Smelting Gold Concentrates

Smelting sulfide black sand concentrates for gold and silver. Going over the flux, furnace, and process for recovering more gold from your black sand and sulfide concentrates.
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[@BuickDoc]

Chemist here: You have a huge amount of sulfides in that bucket. I think you need much more iron, with a larger surface area, to do the job in a finite time. I would go to a local machine shop and get their swarf (turnings).

[@patbrown5168]

Great video! I love the way you let us watch the cooling convection patterns in the flux.

[@dn2817]

8:27 point was awesome. that natural cooling pattern looked so cool!

[@sharkscrapper]

I don't know from beans if it's worth it, but it sure is fun to watch! Thanks

[@bretnielsen5502]

A wealth of knowledge I always enjoy viewing >>>>>>>>>>>>> A piece of cardboard between crucible and firebrick will keep them from sticking but you need a "cold start"

[@cra4512]

Have you looked into creating something that looks like 'jewelry centrifugal casting machine" - do a search on that and how it works? You may be able to make a sharper cone Casting shape that is more efficient. I enjoy your videos than i know they are a lot of work that you don't have to do. Thanks for sharing.

[@bigfreddie4854]

Great video Jason👍...Love the smelts!!!!

[@iainpaton7129]

Interesting video friend 🤔thank you and please keep the great videos coming friend from Scotland 👍😊

[@yoopermann7942]

it would be worth it to stock pile for the winter when a person would have more time to deal with this after the season is done for the year, that is my idea on if its worth it i would have to say a big YUP IT IS/WOULD ,, thank you for the tips and info

[@robtathome]

Asking for comments! Jason you're a true youtuber! 👍Soon selling mining equipment will be your side job...

[@uwillnevahno6837]

Have you ever run blanks (reagents w/o concentrates) to determine if there's any residue or contamination (carryover from prior runs)? What about spiking a sample of concentrates w/a known amount of gold and running it in conjunction w/another aliquot of the sample as a control? Theoretically the yield of the spiked sample would be the sum of the sample plus the known addition.

[@wilsonrawlin8547]

Great idea! Like calibrating/validation of the process.

[@addisme7561]

Thanks Jason, really appreciate and enjoy your videos, thanks for doing what you do, much respect brother.

[@jeffsalcedo8334]

Your videos are very interesting. I enjoy the education. I'm more of a placer guy but I would love to see your operation sometime. I live here in Washington. Take care and best of luck!

[@josephcormier5974]

Great job Jason thank you I am not sure if it is worth the effort but it all adds up two thumbs up my friend

[@akakscase]

While the tiny button itself didn’t even pay for the propane, the information gleaned was much more valuable. If they can pull 50 tons (seems like a lot, but it isn’t that much really) of the same quality ore, and run 5-7 ton batches a day, and only do the final smelts every 20 tons or so… well it would probably pay their bills for the next couple years.

[@danlindey7368]

Doing the rough math it looks as if you are making more money than the cost of materials. (propane,flux mix, ect.) But I didn't factor in your initial cost of equipment. How many smelts do you get per crucible? How often do you have to rebuild your kiln? How much do you have in collecting your material? All expenses that need to be figured. Chances are you would be better off working for Wal Mart if all you're interested in is money. If you're looking for anything else then it's worth every penny the cost. Keep the videos coming. They are great!

[@rockymountainlifeprospecti4423]

As always a great in depth review! I'm fairly new to melt metals now, but have access to some good ore, bit heavy on the copper side. But looking forward to crushing and getting some results, I've already learned how roast sulfates by you and with some success! Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a New Year with a great gold recovery. All the best from Blackhawk CO.

[@TanteLaurana]

can someone explain to me why i love watching these so much?

[@jonathansonnier3078]

What if u added it back to the high concentration stuff and run it again with the higher material. Test it would lower your concentration of the marine material but you would eliminate the second smelt by combining it with the first So after your done with all the material you would just end up with one batch of low concentrate to either 2nd smelt it or save it for future processing It just seems like tossing it out over time would add up and by adding it to the high concentration material you are not loosing any gold juat lowering the grade of your pay

[@traillesstravelled7901]

Think the learning process, is always worth a couple of bucks. Getting some shiny out of it, might be worth learning, as we have seen here, how to refine the process, for each type of concentrate.

[@kjdyatta]

I find these videos so informative. I wasn't so interested in gold refining but I can't keep myself away.

[@stoneyraypattonjr4088]

Any amount of gold and/or silver that you can recover is worth it. I live in Spokane WA as soon as I recover from the stroke I had I'm gonna rebuild my backyard foundry. I had one years ago on FL. I miss smelting my own gold and silver. I got in to buying scrap right before the price boom. But that's in the past. And I have learned easy in easy out till no more in and it runs out. Cash I mean. But anyways I love you sample smelting setup.

[@kde5fan737]

If you can figure out your biggest cost & figure out a way to either greatly reduce this or make use of the input for something else. I know it's cold in the winter there & you are using a lot of heat. If you could find a partner that could make use of the waste heat, that would cut down or eliminate much of the input cost. IDK if you have land, but heated green houses or even just heating a larger building with the waste heat from the process.

[@larryevans7669]

Another great video. Thanks for all the hard work and thought. Always thought provoking, and instructional.

[@crohkorthreetoes3821]

I think the way to go would be to roast the cons and set up a leaching column. You could 'passively' enrich the concentration by circulating the solution and running it through a charcoal filter. Then process that down once a month or whatever. Just keep circulating and filtering till you get a negative stannous test.

[@Alrik.]

Your experiments are always very interesting!!

[@DrBillPezzaglia]

You get such wonderful "convection cells" appearing just after you pour. I will use this the next time I teach astronomy, as it looks so much like the surface of the sun.

[@alexanderleibold6893]

I would like to see an experiment where a bucket or two of these cons are spread outside in the weather for a couple months to oxidize, then reran on the shaker table. I’m curious if that would free up more of the gold

[@carolyang6509]

Or perhaps if a pile of already ran sulfur ore which was ideally high in copper was allowed to sit in an outdoor pond..... And see if metallidurans might "poop" or sweat out gold for us in about a years time. I heard that a certain method which includes allowing the "trash tailings" to be exposed to the elements for a years time results in half the value that can be recovered each year, Ex: year 1= $1 million. Year 2= $500k. Year 3= $250k.

[@wayne-oo]

Well done ! And your really coming along with sub’s !

[@chrisbrooks2062]

The larger volume you have to smelt at a time would make it more convenient and cost effective, imagine if you had a ton of this material and could smelt 500lbs at a time, would you be happy with 1.75oz per smelt? I definitely would be, its just a volume to cost to time ratio that needs to be figured out.

[@coreygold1923]

Very well put

[@keithwood6459]

It would require building more equipment just to manage such masses, including a large furnace, and powered lifting equipment. These would be expensive and you would need a consistent supply of large volumes of sulfide material to conceive of graduating to that sort pf processing capability. Also at those scales you would attract the attention of environmental regulators, who would no doubt make your life harder still.

[@terrybusch5088]

@@keithwood6459 I think you answered your own question with this reply, but I love watching your vids whatever your up to.

[@mwnciboo]

Energy costs are significant to, but you are correct.

[@ivananderzen5287]

This is how modern large gold mines work. They don't look for veins, they just find soil rich in gold, and smelt it by tons

[@Alondro77]

This is useful since I'll be getting samples from north Jersey, which are mostly going to be weathered pyrites and chalcopyrites.

[@johnarchuleta9893]

Jason, you’re still the man!

[@j_freeman3230]

Even if you didnt get a huge amount, breaking even in this case is better than keeping that value in fiat currency. You win, because metals will only go up and the dollar is going down.

[@billsauer3164]

I can't believe that them ceramic crucibles are that strong. It's crazy!! I can understand heating them up in the kiln but when you pick them up white hot with them pliers I expect them to bust and shatter every time

[@kevinmartin7760]

It looks like, for the re-processing of the slag from the first time, you only added soda ash and no silica sand. Could this be the cause of the foaminess?

[@ProspectorTripp]

Hello Jason, super interesting and useful video. I always enjoy watching and absorbing your Informative Brain Waves! Thanks buddy ✌️PT

[@james.j1066]

Good to see video from your channel again

[@jam2190]

I'll never get over the fact of your furnace is jus some k wool blankets

[@ModernAmericanNomad420]

Living the dream..thanks for the videos..I learn so much

[@WColeZPorter]

The experience makes it worth it. Now I’ll have to look again but if 7.5oz per ton isn’t enough for folks they obviously should be sharing their ways of making money 😏

[@Jade-d]

Wayne, I think Jason meant to say 7.5 grams per ton, because 7.5 oz is a fortune per ton.

[@kolstee420]

Pyrite can contain up to .25% gold. A ton would be potentially worth 109,000 at the current market price.

[@ranadushyant]

Really great video. I got a interested into prospecting and smelting after i found a bit of shiny ( gold/slivdrish )bits stuck to quartz in some ancesteral property( 16000sq mts)

[@orophilia]

I'm not an expert, but I've found that the higher the concentration of Au, the more profitable when smelting. This suggests that you might do better by roasting and re-concentrating on your wet table. If you lose some gold on the shaker, well it's gold that's too expensive to extract anyway. Give it a try.

[@seaofredkc]

Hell idk but, if I went out for 3 full dedicated hours in my truck going around trash picking and dumpster diving for scrap i'd at least cash in 80$-100$, (minus 15$ or so for the 1/4 tank of gas)

[@10xitall]

When you pouy your material out of the crucible, I noticed quite a bit overflows. Aren't you potentially losing precious metals when that happens?

[@hardrockuniversity7283]

Hi Jason, Any thought on smelting loaded ion exchange resin beads? They should be 5-10% gold.

[@jonathancardy9941]

If you put the collector metal in as one lump, is that going to be as effective as spreading some lead shot across the top of the melt? Could there be gold suspended in the slag that hasn't come into contact with the sinfle lump of collector metal?

[@svenp6504]

Would a greater iron surface area help with reducing more metals out of the sulfides?

[@macoppy6571]

At current "spot" price, assuming 1 ozt Ag per ton, and 6 ozt Au per ton, yields about $10,700.00. If the Go/NoGo margin is 4%, the total cost per ton must be $10,300.00 or less.

[@j_freeman3230]

Great video! How old is that cone mold? The wear on the top edges make it look like its been in use for decades.

[@snarky_user]

Interesting that the second button was mostly silver. Reminds me of that video using the Parkes Process. Maybe that silver doesn't like lead as a collector metal.

[@joeylawell3590]

I love how raw you guys are. Like fuck it why not show it pour over. Lord knows none of us would be doing it any better or measuring as exact

[@xenaguy01]

The gold and lead don't pour over, they sink to the bottom.

[@diggerdog9096]

Thanks Jason I enjoy your vids

[@scottbailey8158]

If it's to hot and kicks or bubbles over u can stop it by adding some sand. I know this from steel making. Slag is the same ,sulfur, phosphorus, solicits,ect... but the sand will just melt and turn to a glossy black slap when cool it floats to the top of your molten slap so it will stay away from the bottom

[@shadowfax743]

How much material do you think is lost in the over pouring.

[@ericprater4017]

Great interesting vid Jason, well done!

[@kevinm3349]

Doesn't seem like your method decomposes Auiferous pyrite though. Have you found that in most cases the difficulty of trying to extract gold from pyrite is just not worth the return?

[@keithwood6459]

I think in his process the sulfides all melt, including the contained gold, and when the gold in the sulfide melt touches the lead it goes into the lead and stays there. The issue would be whether all the gold in the sulfide melt made its way into the lead, or some was left behind in the matte. The result from his last smelt (the rerun) indicates that some precious metal is being left behind in the matte.

[@mattkeller8501]

I can't put a $ amount on the rewards for this. Its just cool as hell. Thanks for all the videos

[@kevinhubbard8039]

very cool i have a 3,9 oz bar i made i now know what i need to do to purify this thank you my friend great video

[@shahramsharifi-mi7lo]

Hi, I wanted to learn how to extract gold from rock and soil. I don't know where to start. In order to do the primary smelting, how should I extract the metal from the rock and soil? Actually, I want to learn how to do this from zero to a hundred. I hope you understand what I mean. Be 🙏🏻🌹

[@dougdye2276]

Watching it cool down at around 11:10 to 12:12 is exactly what I suspect Sharon Weiss's Marie Callender's pumpkin pie looked like coming out of the oven!

[@stevenandrosemariejourney2582]

What is the cost for all the materials so is it cost effective

[@tc8533]

Does the iron bar change weight after you have used it in your smelting? I really enjoy your channel and appreciate all the information you share.

[@david2ljdavid2lj56]

Yes. He puts the iron because it is more reactive than the precious metals. All the oxides attack the iron and make iron oxide.

[@busbey61]

It would be cool to see you on Gold Rush and testing their tailings to see what you get out of it!

[@jeffmorin5867]

He actually offers knowledge. Gold Rush is a television show designed to display drama.

[@busbey61]

@@jeffmorin5867 right, but a cameo on there would build up his following.

[@macguru9999]

Do commercial gold operations go after the gold trapped in sulphides or just the free metallic gold ? does it depend on how much silver and silver compounds are present to determine when its economic ?

[@talldave1000]

This is highly interesting.... Great Job

[@yossarianmnichols9641]

It would be nice to know how much stuff you have smelted over the years. Is that your main business line? Do you do it on contract basis?

[@paulcoover9197]

Jason, Did you roast those sulfides? Sometimes I forget to. I recently tried roasting some ORE. It made some beads that looked pretty good. It was a pain in the ass though. If you have a big camp fire roast it. (Stay back, it may explode) after a while it stops that.. I saw a photo of roasted ore with bbs all over it.

[@10xitall]

I have noticed in several video's relative to fire assaying gold that there is an overpour from the crucible to the molds. Would that not lose gold and other precious metals as well as compromise the volume of lead button that you want at the bottom of the mold after cooling? I must be missing something, maybe it does not matter?

[@franksworld9922]

I love watching the cone cool off it reminds me of the surface of the sun.

[@jeffarto8340]

How come the crucibles do not come with a spout or slot to pour off like a Pyrex measuring bowl does? Seems like some is stuck to the sides. 2nd- Is there a titanium crucible that melts at higher temps than Platinum and Palladium?

[@TexasVeteranPatriot]

I wonder if your sulfides aren't processing due to flux chemistry or lack of carbon. I've noticed how much reduction happens to the iron and the improved look of the slag in previous sulfide vids that I'm not seeing here. The steel didn't seem to have reduced in size at all. In the others that rebar (?) was significantly reduced in size. Just wondering maybe I've missed something or maybe I'm comparing apples and oranges. I need to go rewatch those vids...

[@larryhaynes7298]

@ Mount Baker Metal in mining when you reuse a crucible to melt is there still Trace element still left in your Crucible I know that sounds big so the first melt before you put the lead in to receive your precious metals I noticed it the beginning of this video that your Crucible was dirty I was just wondering if there could be Trace precious metals on the inside of that dirty Crucible this is in no way a critique or criticism it's just a question for my own personal knowledge

[@larryhaynes7298]

I just don't want to think that my ground is more valuable than what it is if I'm reusing crucibles from different places that I've used them from before

[@paulcoover9197]

Back when you ran some borax in there, it looked glassy. Why not? Is the ash cheaper. Or runnier/ more viscouse? All those ash recipes looked stoney.

[@keithwood6459]

You could use your thermometer gun to check the temperature of the cone mold before pouring. As for if it's worth it, did you get a gold concentrate off the shaker table? If so the mining might be worth it, but smelting the sulfide split is probably not. Only you know your costs structure, but if you value your time into it, I think you would have to at least make that worth $100 an hour, because you could be doing something useful with those four hours. There there's cupels, fuel, flux, electricity. Yet you made only about $40 worth of gold. So you would need at least 12-15 times as much gold in the sulfide smelt to be worth it, without increasing the volume of sulfides, because with increased volume would be additional costs in fuel, consumables, time, etc. If you try to scale up to a larger process, you would probably save on fuel, but it would be increasingly difficult to manage everything, requiring equipment to lift and pour, etc. So unless you want to build special equipment for handling you are stuck with your current process.

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

The ancient Greeks could help out here. I read (a long time ago) that they'd pile up gold bearing sulfides outside and leave it exposed for a year or longer. Mother Nature eventually took care of those pesky sulfides via weathering. Guessing that this would be much cheaper than any other mechanism to free up your gold. Might make a meaningful difference WRT profitability. I'm guessing that roasting ore was probably more commonly employed, however. Much faster.

[@rockbutcher]

I have been involved with three projects worldwide which focused on re-milling old tailings. In two of the cases we knew what the recovery rate was from the old operations (one was still running). In every case, our recovery rates were higher due in large part to mother nature doing the 'grinding' work by simply rusting out the sulphides present and releasing the interstitial gold. In the operating mine we simply passed it back through the mill on the standard settings. On the defunct mine sites we ground finer than the old timers did, so of course...

[@Alondro77]

It'd probably be even faster if there was a way to aerate the tailings regularly, maybe a simple airflow pumped with a windmill? Blowing air through the moist tailings would drastically increase the oxidation rate.

[@rockbutcher]

@@Alondro77 Well if you can figure out a way to blow air through a wet sand beach you will be a millionaire pretty fast....assuming that recovery is greater than cost.

[@Alondro77]

@@rockbutcher Wait... what if we used super-heated steam blown through tailings pre-heated to past the boiling point, so the water never condenses?

[@haroldishoy2113]

With the gold yielded here, (+/- $40) and factoring in roughly three hours of smelting effort, not including materials, an Amazon tier 1 hourly employee is paid about the same for 3 hours of work which does not factor in overtime during their Amazon Prime promotional sessions twice a year.

[@philipcorwin5989]

Love the way this metal looks like when it starts to cool down almost like something off of a star trek show, like a lava lamp!!! But great info either way!!

[@Hobypyrocom]

that whole foundry looks red hot from the outside, that means you are loosing way too much heat... maybe add another layer of isolation?

[@Goldtoysrock]

Using floatation recovery this is good grade material. You need to use bubble floatation process to concentrate.

[@brianhbinesh]

Do you stir the molten material and then let it settle out?

[@RalphReagan]

Love your videos. Gold is gold so yes.

[@skoitch]

Was the bismuth not working out as a collector metal?

[@r0cketplumber]

I wonder if it might simplify the cone molding process to use a smaller cone mold, which would overflow and spill most of the slag. The lead will still sink to the bottom of the mold, but this would allow the cone mold to cool more quickly and let you recycle the lead sooner.

[@dilmanabdullah5042]

Good job mate, can i use silver as a collector metal.

[@robertbingham3215]

Have you tried using zinc or a lead zinc combo on a strictly oxides ore? As opposed to just lead?

[@stevenrivinius1484]

Zinc is some very toxic shit I wouldn't go near it Jeff Williams has a video on this

[@charlesmalloy8150]

I melted a bunch of scrap silver a few years ago, and all the ingots I poured have a gold color to them. Is there an easy way to separate what ever the metal is that turned them that color ? Or should I send it somewhere ?

[@mikemckenzie3078]

My rule of thumb is $75/hr inclusive of consumables so $300 .so you would need approx 5 grams. To get this you would either need to do multiple or larger melts in the 3.5 hrs.

[@rockbutcher]

Nice vid! Did the pH of the closest waterbody downwind drop due to the SO2 production? That's what made Sudbury look like hell on earth for years.

[@DeadJDona]

5:55 would it help if you preheat this pyramid metal form before pouring mix to it?

[@uelhunter8160]

What can the spent cupels be used for? Can you dissolve them in acid and recover your lead?

[@kennethgrizzle8520]

I want to know where you get your molds at and you're crucificals and compels

[@xenaguy01]

Why no borax in the flux this time? Previous videos you've used borax, soda ash (or lye) and silica.

[@mikeconnery4652]

So much of that scrap could have been prerefined and yes more time labor. Really hard to say. Glad you made the video. Lots of equipment so maybe not.

[@HansFormerlyTraffer]

I would think it depends on how you could scale it and how much material you could get to use. If a person really needed to I guess you could do several ton batches with coal fired furnaces....If the numbers worked out there.

[@itzthecheeto]

I'm making a gold melting furnance out of a 20 gal. Hot water heater to be using a 15 kg.crucible w ha should the inside detentions be to be efficient?

[@expatconn7242]

A few questions . What make is that crucible? What was the metal thing you pulled out on the 3rd pour. I’m only been doing easy 3 aluminum, brass and copper just a couple of years . Still learning . I work at the 20 mule team . On your smelts I’m so confused on what you did. Only breaking the tip.

[@kenharty6016]

What happens if it starts to rain while youre schmelting?

[@lancer2204]

On a hobby basis any return above materials cost would be a great success, but hobbies are not something you do for financial gain. On a production basis you want returns of AT LEAST twice your input costs (time, consumables, wear and tear on equipment etc) assuming you already have the equipment on hand.

[@zakaroonetwork777]

Diminishing Returns. How much do you spend on Propane each run?

[@millsysmadhouse8501]

my big question is wouldnt it have taken you more on the recovery on just gas to heat it? let alone the flux and lead even if you can pick the lead off fishing sinkers lost on the banks for free out of the $8 of gold you got back?

[@GoldPanDan]

Hey Jason, Does it work better to roast the sulfides and then melt or to just go to the direct smelt?

[@S13402]

That lead to make roasting and panning, i wonder if that gets the same result