Smelting and Refining Gold From Tailings

Smelting and refining gold ore tailings to determine how much gold is still locked up. By smelting the material down and performing a large assay the amount of gold left over in the coarse quartz ore can be determined.
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[@TheBookDoctor]

19:30: That convection pattern is so pretty. Like, seriously, I'd enjoy watching a complete realtime video of that from the moment it's poured until the surface has frozen over. I think that would be both fascinating and mesmerizing.

[@VendettaProspecting]

Excellent, once again coffee and mbmmllc on a Sunday morning 💨💨💨🥴☕️

[@alexwarner8048]

Heat the cone mould to over 250 degrees centigrade mate. The interaction of cold mould to hot pour creates thermal trap points all around the cone mould surface that will hold onto heavy/precious metals. It can throw off actual essay weights and results.

[@pdland4936]

I don't know nuthin' and I thought heating the cone might make some difference . Great clip .

[@Michael-rg7mx]

A cool bullet mold, makes wrinkled bullets. I heat it by filling with molten lead and placing over the furnace. I'm sure he could hang it on chains over the furnace.

[@sylentxtinction2097]

With all the energy involved in processing such a small amount from the tailings of your machine... it's both a testament to the efficiency of the turn key system, and the price to assay high purity gold. That level of retention is amazing for mechanical separation.

[@exploringabandonedmines]

Interesting but I am sure it costs more to recover the Gold than it is worth. Why don't you use froth flotation to concentrate the Gold before smelting it? The way the old timers did even 100 years ago.

[@intellectualiconoclasm3264]

You should be able to convert Borax just by cooking it at over 220°. I hope that's healpful!

[@cheesynuts4291]

Your videos have been a huge help to me Jason. Thanks a million!

[@damxgopak457]

Best go through my tailings better thanks Jason.

[@MegaSilverStacker]

Such great knowledge from you Jason!👍👊

[@Drachenfang]

Always love your videos Jason. As an educator I am glad to be learning more about pyrochemistry and the recovery process.

[@etarheel1]

Bro I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by your Chanel but I am. Thank you for your videos! I really enjoy them!

[@ericprater4017]

I loooove mbmmllc! Great job! Keep em coming!

[@ChrisRalph]

Try leaching them right in the supersack bag with thiosulfate and a plastic kiddie pool underneath.

[@gabrial3377]

Ah, Chris. Fun to see you here, because I have watched many many of your videos. Great work!!

[@gabrial3377]

Oh, btw, what is thiosulphate?

[@GSProspecting]

Great work fam. Keep the dream alive. Gold squad out!!!

[@johnarchuleta9893]

Jason my man, really enjoy your informative videos.

[@intellectualiconoclasm3264]

Great knowledge, thank you.

[@andie_pants]

Between watching you and Dan Hurd, I'm glad I live amidst the corn fields of Ohio... because I can see myself catching gold fever in a heartbeat! 🤒

[@MP57719]

There's probably gold there too, just have to find it.

[@allenhammer7923]

Them and other did it to me

[@gabrial3377]

There is good gold to be had in Ohio. Son and I spent 3 months on river there.

[@laralovesviolins6510]

From 19:20 to 19:56 - the natural kaleidoscope effect is mesmerizing!

[@UtahGold]

Thanks Jason. My first few attempts at smelting yielded the pure iron buttons that would dissolve in water or dissolve overnight like you show. I never thought of re-smelting or cupelling because I thought it was pure iron the way it just completely dissolved in water. But in hindsight I should’ve tried what you’ve done. Thanks again

[@jeffcard3623]

Iron doesn't dissolve In water.

[@bobcansee]

Love what your doing!!

[@windyhillfoundry5940]

Always enjoy your work👍

[@rayeaglenz]

Enjoyed watching your video 👍😉

[@ProspectorTripp]

Good work Jason! Thanks 🙏 ✌️PT

[@kencarbon2346]

Enjoyed watching your video

[@lordchagrin1378]

Now that's a lava lamp! Great video, thanks for explaining as you go.

[@ethanburnett4164]

Cool molding!!

[@TrevsOutbackandGoldAdventures]

Thanks again Jason for another fascinating experimental video.Just amazing to see what gold was locked up in the number 4 tailings,a large percentage of which would have been quartz.Henceforth you would have had to bring the smelt up to at least 1650 degrees celcius. I hope you keep bringing us out here more fascinating videos.

[@snarky_user]

Cool, so this was basically a proof on the prior video. I suppose the next step will be to figure out how to put a ball mill inline with automatic feed process before they get the table. Would you get any benefit from putting a roaster after the ball mill to kill of the sulphides before they hit the table. Crusher - Hammer Mill - Ball Mill - Roaster - Slurry Mixer - Table ??

[@macoppy6571]

That sounds like procedural thinking 🤔

[@martingardener]

Best cooking show ever!

[@aumetalmental8403]

Spot on...👍✌️😎

[@shaneyork300]

Excellent!

[@bryzabone]

Ball mill is the way to go, I think you were right first time, best way to assay is with least loss and cost 👍🏻

[@azinfidel6461]

@mbmmllc, was curious as to whether you've seen shortages of other materials and supplies?

[@StratRider]

hard to express how much I appreciate what you are doing and actually teaching here. I would also like you to add your ROI on these experiments and how that might translate to tonnage. It would appear that you likely spent at least $30 here (not counting time) to return $5 or less in gold. Again the effort is worth it for learning but for others Not on youtube - is it ever worth it?

[@cpebud]

I think it’s more of a test to see how much gold remains as a way of determining how successful his previous process was at extracting it, not for actually trying to get the gold from this. I could be wrong

[@korpse6rinder]

You can cook your borax in a low oven to drive off the water content if you need anhydrous.

[@jonpierce8342]

Melt a batch of borax, pour it in a cookie sheet, let it cool, and crush it. TADA! Anhydrous borax! Thats how my blacksmith buddy does it for his flux anyway...

[@closed2459]

Install a food grater above that hook a bunch of wires to it some with lights in them a jucer under nieth it an place all that on the rear deck of a dalorion then flux it

[@normynorm2945]

@@closed2459 Very good

[@curbyourshi1056]

Fairly sure his furnace is hot enough mate.

[@newtsleatherandmetalsmithy1827]

I also use this method to make anhydrous borax but its not as clean as commercially made

[@jamesproffitt9641]

If he does all that he might as well just drive the water off in the smell like he does

[@lylestavast7652]

I came to watch the molten mix freeze; wasn't disappointed at all ;)

[@graemewight2975]

Aw, you missed the dissolved oxygen popping out on the wee mould, well u didnt, but we did. Can u put that up next time u shmelt pls. To me its a little bit of magic. 😀👍🏻 Hello from Scotland btw.

[@drevil2783]

Very cool patterns that molten slag makes

[@krakhedd]

Do you keep your cupels? Curious at what point it becomes economical to process them into Fe, Cu, Pb, etc, maybe to sell at scrap prices?

[@jonathancardy9941]

Have you ever tried using a heat exchanger to reduce the amount of gas/propane you use by heating the inbound air with your exhaust gas?

[@diggindiggenit6540]

Coolest video I have seen this week wtg

[@josephcormier5974]

So you have to come up with a design that goes to a ball mill when you run your stock excellent video thank you two thumbs

[@DavidSmith-zr3nd]

Curious about your hard rock mine. How about an update? As always I enjoy the education.

[@davefrimml1518]

Hey Jason I'm curious if you warm up your cone mold before pouring and does that help keep the material molten and giving the more dense metals a better chance of dropping

[@bobterry2952]

Hi ,thanks for the video, may I suggest heating you mold, it will help with the settling in the cone. And won't shock the dump. I always heat my molds before I do a dump.

[@michaelpass2176]

This interesting, lot of work.

[@daz41262010]

awesome man :)

[@user-qn9kz7ox4c]

My American brother, you did well, tried hard, worked hard, like,! have not tried a mixture of charcoal, ammonium nitrate and boric acid when melting metal, it's better this way...?😉

[@Slavicplayer251]

god that recipe sounds like fun if you add some sulfur

[@kenalbertpinas2242]

Tailings here in the Philippines we use CIP or leaching process. 90% you'll recover the gold n silver.

[@allenhammer7923]

How am I to know what CIP is?

[@Michael-rg7mx]

I built an underground vault for a business. I used a 1200 sized concrete septic tank with no holes. I put a sleeve with holes in it then filled the tank with fist sized limestone. The wash water going in was so acidic that it would dissolve iron. After filtering through the rocks it was near pH 7.

[@StirlingLighthouse]

Thanks Jason 👍 Interesting tests. And a anhydrous borax shortage? What weird times. Iodine is also something hard to find now. Makes one wonder what the heck is going on. Smh

[@risaias]

Huge trade deficits, raising import prices. Containers come in full from China, leave empty to China. Should be good for commodities in the short term. Specially gold and silver.

[@Slavicplayer251]

i was wondering if you have thought about setting up a leaching system to get the last of the gold from tailings more cost effectively?

[@waywardgeologist2520]

I just posted the same question. Most gold mines use it.

[@orsonzedd]

yo wht do you do with your slag? It's so shiny and pretty

[@KD0CAC]

Always enjoy your videos , seems like experimenting . But it also seems like reinventing the wheel ? Most of this should be already known by smelting for the last , what 100 yrs. , or at least many decades ? Again very interesting to reinvent the wheel , but after experimenting - wouldn't referring to already know info be a good added part ? Thanks again

[@muyyek]

I'm only guessing, but I think they're a smaller operation, compared to the big gold mining outfits, so he's experimenting for techniques with higher recovery rates. For him, every 0.01g counts, whereas a small amount of loss is acceptable for mining operations that pull up kilos of gold at a time. A lot of the techniques he's using (especially at this scale) probably wouldn't be economical for a larger operation (for this video, I'm guessing -- with two burners going -- he went through maybe $7 worth of gas, plus let's say an extra $1 or so in borax, all to pull 0.9g of pure gold off the original 4kg of tailings. So that's $8-$9 (not even counting the cost of his time and effort) to pull maybe $50 of gold. I think also this may lead him to process the ore finer to begin with: if he's getting this much gold from what is supposed to be the waste product off his turnkey system, then perhaps there's a way to tweak the initial process to gain a higher yield from the very start and not throw away as much.

[@macoppy6571]

@@muyyek I agree in principle, but I think Jason may have his machine customers in mind before his own operation.

[@Name-ot3xw]

Looking forward to when you run out of smelting ideas and start directly extracting the ions from solution

[@xenaguy01]

13:10 Will you be sending that slag off to be assayed? That's really the only way to know if the matte collected all the metals.

[@toussetaxi8127]

شكرا

[@apleasantmisery]

Where do you get your cone molds from? I'm having no luck finding them anywhere or do you make all your molds? If so, any chance you can post your mold plans?

[@freedomoperator6502]

He clearly says he made it.

[@douglaspohl1827]

Thought you would of done the Cerro Gotto float?

[@paulomeara7706]

Have you ever tried the way miners do in Australia, and dissolve the gold from tailings in a cyanide solution, then run the solution through carbon to extract the gold. (Or something like that. You'll have to google the exact process)? I'd love to see you experiment this on a small scale. 😀

[@brianhbinesh]

Lol very dangerous.

[@chrismontano390]

My current problem is getting my ore to pour that fluid. How long did this smelting process take? And at what approximate temperature?

[@larrygerfen2801]

It would be nice to see a physical compare of from start of ore to final result. Also cost of processing.

[@larryhaynes7298]

@mbmmllc do you sell dolly pots ( hand rock crushers an mallets to cruch with)????

[@bartcubbins3528]

Can you recover the bismuth the same way as with lead ?

[@mouradkara3152]

Merci merci merciiiiii pour tout ls video....اتمنى الحديث معك يوما ونكون على تواصل صديقي

[@mylescooper7418]

I’m just starting to get into smelting after finding a good amount of very small flakes and flour gold from sluicing in the uk but its still got a very tiny amount of 100/200 mesh quarts dust, crystals and afew dots of black sand here and there.. I was just wondering how I find the right mix of flux, borax or whatever else I could use for that kind of high grade cons?.. Would be very much appreciated if you or someone could point me in the right direction 👍..

[@AlanWatts33]

Dan Hurd has some good videos on refining those kinds of things

[@oromoctoecv6411]

should use the rigidifier for the lid. itll make it so it doesnt sag as much and will probably last twice as long

[@kendallkahl8725]

You need to let the smelting pot drip until nothing comes out. The highest concentration of gold you let drip all over the place and stay in the bottom of your melting crucible. The molten material doesn't have enough convection current to left the gold off the bottom.

[@thomasfrye8996]

Curious what you do with the slag after?

[@robertjames2957]

Do you yield larger amounts or is it always so little

[@cditzler6313]

18g to 1000kg is def worth milling I would think so if you add a ball mill after hammer then shaker table you should get it all mostly

[@tippitytop2673]

Is it worth it to crush all the glass and pan it out just to see if there's more hiding in there

[@chidambarathanu5131]

Can you please guide me to get silver/ gold and some precious metals from copper coated

[@Joaoburakovski-du3dy]

The cone molde, shouldnt be pre heated? Would haver more time to preciptade the Gold?

[@Alondro77]

Where do you get those pyramid molds? Those look to be the best for this sort of work.

[@badboybubby7794]

He said he made it

[@Alondro77]

@@badboybubby7794 I hope he posts a video of how to make one, in that case! You can't beat a graphite mold with a hammer! ...Well, you CAN... but then you end up with a pile of rubble.

[@user-lb8do4ew6k]

@@Alondro77 It's a pretty straightforward welding project. 4 equilateral triangles welded together with stand made of angle iron. Looks to be 1/4" steel plate, 8" triangles... bzzzzt bzzzzzzt tap tap tap & bob's your uncle..

[@madshephard2boots157]

Would like to know what is on both hands. Left hand palm by the thumb and the back of both hands?

[@Makobadger]

Could i use egg shell ash as a substetute for bone ash

[@S13402]

How do we deal with an iron ore that has a good percentage of gold? Can you make a video about that?

[@papabearsadventures5346]

What degrees does the gold smelt?

[@davekimbler2308]

Is it worth doing it ? What’s the cost per gram to recover the gold ?

[@charlestuozzo4747]

Does it pay off in fuel and time?

[@JayKayKay7]

19:36 Like looking into the heart of the sun.

[@ZE0XE0]

flotation cells are pretty cheap and easy to set up. Im curious how much more efficient it would be to process some of the tailings with a flotation cell to remove the sulfides before then cupelling.

[@allenhammer7923]

Do you have a referance info on just how to do it?

[@ZE0XE0]

@@allenhammer7923 that would depend greatly on the characteristics of the individual ore.

[@ZE0XE0]

@@allenhammer7923 the basics though are you get the correct pH of the water, possibly add some chemicals to allow the minerals to be separated to be more hydrophobic, have something at the bottom to agitate the fines, and then bubble air through the mixture and scrape off the scum that floats to the surface. You set up the chemistry so only the minerals you want to separate become hydrophobic so they can stick to the surface tension of the bubbles and float to the top.

[@talavs-jekabsriekstins578]

What are you doing with all that slag that is left over?

[@waywardgeologist2520]

How many kg of CN would you need to leach out the gold and silver?

[@andrewclarkehomeimprovement]

Really interesting process. One question though. With raw gold at $62/g and you recovered 0.1g. I know it's an experiment and/or demonstration but considering all the energy, materials and time used it doesn't feel cost effective. Or did I miss something?

[@zve482]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@gossardihouse7275]

What's this pyramid mould called I can't find one ?

[@6Diego1Diego9]

what part of town are you from?

[@bonitabromeliads]

So is it actually worth it to do all this work for a tiny bead of gold? Or were you jut doing it for demonstration purposes?

[@rockhunter6260]

👍🏻

[@synapticaxon9303]

Splash wounds?

[@michaelpass2176]

Is it worth going back to Brent underwood ghost town?

[@Hartcore11]

I think you could have added potassium nitrate as an oxydizer and still used lead as a collector metal. My thoughts are no matte is good. Slag and Prill baby. Slag and Prill.

[@bobbygibson4661]

Yo Jason you know anything about gold oxide I am Bobby Gibson I've been watching you and you seem like you know what you're talking about help me out dude I found a vein of this stuff that looks like pure rust but it's got it's real soft is this what I'm looking for

[@BeatzAintfreeMobile]

Is all of that really worth that small amount of gold?

[@csachevauxsansabri2612]

Don't you think that after firing, if you refined with acid, you would get a muche better result, and cheaper. Beside that you would also collect all other remaining metals, that would in term bring back some more money?

[@risaias]

Try pouring off some borax and reheating before you go for the cone mold.

[@nathandean1687]

ok why arent u using thermal electric generators to generate dc to charge batteries.