Benjamin, there is an old saying that states " a countries industrial might can be measured by the amount of acids it consumes ".  So with that being said it is hard not to use some chemicals in refining.  A book that would help you is " Recovery and Refining of Precious Metals " by C.W. Ammen and chapter 11 covers the refining of black sands.

     One thing that I suggest is to keep a detailed log book of everything you do for future reference.  Right now I am working on a complex ore that contains 39 elements in it, plus Au, Ag, and PGMs.  The first thing I do before using chemicals on an ore is have a x-ray spectrometer analysis done on it.  This tells me whats in it, how much is in it and most importantly if there are any TOXIC METALS to deal with!

 

     NOTE!! Because many people will see this post DO NOT play with chemicals if you have not been TRAINED in handling them and FULLY UNDERSTAND what can GO WRONG and know all the SAFETY PRECAUTIONS needed!!!          Ron

I am a long lasting trained professional in Nuclear Materials but my Chemistry is not so good. I will look into the book you recommend, besides myself, recently got sick, I had a friend pass away that was smelting lead weights into forms and he passed away from cancer.

He was smelting whatever outdoors on a regular basis, I did nothing even close and was using "Non-Toxic" materials and woke up puking for three days.

There has to be a way for us to come up with a genuine process and then patent it or copywriter it?

Forgive me if anybody takes this the wrong way, I am just looking for a safe way for small time miners to process gold without causing toxicity to themselves, their neighbors, or the planet?

Pleas give up your recommendations, and make sure they are legal?

 

Ron,

 

I have hear that quote but I thought it was made during WWII by either the Russians or Germans? After all it takes acid to build explosives and refines metals.

     Benjamin, calaverite contains Au Ag Te2 along with other elements that can be running with the ore. The Te being tellurium and Te is in most cases mildly toxic.  The fumes of Te can cause dry mouth, drowsiness, metal taste, headache, nausea, and garlic odor of the breath.  Ingestion can cause abdominal pain, constipation, and vomiting.

     I have yet to find a one stop source for info when looking for answers on refining that come to mind and that is why I have several books on the subject.  Another good tool is this site for toxic info of elements.     www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/te.htm

     Hope this helps to point you in the right and safe direction.     Ron 

Being a Nuclear Medicine Tech I am required to keep the most extensive logs and checks on equipment, more so then anybody else in the Medical Field that I know of, with maybe the exception of Radiation Therapists. Because I have a type "AAA" personality I keep extensive logs on everything I do, but I am losing faith in the internet because so much of the information is either made up or written by idiots that don't have a clue what they are doing. There was a time when the Internet was as usable as a library but unfortunately it has become the realm of the mental midget looking for their 5 minutes of fame.

"abdominal pain, constipation, and vomiting." and that was just from the fumes.

Thank you for the recommendation on the book.

Benjamin Crain
President of the Western Colorado Chapter of Gold Prospectors Association of America