Gold Melt part 1

An introductory video on melting gold power. This video will demonstrate proper preparation of a melting crucible and melting technique with a MAPP gas blow torch.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• gold
• powder
• dust
• melting

[gmadrone]

I have gold flakes/powder and I have all of the equipment shown i this video including the exact torch. I can get the mixture red hot and soft enough to melt together, but I have not been able to get it to go to molten liquid and so what I have is a crusty bunch of residue in my crucible. I've used a whole container of MATT gas, but it just doesn't seem to get hot enough to turn it molten. I'm only melting about 10 grams at one time. Any suggestions?

Garry

gmadrone@gmail.com

[metalicmario]

@gmadrone What is the source of your flakes and powder?

[gmadrone]

@metalicmario I had about 20 specimen containing anywhere from 3-10 grams of gold generally. I crushed the specimen, used fine screens to get rid of the dust, re-crushed the ore and pulled out obvious gold nuggets, and panned the result several times until it was probably 82-92% gold. So, it consists of flakes and some nuggets that are maybe up to 2 grams, very little else is apparent, most of the sand/rock has been removed except for what sticks to the gold.

[metalicmario]

@gmadrone It's extremely unlikely you have 3-10 grams of gold from 20 specimens. On average miners are getting 1-2 grams of gold per ton. Where did you aquire these specimens? How do you know how much gold they contain?  Before wasting more time and money I would get an assay done for your material. With ores you'd be "smelting" and "cupelling" to recover gold. The technique shown in this video is not sufficient for processing ores. If I'm wrong about what you have please give more details.

[Duckyistrippin]

@gmadrone MAPP gas, not matt. use refractory brick as it will reflect the heat back to the crucible not soak it up. Sure you arent using plated jewelry? That crusty stuff sounds like slag

[gmadrone]

Thanks for your response. I just attempted to remelt the material that was stuck in the crucible. I added some flux and I was able to get it hot enough to mush it around with a graphite stirring rod into a clump that seems to be sticking together, so that's some progress from where I was. I looked up smelting and cuppling on the forum, but didn't find specific info on what I would need to do.

[metalicmario]

@gmadrone I suspect the non metalic material in your gold is what's causing the metal to not be able to come together. Again, this technique isn't well suited for ores. I would suggest going onto the forum and visiting the mining section. Study up on smelting and cuppling.

[gmadrone]

@gmadrone Thanks for your responses. My main purpose in doing this melt is to be able to give an ingot to a refiner since they will not take a small amount of this "placer" gold, but require it to be melted into an ingot.

[gmadrone]

@gmadrone It does seem that for a short time the torch

gives me a hot flame similar to what you show when you have it turned all the way up, but it does not maintain it as it seems to do in the video. That is the only thing I can see that is different from what you show. I was wondering whether I need to get an acetylene torch rather than to continue to try with the MAPP torch.

[gmadrone]

@gmadrone I know what miners get per ton. These are specimen

that my father found and saved because they are obviously very rich in gold. The resulting material is obviously mostly gold.

I think the problem is that the MAPP torch is not working as you show in the video. This is a brand new torch, but it will give me a hot flame for a short burst and then it will lower without me changing the setting, so I don't think I am able to get the sample hot enough to turn it molten.

[gmadrone]

@metalicmario

These specimen were found by my father in Australia where he prospected for over 11 years. Before I crushed them, I weighed them in air and in water and performed specific gravity tests to estimate the gold content. I then crushed them with an iron pestle and mortar and panned them as I'd learned from my father. I weighed the result and compared this with the estimates from the SG tests. They came out quite close. I'm confident about the amount of gold.