HOW TO remove QUARTZ from GOLD VERY FAST | DISSOLVING silicon dioxide QUARTZ from GOLD

Hi Team,
In this video is me showing my process on removing / dissolving silicon dioxide ie Quartz the process will not affect gold in any way but also it will clean it because sodium hydroxide is a powerful cleaning agent. This is a very fast way of doing it, setup time is maybe 5 minutes more than setting up some HCL into a jar. only extra we are doing to the Sodium Mixture is adding heat, We know HCL doesnt remove quartz only Ironstone and has a long time doing it if the Ironstone is thick. This process works for all types of rock holding to gold. Even those hard to get hard packed clays where nothing you can do on scrubbing breaks it down. This process will remove all and wont affect the gold. HF is very deadly and Alibrite takes a long long time to break the quartz down. and H/F does remove a very small amount of the gold in that cleaning, I think this method is great because it does both Quartz and Ironstone.
These are the items I use
1. Hot Plate Element, can be any type but preferred if its heat control type
2. Stainless Steel Creamer Pot, can be any size you like, small for small gold like a little Stainless Gravy Pot. The one I used here is 600ml
3. Stainless Steel Spoon
4. Stainless Steel Lid
5. Sodium Hydroxide 98% or also known as Caustic Soda or Lye
6. PPE Mask, Gloves, Goggles or Glasses
Hope you enjoy the episode and take something away from it.
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As always be safe and well, take care and hope to talk with you all very soon.
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Best Regards, Minelab Gold

[@jamesjohnson2360]

Finally someone showing this complete process in full. I can not wait to see your gold piece you found when you tested with a Multi meter in last couple episodes ago. We all really appreciate the hard work you go to in all your videos. Some not so much, those ones who give you thumbs down mate really need a reality check. I think they need to find another channel, whats funny is they would no doubt not even have there own videos they publish. Keyboard warriors with nothing better to do and you know what I bet they are probably the first ones to go out and try this process and not give you the credit you deserve. Anywho its all good you just keep sharing these awesome videos and passing on your amazing knowledge. Just a quick question?? I have done this a few times obviously I need to find more gold. But for one piece I did have some stuff stick to the gold it was like black color, any thoughts on that?? You are a genius with the biggest heart of gold. Keep it up your friend James from Goldbuktoo ;)

[@MinelabGold]

Hello James J - it acts a little with different temps. Also the size as well. easiest way to explain is as you know it gets the corrosive level with heat. So when we do things like clean drains with water and Sodium Hydroxide it gets to a certain temp and corrosive action starts to work. In dry state its stable and doesnt do much at all only when moisture is added. When we use this on hotplate for dissolving we are increasing the Corrosive action a lot putting the Sodium into Molten State. We can reduce heat and keep in Molten state but it takes a little while longer, we can increase the temps above 350c and it will work faster again. But I found having it around that level we get good fast results. With the black it could be too hot on your temps and the stainless is actually adhering to the gold. Or left in molten state for far far too long, also keep in mind we dont need to get it to do the job in one fast run, we can split it into two steps, dissolve clean dissolve clean, Stainless will go black in this solution at high temps, what I do when that happens is simply run it back through a mixture of 8 parts water to 1 part 98% H₂SO₄ Sulphuric Acid and heat to 60 degree c and this will take that black off with no problems. Hope that explains and helps. Thanks again M.G

[@MinelabGold]

Hi again James, one last thing sorry mate. Depending on the black thickness coating. I also drop mine in to HCL for a minute or 2 and this wipes that coating straight off. ;) You can literally see it bubble immediately in dropping it in and watch that coating vanish. Good luck M.G

[@georgedobrovsky3800]

Dissolve it in H2 s O4 pickle.,

[@eckk7405]

Awsome MG thanks for the informative vid will be trying that soon with the species i found cheers mate hope to see another great vid soon🤘

[@120downunder]

Sorry I missed the live mate, first one I have, great show MG Love your work Cookie

[@MinelabGold]

Ahh thats all good Cookie, was last minute upload mate. Enjoy ya week ;) M.G

[@bushrangergold9368]

PREMI YEAH looking forward to it Cobber Keep up the great work DIGGER

[@MinelabGold]

Ahh thanks so much BG - you know this one hey mate. Enjoy ya week M.G

[@davidkarrasch6527]

Very cool now I can clean the quartz off my gold. I cant wait to see how the gold you found the other week comes up.

[@MinelabGold]

Hi David, oh thats awesome mate. Yeah its great cause the process is fast. That piece I found came up brilliant. Hope ya seen the new Video. Let me know what ya think on that stunning piece. And good luck on that process. If ya need to know anything on the process further sing out anytime

[@stevenbateman4353]

now that was cool have never seen that done before thanks mate

[@MinelabGold]

Many thanks again Steve, some fun dissolving. As always enjoy your week M.G

[@jayteasdale4059]

Very cool video awesome info cheers.

[@MinelabGold]

Thanks again Jay, much appreciated. Enjoy your week M.G

[@travisdodge2370]

You should always keep white vinegar handy to neutralize the lye if needed. Lye can create severe chemical burns.

[@alexgeorge2993]

Awesome video MG! I did not know about using caustic soda method, I like it a lot, thank you :-)

[@MinelabGold]

Hey Alex, yeah quite fast technique that one. Very cool indeed. Have a great week matey. Cheers

[@cgtprospectingadventures922]

That was awesome mate,,, thanks for the tips. Heavy pans to you ⛏️⛏️⛏️💪😎

[@MinelabGold]

Hey hey CGT - all good my friend. And same to you big heavy ones ;) Cheers

[@stephanjohnclark5042]

Love your videos and your expertise I have a lot iron ore with gold infused will this process work the same sincere thanks

[@davedownunder1587]

Cheers for that info. I am not into the dangerous chemical stuff myself,things can go bad really quickly. ☠️ Thank you again Dave 🍻🇦🇺

[@MinelabGold]

Thanks Misty, yeah Caustic is quite stable stuff used for cleaning drains and toilets and lots of things. HCL is quite nasty and HF is deadly. Enjoy your week and thanks for tuning in. M.G

[@Famo59]

Hi Minelab Gold Well I just learned something new.. Thanks for sharing this information mate.. Cheers Famo59 👍🍺🤓⛏🇦🇺

[@MinelabGold]

Hey hey Famo Thanks for watching. And pleasure is all mine Good to share some technique on quartz dissolve Enjoy ya week M.G

[@ann-mareeputt3156]

Very cool. Everyone talks about it but thats the first time I have seen it done. I prefer using the Costic Soda over the Acid much safer.. Thanks MG

[@MinelabGold]

Hi Anne, many thanks for watching. Glad you liked it and its very simple process. I will explain it in the next Vid when I do the actual gold piece I have with quartz as well how taking the piece out often to inspect can help as well. And also how raising temps will make the process faster because the mixture at higher temps becomes more corrosive. As long as we keep the Sodium Hydroxide at a molten state it all works well. Enjoy and good luck M.G

[@jcass1970]

Ready to try something different, so I'm going back to some older saved videos. I'd like to try this process, but how do you think it will work on crushed quartz? Seems like it would be a quicker process, but I've never tried it. The gold I've been finding is very abundant, but extremely fine. On my latestest trip, I found a abandoned mine and brought back samples of quartz that range from baseball sized rocks up to watermelon sized (40-50 lbs). In every rock I cracked open, so far, you can see the golden veins running through, but it's all dust. Smelting would probably be the way to go, but getting the rocks broken up into smaller chunks, then applying this process, may be quicker.

[@SeanC1959]

Great video MG. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on how to safely do this process mate. Just by chance I found beautiful nugget a week ago, which on closer examination turned out to be wrapped around a quartz crystal! I think I'll leave it as it is because it's really nice speci. Cheers Sean. :)

[@MinelabGold]

Hey hey Sean, ahh thats awesome mate. Yeah many do look good with the quartz attached and some well they just need extra attention. I am looking forward to doing that one I found not long back and showing you all. ;) Good luck and have a super week

[@SeanC1959]

@@MinelabGold Beauty! You have a great weekend too MG!

[@TrickyDickyP]

Nice video...but How would this work with micro fine gold (2000 mesh) in the quartz. The gold woud be lost in the wash water?

[@donaldharville2975]

What size is the hotplate

[@GRYgems]

Ok thanks pro i will test

[@HuntingOldYella]

A lot more quarts than you thought. More a guide

[@goldmagnet]

Hey buddy, I missed the live premier, busy in the shed trying to get the ute tray finished, nearly got there and ran out of argon darn it, so ill have to re do a few welds lol. Great instructional vid.

[@MinelabGold]

Ahh all good GM some more pizza and Bundy haha. Good luck on the tray, oh yeah know that feeling many times almost done and argon goes caput. Enjoy your week

[@goldmagnet]

@@MinelabGold it's very finicky stuff this alloy welding lol. Pain in the neck when it doesn't penetrate for the second time hahaha 🤬🤬, I'm slowly learning.

[@MinelabGold]

@@goldmagnet Ahh yeah for sure hey, perfect temps then hit it hard and fast and off you go hey mate. Once that puddle starts its off to the races. New aluminium is easier hey, but old alloy has lots more impurities and causes grief on welds. Super super clean the parts and much much better. ;) Good luck haha I know your pain LOL

[@keninglis7060]

Would the caustic be turning into sodium silicate by dissolving the quartz?

[@grantgodwin6835]

Dose the caustic dissolve any gold?? or any of the cup??

[@allanbroad3381]

Cool process mate hope to get some spessys big enough to try it out one day

[@MinelabGold]

Ahh thanks so much Allan, yeah some dont need it hey. But the ones which dont look too good its always handy to remove fast. ;) Enjoy your day M.G

[@allanbroad3381]

@@MinelabGold yeah I'd rather leave a spessy as it is but would be interesting to try

[@franguimfrangoso104]

Top caçada Gold

[@MinelabGold]

Many thanks for watching FF - Enjoy your week

[@marczurcher2626]

Thank you Minelab Gold. When you get any costic acid on your skin from that solution, wash it off with white vinegar. Vinegar is alkaline and will stop the reaction of the Acid. Keep up the good work. Cheers

[@MinelabGold]

Many thanks Marc, good comment mate. Also used lots of bicarb over the years to neutralize sulphuric for chemical disposal. ;) Enjoy and thanks so much for tuning in again. Have a super week M.G

[@bigboppa17]

Caustics ph is 13 therefore it’s alkaline 🤗

[@danburrill8716]

Sodium hydroxide is a base (alkali), not an acid. Vinegar contains ethanoic acid (a weak acid). Attempting to neutralise acids or bases that come into contact with skin is a really bad idea, as neutralisation reactions are strongly exothermic. If any gets on to skin, flood it with running water, for a lot longer than you think necessary.

[@bobcansee]

interesting Ty

[@MinelabGold]

Thanks Bob, glad you liked and hope you take some info away from it. Have a great week M.G

[@allanbroad3381]

God damn it been waiting a fortnight for this and I miss it sorry I missed it MG I'll watch it after work👍

[@MinelabGold]

Hi Allan, all good mate. Weather has stopped me on the filming. And the days which were good I had other stuff I was doing. Hoping to get a few Vids in the coming weeks mate. ;) Enjoy

[@allanbroad3381]

@@MinelabGold thanks mate and the weather has been so weird I've been able to get out a little bit found allot of bullets and a couple of little pieces!! Looking forward to your video always lifts the spirits a bit thanks mate

[@moneybox5733]

MG, I gave this a go about a year ago with a bunch of little specimens that I collected up Darwin way. IT worked well breaking the quartz down and giving me some very sharp pretty little nuggets. However I tried it again last week for the last time. I had some little specimens and a few nuggets that had a bit of quartz attached. I'm cooking with gas so my caustic reached over 400°C with devastating results. It dissolved a lot of my gold. I don't know how much because I never weighed it but one nice solid nugget that had a few little rocks attached was reduced from 48g to 34.8g and the quartz is still there. This particular nugget was a solid looking chunk of gold but now looks like a skeleton. All the smooth outer area has gone what's left is looking fragile. A second ugly looking 22g wedge shaped nugget with very little visible quartz is down to about 13.5g. I may have lost as much as 100g of gold all up but I'll never know. Before I flushed the brown sludge away I poured the top off into another stainless container. That has solidified and I'm guessing is containing a good percentage of dissolved gold but I have no idea how to recover it. 😮‍💨

[@Drufi]

Electrolysis recovery

[@dogodogo5891]

​@@Drufiany suggestion more, what's electrode? we deal with high pH there

[@jcass1970]

Finally tried this, at the end the mixture turned hard as a rock and filled tge bottom of my steel creamer. I'm gonna have to chisel it out I guess. Not sure what caused it. I kept my temp around 350.....

[@gerardange]

Thanks MG, I have been using a heated Ultrasonic tank with caustics (CLR) & 60%Hydrogen Peroxide & Hydrochloric Acid etc on tough areas. My tank temp only goes up to 80c > Not to 180c as much as your hot plate. And yes it does take longer. Do you use UltraSonic ? Being that I have it... I use it > But honestly, I am not sure if it is all that effective with all the noise and leaving it running unattended... As It seems cleaning without the Ultrasound and just using pure chemical with higher temps . Same results In a much shorter time it’s done. You have a lot of Iron stone issues and mine is more quartz that is more common up here. Thanks for sharing!

[@MinelabGold]

Hey Gerard, ahh thats awesome hey mate. Yeah a few ways to remove the quartz and ironstone hey mate. This same process does all of them. Yep iron lots here. Nah dont use Ultra Sonic oh the Stainless Vessel temp liquid on this process was 350c can run less just takes a little longer to dissolve. My pleasure mate and thanks for watching. Have a super week M.G

[@gerardange]

@@MinelabGold Wow.... that’s 662 Degrees Fahrenheit ! Lead melts at 621 F !!! That is seriously Hot !

[@roywhipple4923]

If I grind up the quartz first and am just trying to get some gold powder , the Lye won't dissolve the gold right?

[@MinelabGold]

The Sodium Hydroxide wont affect the gold at all. ;)

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

I was looking for just a way of dissolving quartz, not for gold recovery, but it doesn't hurt to learn that I could recover gold as a side operation to what I want to do. The lye you use, 98%, does it have aluminum in it to help cause the lye to heat up as a drain cleaner? Will that affect your results any? In my case, the aluminum will waste the lye, rather than help out.

[@MinelabGold]

Hi Jeffrey, thanks for watching. Nah no aluminum, yeah that's correct hey the more we dissolve aluminum the less the S/H works.

[@straycat1344]

I have gotten the hydrochloric acid, however it arrived as a liquid and you demonstrate granules. I am in the US. How do I use this in your process?

[@markmayer2029]

HCl and NaOh are completely the opposite chemically. The HCl is acid, the NaOh is basic. If you don't know the difference, you should read up on chemistry, before attempting experiments.

[@48thstateprospecting]

How many pieces of shiny did you have to give up to buy that hot plate....😳 600+ degrees Fahrenheit holy moly that’s hot Your house, backyard water feature, walk in freezer and shed with air filter system nice palace, king MG 🤩 seriously though where’s the wet suit we should snipe the bottom of that falls there’s gotta be monkers at the bottom..... good to see you. enjoyed the video thx for sharing see you on the next one👍🏻👊🏻

[@MinelabGold]

Haha nah its was quite cheap that one only cost about 0.4grams of gold $35.00 AUD - can be done with less heat it just becomes less corrosive and takes little longer. Which is still fast anyway, as long as we keep the Sodium in molten state it all works ;) Ahh yeah be great if that waterfall had gold for sure, and will see ya in the next one. Cheers again M.G

[@48thstateprospecting]

@@MinelabGold 👊🏻

[@TraveisaBlue]

If put the pieces at the end on a matte black background I could see it better

[@tobythewhale]

why not use vinegar when you reheat the cooked quartz? that would neutralize the bulk of the lye and not so much a hazzard to your skin.

[@wifighostcruiser9665]

Wouldn't it be better to fuse them and make a gold watch?

[@MinelabGold]

How cool would that be, imagine a band and facier on a watch with nice flat polished quartz and gold running through. Very cool indeed. Thanks for watching - have a great week M.G

[@arnoldpalermo9827]

Like a use oil is not clear

[@mr.m7014]

So what? You put a nugget in the solution and after all efforts, you get it back. What did you achieve?

[@frankrizzi5312]

Absolutely forgot to talk about the most important part, how much gold you got out, what is the usual amount of gold, is some quartz more likely to have gold and what is the cost ratio of doing this process. For example I spent $30 on lye and chemicals and I got out x$ worth of gold. Even if you don’t know exactly it would have been worth some speculative remarks.

[@MinelabGold]

Hi Frank, nah not all quartz has gold mate, I only process the ones which have a signal from the detector. Now with the Gold Monster 1000 we can find very small gold in quartz. I think on that piece was about 1.8 grams of gold. But that was more on doing the one specimen to film it up for KZbin and to see how well the gold looked to turn it into a showpiece for a gift. Yeah thats correct it wouldnt make sense to only process a small amount and it costs more in Lye / S/H. Be better off doing this process with a lot of gold specimens to ensure it was cost viable which it surely would be. Also if we kind of only care about the gold and not trying to keep it in a good looking gold only piece then the least cost for extracting it would be crushing. With that one I dissolved, I could have put maybe 10 of those in the same amount of solution. Also if we are unsure on the actual amount of gold in those specimens we simply perform a specific gravity weight test prior to dissolving - that way it tells us exactly how much gold is trapped within. Hope that helps and thanks again M.G

[@JoyfulSpaceCapsule-kh2wz]

B

[@roryoconnor7239]

won't the NaOH mixing in the stainless steel corrupt your gold?

[@tuanzul7626]

Why not just to recover gold from quartz every day to become rich

[@roryoconnor7239]

why not just use glass stir rods and beakers?

[@roryoconnor7239]

vinegar works better to neutralize soda ash. more so that cold water. cold water will make the reaction continue.

[@JoyfulSpaceCapsule-kh2wz]

B