Gold & Silver Forum - Recovering Flour Gold

"...anybody here have any experience going primarily after flour gold? Is it worth it?"

Flour gold (-40 mesh) has always been and is today, a prospector's bread and butter. DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR BLACK SANDS. There is more gold in there then you think and the colors really add up. FACT: the smaller the colors, the more of them there are...and they are most definately worth collecting.

It can easily be recovered by screening black sands into lots of
-40, -60, -80, -100, and -120 mesh (screens that have that number of holes per linear inch). A window screen used in a house is about 19-mesh = about 19 holes per linear inch of screen).

One lot at a time, spread out the black sands ("concentrates") in a large flat bottom plastic container....maybe tupperware like...and use a magnet to remove as much magnetite as you can. Put the magnet in a plastic sandwich bag and without touching the sands, slowly move the magnet over them. The magnet will pull up the magnetite. Occasionally move the magnet in the bag to drop off the magnetite it's collected.

Keep moving the magnet around until it pulls up very little magnetite. You will have generally removed about half of the bulk of black sands.

Use a "Blue Bowl" (or a "Gold Wheel" or similar piece of equipment) with a controlled flow of water to separate the gold from the remainder of the sands. Just follow the manufacturer's directions.

The key to recovering flour colors is to screen the sands so that all the pieces in a lot are about the same size. The flour gold will be very heavy
compared to all the other particles that are in company, so that the colors can be readily separated out.

If you want to get some more gold out of a lot of sands put them in a cast iron skillet OUTDOORS, stand UPWIND, and heat the sands until you hear the particles cracking up. Run the colors through the Blue Bowl again and you'll get more gold. Many flour colors over the years get coated with iron oxides from the black sands in company so you don't see the gold particles.

Another way to readily separate out flour gold from black sands is (again) screen them into the different size lots, heat the sands as reported above, and then put sands in small lots into a plastic gold pan with some water and add a small amount of Mercury. The mercury will absorb the the gold like a magnet. When the lot of mercury collects about 50% of it's volume flour colors (it's "full", the mercury will crystalize, become hard and break apart when pressured. Mercury with gold in company is called "amalgam". If this happens add another small amount of mercury so it can collect the rest of the colors in the pan.

Recover the flour colors by heating ("burning off") the mercury. BE VERY CAREFUL TO BE OUTDOORS AND UPWIND FROM THE VESSEL THAT"S BENG HEATED, AND MAKE SURE THE FUMES DON'T REACH SOMEBODY ELSE OR AN ANIMAL. THE FUMES ARE POISONOUS. MERCURY IS A DEADLY POISON. IT CAN BE ABSORBED THROUOGH THE SKIN AND IT VAPORIZES AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. THIS MEANS THAT IT'S POISONOUS VAPERS GET INTO THE AIR AND CAN BE READILY BREATHED IN.

BE EXCEEDINGLY CAREFUL HANDLING MERCURY. IT'S CALLED "QUICK SILVER" BECAUSE OF IT'S COLOR AND BECAUSE IT MOVES LIKE GREASED LIGHTENING AND CAN READILY GET AWAY FROM A VESSEL AND GET INTO THE ENVIRONMENT OR SOMEPLACE WHERE IT MIGHT ONE DAY COME IN CONTACT WITH A PERSON OR AN ANIMAL. BEFORE YOU MESS WITH MERCURY EDUCATE YOURSELF SO YOU KNOW HOW TO SAFELY STORE AND HANDLE/USE IT.

You can also use nitrite acid to "burn off" the mercury that's in company with gold (amalgam), but this process also has it's dangers so a person needs to educate themselves re safe storage and handling/use.

After you've separated out all the gold...course a person never gets it all...DO NOT through your black sands away. Rather sprinkle them on a rose or other flour bed or garden. The minerals will make the plants will grow like crazy.

Good hunting!