options that are likely to result in amazing things. It is just working for pleasure and thinking about God’s creation in this great universe. I greet you again, wonderful person. I am following you from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 👍

[@markanderson3740]

I'm so happy to have stumbled onto your channel, It's so refreshing to watch somone besides sreetips follow an actual system they've followed hundreds of times before. your assay was clear, controlled, and conclusive. The ones who constantly add new variables like different flux methods between samples are just untrustworthy. thank you for creating content with confidence.

[@MerchantMarineGuy]

This is truest impressive work, and very well taught. Thank you!

[@ericschultz5413]

Excellent, straight forward and informative video. Thank you for your hard work in producing it!

[@brixtonnabunat1822]

You made fire assaying very easy and simple to do, I'm so glad that i found your channel, new subscriber here! ❤❤❤❤

[@gregbilotta2472]

The algorithm has brought me here and I am pleased with its gift

[@orophilia]

Haha. Yes, we are all guided by the great algorithm....

[@eduardbuletsa9485]

Immediate subscription! 👏 Did you see a metallic gold in magnifying glass of this ore after you crash the stones?

[@orophilia]

I didn't look. Next time I will.

[@pertinentparadigm1337]

Wow, you're a genius!

[@balajiramamoorthy1476]

Why you have added iron rod??

[@orophilia]

The iron captures any remaining sulfur and converts it to FeS, which is easily dissolved in and removed by the flux.

[@pascalbedard4191]

In the slag,you can have maybe 10% of your lead,i started with 50 g of lead,my button was 44g,and i recover another 7g from the slag 🤚

[@thestolensol7]

Could you please give me a link to explain the math you used to find the percentage of gold to silver after cupelling!

[@orophilia]

I'll make a video.

[@kerrihansen2413]

HOW does that last orangish ingredient you add determine the size of the finished button? And is the black glass the melted sand?

[@orophilia]

Hi Kerri, The orange material is Lead Oxide (Litharge). The charge is 100 grams of ore, 100 grams of Borax, 100 grams of Soda Ash, 100 grams of Chapman's flux from Legend, Inc., 30 grams of Litharge and one iron rod. Bring the charge to 2100 F and soak for 10 minutes.

[@criscris5061]

Increíble

[@samGold27]

The cupel is for one time use only plz ??

[@orophilia]

One cupel can handle 35 grams of lead, so it can be used several times, depending on the weight of the lead button, or just once if the lead buttons are large.

[@jeffbybee5207]

It seems your cushing and siving would preferentially keep the softest friable part of the sample. Would not this throw off the assay of the ore?

[@orophilia]

I've wondered the same thing. It must skew the analysis at least a bit. -- Dave

[@ashotarzumanyan9958]

How many celsius does you heater Heat ? Thanks

[@orophilia]

The pottery kiln can get up to 1200C

[@jothimurugan2319]

Sir What is the name of the rock you have assayed ?

[@orophilia]

It is from a quartz vein.

[@jdeluisa]

Interesting vid. I enjoy your videos. I find it interesting that you use Chapman's flux for assay work. Any thoughts on that? In his book, Chapman suggests that Mg Dioxide can cause silver values to report to the slag. It also seems like more litharge could be beneficial when assaying 100 g of material. One assayer that I have worked with uses significantly more litharge, even in smaller samples. Others have suggested this to me as well. Finally, why not part and weigh? The math calculations may not account for other values like PGM's.

[@orophilia]

You are correct on all accounts. I'm trying to part the gold beads right now. It's another step that needs to be mastered. I'll soon have exhausted my supply of Chapman's. At that point I'll move to just Borax and Sodium Carbonate as the flux. More Litharge requires larger cupels. I've been running some experiments on that aspect and I'll report in a later video. Thanks!

[@aidanwhite6711]

Hello, why cant you use the same furnace for smelting and cupelling?

[@orophilia]

I could and most people do. The large furnace takes a long time to heat, so I prefer the smaller furnace for cupelling. Why not use the small furnace for smelting? Because I like the larger charge that I can get into the #5 crucible. Good question.

[@yuhangqian6991]

Where is the cupel produced，India or China？

[@orophilia]

I use Mabor cupels. I'm not able to determine the country of origin. -- Dave

[@yuhangqian6991]

@@orophilia Mabor cupel is produced from India.

[@orophilia]

@@yuhangqian6991 Thanks!

[@TerribleShmeltingAccident]

actual flower? like the kind you use to bake bread?

[@orophilia]

Yeah, we just need a handy source of carbon.

[@TerribleShmeltingAccident]

@@orophilia how does the carbon affect the reaction?

[@orophilia]

@@TerribleShmeltingAccident The carbon acts as a reducing agent. The lead, in the form of PbO, is reduced to metallic lead by reduction. -- Dave

[@ايكوسان-ذ5ص]

لكن هل يمكن تركيز الذهب عبر الغسل لهذا الخام ، أو ان الذهب سيهدر مع الغسل

[@orophilia]

"But is it possible to concentrate the gold by washing this ore, or will the gold be wasted during the washing?" Yes, in practice we would first concentrate the gold in the ore by fine grinding and then performing some sort of gravity separation. Good question, thanks. -- Dave

[@ايكوسان-ذ5ص]

@@orophilia thank you

[@ايكوسان-ذ5ص]

@@orophilia thank you

[@johnsabatka2978]

Where did you get that classifier?

[@orophilia]

From Amazon. It's a cake flour sieve: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZRJFYH1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[@soso.123m4]

Which size have these mabor cupels?

[@orophilia]

The one that can absorb 35 grams of lead.

[@arotogtech]

Wanted to ask your opinion if it js okay with you. Outcrops grabbed from on top of the reef on the ground surface fire assayed 0.22g/t and 0.19 g/t respectively. What is your general opinion of this?

[@orophilia]

That would be very low grade and not worth pursuing in my opinion. It does show that the area has gold, so you might want to keep looking. How are you getting the assays done? Good luck with your hunt. -- Dave

[@arotogtech]

@@orophilia Hi mate. Thank you for your opinion. We'll, I got them fire assayed. They were grab sample quartz boulders from the top of a certain mountain.

[@orophilia]

@@arotogtech Look for the highly mineralized quartz veins and take samples directly from the vein. Can I ask how much you paid for the assay? -- Dave

[@arotogtech]

@@orophilia The question is, how do you look for the highly mineralised quartz vein? I just dowsed using copper rods...... do you have any other methods......? You could share a few tips...... I paid $25 each.....

[@orophilia]

@@arotogtech The quartz should have lots of inclusions of brown / purple / black material. The more ugly and rusty the better. -- Dave

[@SURFEAMORETERNO]

If the ore also contains some silver,where is it?

[@orophilia]

The silver is also in the bead but in very small quantities. I try to explain the way I measure it at the end of the video but it might not be so clear. -- Dave

[@SURFEAMORETERNO]

Thanks for the answer. Be cautious of fumes. I recently placed an ore of the Platinum group to dissolve in aqua regia, and was surprised to find Osmium, whose salts are extremely toxic. Luckily I used a fume hood with a filter and handled small amounts. My equipment is also "Frankestein's" A hug!

[@orophilia]

@@SURFEAMORETERNO Yeah, thanks. I always use a good respirator. Very interesting to find Osmium! -- Dave

[@SURFEAMORETERNO]

Interesting but too complicated to separate the Platinum group metals to be able to refine, especially when Osmium Iridium and Ruthenium are present. It takes special facilities, sophisticated equipment and a lot of knowledge. You believe that Platinum Chloride is toxic until the day you put the whole gang in solution. Things get really violent. A hug!.

[@orophilia]

@@SURFEAMORETERNO The world is a beautiful, interesting and complicated place. Un abrazo. -- Dave

[@กันญาดาพิชญศิริกุล]

Good morning 🌄 my 🙏

[@MohimSk-q2h]

300g পাওডারটি কি ছিলো

[@orophilia]

That is a flux mixture containing equal parts Borax, Sodium Carbonate and Chapman's flux.

[@aliosmankucukpacalar]

Turksh translate plz

[@myadventure7069]

I sometimes thinking why people getting gold expensive way possible

[@orophilia]

This just an assay, but yes, it's a very expensive way to get a couple of milligrams. On the other hand, it's one great hobby! Thanks for the comment. -- Dave

[@myadventure7069]

I using chemicals to recover gold