Learn Gold Prospecting! How and Where to find Gold and Gems!

Information for recreational gold prospectors, rockhounds, gem collectors, and treasure hunters! Gold prospecting in the Rocky Mountains a golden opportunity to saddle up and take the family exploring! Go Rockhounding, hunt for rare gems and mineral specimens. Colorado diamonds and aquamarines! Treasure hunting stories of lost caches of gold and stolen treasure. Links to clubs, Jeep tours, outfitters, resorts, and campground information. Find the finest hotels and motels near where you are prospecting in the Rocky Mountains and book your rooms online!

Today's Date is
February 08, 2010

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How to separate gold from concentrates

The simplest and cheapest way for the amateur prospector/miner to retrieve the fine gold from the concentrates can be done in 6 simple steps.

1. Cleaning: Place some concentrates into a plastic gold pan, (about half full), and cover the concentrates with water. Add one tablespoon of household lye to the concentrates and swirl it around for several minutes. This will remove surface impurities such as dirt and oils from the gold.

2. Pour off the lye laden water and add fresh water to it, and add one ounce of mercury.

*** WARNING!!! WHEN USING LYE YOU SHOULD WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND RUBBER GLOVES TO AVOID GETTING ANY IN YOUR EYES OR ON YOUR SKIN. WHEN USING MERCURY, USE THE SAME PRECAUTIONS. IN BOTH CASES DO NOT INHALE ANY OF THE FUMES!!! ALWAYS WORK OUTSIDE AND UPWIND.

3. Slowly swirl the contents with the mercury. As the mercury goes around the pan it will pick up all the finest gold in the pan. The more gold there is the stiffer the mercury becomes.

4. Once you have all the gold gathered, pan off the black sands or use a magnet in a plastic baggie to retrieve the black sands, leaving only the gold laden mercury and free mercury. The free mercury will roll around easily where the gold laden mercury is stiff and does not roll well. Place your mercury container INSIDE another gold pan and pour off the free mercury into the container. Using another pan keeps it from spilling out onto the floor or ground. If you spill mercury on the floor or God forbid, the living room carpet, you will be inhaling evaporating fumes for years!

5. Once you have a stiff ball of gold laden mercury in the plastic pan flush it out into a glass measuring cup. To this add a few drops of 10% nitric acid solution, keep adding the solution until you get a bubbling or fizzing action from the mercury. !!! DO NOT BREATH THE FUMES !!! The acid will dissolve the mercury as well as any trace silver. After awhile the fizzing stops and at the bottom of your cup is a bronze colored metallic looking blob.... It's GOLD!

You can recover your mercury from the 10% nitric acid solution by placing a flat copper bar or copper sheet into the acid solution and letting it sit overnight. The next day the mercury will have come out of solution and attached itself to the copper now you can scrape the mercury from the copper and put it back into your storage container.

6. Carefully pour off the remaining liquid and neutralize the acid with baking soda, a little at a time until you get no reaction from the acid and soda. Gently rinse the gold in the cup with fresh water avoiding hard sprays that could rinse away your gold. Pour off the water and let dry. The remainder is your pure gold! (actually 95% - -98% pure)

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