Another great video containing excellent information that is explained in laymans language that most miners can understand. Even with my professional background as a miner and geologist I find your videos very informative. I often have used them as a resource that I refer others to when I am asked to explain issues that you have taken the time to explain way better than I can. Keep up the good work.
Fantastic video! I also live in northern Nevada and work at an underground gold mine. Ive always been an equipment operator/face miner for my mining career and this video greatly explains the other side of my profession. Thank you!
Great course on cyanide, Chris does cyanide break down in nature or does it stick around. I have a hard time getting up in the morning no way I would ever use Cyanide or any other chemical, Dan Brent
I'm not sure of your situation, so there is no way I can say if it would be safe or not. Being exposed to very tiny amounts of cyanide over a long period of time is not known to be hazardous but by this I mean very tiny amounts. It does not take very much cyanide or cyanogen gas (that forms from cyanide) to be toxic.
thanks for the information, vats are expensive to build or buy, can you help to understand how I can heap leach may be a plan. video or any helpful information towards a successful heap leaching. I Am based in east Africa small miners use the leaching tanks I want to try heap leaching.
Under the right conditions, it can dissolve gold like cyanide - but you have to have the right conditions. There is a lot of information on the internet, if you want to know more, do some research. One of these days I will do a video on using sodium thiosulfate to capture gold and silver, but it won't be real soon.
@@ChrisRalph I have a method and will try it. 30 kg of crushed soil from mineralized rocks and put it in a barrel with a little lime and pour 20 liters of cyanide solution on it to measure the acid percentage 12MPH and roll it for a period of not less than 7 hours. Is this method successful?
This was not a "how to" video, as I said a couple times. I'm not giving instructions. You are on your own to find out safety and proper use information for using cyanide to capture gold.
The waste product is not released to the environment unless there is a major accident, and it quickly decomposes into non-toxic materials. The very computer or cell phone or TV you are using to see this requires gold to work. So are you willing to give up all your electronics and go back to living like its 1850?
@ChrisRalph I smell a strawman arguement.thats like someone saying they don't believe in all the wonderful things we enjoy because science just because they don't believe we landed on the moon.
@ChrisRalph your wrong in your statement about the waste from commercial mining it is dumped into rivers ,it buried and contaminates drinking water 180 billion tons is dumped yearly so just because my cell phone or desktop has gold components does mean it ok to polute the environment. Cyanide acids ,arsinc, mercury and other chemicals should not just be dumped along with contaminated tailings.
Chris, two questions, Is any of the cyanide recycled and reused ? When dykes and fishers/veins are found cutting through the ore deposits, Will there be Gold in those too ?
Hi Chris, I have a small scale alluvial mining site. I have just discovered it also has some primary rock gold. We have taken samples and crushed them, do you think gravity separation will be adequate for separate the gold from its ore or chemical process such as cyanide solution is the best route ? Thank you as I hope you get this please.
Sorry sir ,i have 1 question concernig in this process of gold with cyanide, i'm dealing with vat leaching for production of gold ,but i have experienced a verry deep blue pregnant solution after lwaching,which shows high copper metal has disolved and sulfur ,so my question is ,may you help me how to treat or deal with this poblem,i mean how to treat copper and sulfur from the gold ore during leahing,what kind of reagents may i use to overcome such problem,please help me sir
I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement. I get many such requests and simply do not have time to help all who ask. I suggest you consult a professional chemist or metallurgist to address this issue, as they have the expertise to develop a proper treatment solution.
Where I used to work we had cyanide by the pallet and a dedicated fork lift for it. Now I can't find cyanide retail anywhere.. even shops selling books on CN leaching for miners. Remember that HCN has a bitter almond smell BUT only about 40% of people can smell it the rest cannot smell it, so you probably wouldn't know if there was cyanide in the air. Fortunately cyanide naturally oxidises on exposure to oxygen so small cyanide wastes self dispose to carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
In the old days, I bought hundreds of pounds of sodium cyanide with only a check and a driver's license. You can't buy it now because of lawsuits. You can however, buy as much sodium thiosulfate as you wish - its available on Amazon.
Thiosulphate is photographic fixer! Once used for film and paper. It should make short work of silver chloride ores and be re-usable if the silver is taken out by electrolysis
Capturing gold with mercury is still a gravity based system like a sluice or shaker table. The gold must move down by gravity through the material to get caught in the mercury. It does not dissolve the gold like cyanide or thiosulfate. Mercury also has its own toxicity issues.
There seems to be some use of glycine as an alternative to cyanide , especially in places with unfavorable legal environments . Can you share any insights on this process ? It likely is an order or two in magnitude more expensive than common cyanide salts I would guess .
It is really new - much of the research is only a few years old and has only been done at lab bench scale testing. The other thing is that to work properly it needs to be done hot - at about 140 degrees F. It does not work well at room temperatures, and this really limits the applicability - more than the cost.
is that what the piles of. beige dirt are in randsburg ,johanessburg ,red mountain. from crushing and chemical process the gold from ore i see them all over. ??? have a good day.
You know "piles of beige dirt" is kind of a vague description. I'm guessing you mean the hard rock mill tailings. In the Randsburg area, most were treated with cyanide at the time they were mined.
You are not going to find anything in it, but any cyanide that was in it has long ago decomposed. It doesn't break down in a day or two, but after more than a century, that cyanide has been gone for many decades.
Thank you so much sir for such a wonderful episode. You are an excellent teacher. If I may ask is there any chemical that can be used to crash big rocks instead of crashing them using other mechanical methods.
Your video is much appreciated. I am an investor in a gold mining company - Fortitude Gold near Hawthorne, NV. I am trying to figure out how profitable it is to truck ore to a central processing facility. So when they are telling me that they take the gold to the carbon phase and then truck it to a main processing facility I now have an idea what they are doing.
Great information, thank you. I have a good find in a place that's hard to find gold. However it's mixed with copper. I have been trying to come up with a "green" method to extract but no luck. Silver I was able to be more green with. And as far as waste Solutions I generally force an evaporation to avoid poisons that are left over.
AR takes out other elements as well as iron, it gets consumed by the other things before it dissolves the gold. Then even if you do get any gold in solution, the meta bisulfite reacts with those other things and the gold does not drop out. Ive seen many try it and never heard of any that were successful.
Aqua Regia is used late in the process. You get the coper iron and other BS out first with electrolysis using sulfuric acid. After that you are left with a paste of gold lead and silver. Next react with nitric acid to remove the silver. Decant and save. The remainder add HCL plus some nitric acid to get your gold out. The lead will stay as a precipitate and your gold comes into solution as a yellow solution of HAuCl4.❤
Could you do a video on how to take a proper sample for assay to, proper mailing and where to send it , how long it takes and maybe add in on doing a specific gravity test with gold in? quartz
@@ChrisRalph I watch a video the other day about Kenya gold mining. (Parker) It maybe good to explain why they uses Mercury and why it is so dangerous. I mean, I know but the younger generation may not.
Cool, really interesting!! My grandparents went back to work in gold mines in the Dakotas back in the depression era, I want to say (?) I wonder about all these processes. I pan gold here in Oregon, as a hobby. Thankyou for this educational video.
Real gold will not dissolve in HCl mixed with sulfuric acid. Put some copper metal in the acid and if there is real gold, it will precipitate out on the copper.
Great presentation! For a layperson like me, I had no idea that commercial mining operations were based upon collecting all these microscopic particles of gold together. One question I had was that you referred to it being fairly straightforward to getting a reliable assay of the ore (I assume to get a benchmark for whether a specific area is worth processing). What is the best tried-and-true assay method you know of?
Mr. Ralph, If one doesn’t have the access to, or would particularly not want to use cyanide. What would be the preferred method for a very thin layer of gold on the surface. Simplest way to describe it would be a quick brush stroke painted onto it. I’ve found this on my own reconnaissance. And through some home test found it to be AU. But that aside. Do have suggestions. I love that you take the time to do these for us. Thank you!
I would suggest sodium thiosulfate. It is available through Amazon, is not very toxic (its actually the antidote for cyanide poisoning), and I intend to do a video or two on this in 2023. It is more complex to use than cyanide, you need to control the chemistry more closely. There is research on it on the internet. Do some research using google.
Took me three months this year to understand rocks and how gold and other metals are in rock and what things truly look like. I’m trying my best to study on everything that people produce for information and I’m at the point of have river print and zebra boulders and some other special rocks carrying metal them I been doing it all by hand and half ton truck I only have a bout 15 ton but it’s been one of the hardest things I been thru in my life now I have selected type of rock I know all that I carry ; as of today I am sitting on a great amount of gold 😢 need a idea how to extract.
Yah im hoping to be the one to figure out a way to pull this off without using crazy expensive chemicals to extract. I made a maze table that sits on 1/12 pitch ( carpenter by trade in real life ) and I put my wife’s old muscle vibrator for sore backs. And the hole’s transition back and forth from a 1/16 of a inch to 3/32 and it back and forth. It works but I can run that amount of rock through it in my lifetime never mind my sons hahaha thanks for your input and information. If I come up with a way to do it. I’d like to show the world. It’s on me. I’m one of the most creative characters in my part of the world. Anyways. Tiger colour stripe zebra print patterns it was suppose to say. But I tell you one thing. Pick rocks especially ones heavy as heck. You can lose 40 lbs in 3 months. Take care
Both sugar and salt are white and dissolve in water. Are sugar and salt the same? Aqua regia is an acid. Cyanide must be used as a base - the opposite of an acid. If you add an acid to cyanide it gives off a gas that will quickly kill you. They are not at all the same.
@@ChrisRalphdarn lol question.. what could one do with small amounts of ore, besides sell them on eBay, etc. Since I assume the mint doesn't accept ore anymore.. Are there and places that will buy ore, or places that will process it for you etc? Or are the only options crushing and panning it yourself/selling specimens etc?
Chris, why does gold dissolve in mercury or cyanide or even in a combination acid solutions? Cyanide is such a weird molecule, so what makes it dissolve a noble metal when it is dissolved in water? Please figure out another way to dissolve significant amounts gold quickly with "safe" chemicals, then tell only me.
Hundreds of top flight scientists have tried to come up with something safer than cyanide but equally effective and not wildly more expensive. So far, they have failed.
Cyanide formes an anion with gold that is soluble. Gold forms a very thin and unstable oxide that reacts with cyanide forming a gold hydrogen fulminate that is reduced by the water to form water and an AuCN-1 ion The reason it does this is that the gold is more covalent than the hydrogen or oxygen in the water. Gold can be freed electrolytically regenerating the cyanide as HCN
I read a paper a while back about using electrochemistry to convert isocyanate back to cyanide but I can't find it, do you have any idea what I'm talking about? Also what do you think about urea extraction?
Thanks for your great explanation of heap leaching process and got a lot of information from your video. Only I have one question that's What happens the west that they have taken Gold? And how do they remove and prepare new heap leaching process? What are the characterization of wastes generated in gold beneficiation? Can you explain it or make a video about it? I don't know if did it? Sorry for my ridiculous questions!!! I'm trying figure out. And I'm mining engineering student 😊
Great video Ralph ! Very informative on a subject that is not very tangible to most hobby prospectors. I used cyanide many years ago on a silver vat leaching project. Unfortunately, at $5 silver it wasn't profitable. The ore was in dolomite and the silver was completely oxidized into black dendrites. Leached like candy.
First, as I say in this video it is not a "How to do it" type video. A strong knowledge of chemistry both for the ore and use of cyanide is required. I appreciate your interest, but I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement. I get many such requests and simply do not have time to help all who ask. I have many business and family commitments and simply don't have the time available. I do wish you the best of luck, but I am sorry that I cannot offer any help on that level.
As I noted above - I get many such requests every day and simply do not have time to help all who ask. So I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement.
I used to make black cyanide at cyanimid plant in Niagara falls Canada. I made black flake 48 to 52 percent grade. Before I worked there they also had a white cyanide furnace but it was finished running when I started. We would fill tank trucks to take to northern Ontario for gold mines. We also put in barrels we made at the plant. Unfortunately plant closed 92 I then became a maintenance foreman at a Dana plant building for truck frame 95 to 2008.then close that plant too.
Great video, Chris! I am running a small VAT leaching operation in Southern Africa. Need some advice, as we're getting a huge amount of copper coming out of the activated carbon when doing the electrowinning process, meaning there's a lot of copper being leached with the cyanidation process. Also, as for the oxygen within the equation, instead of bubbling air through the mix, we use H2O2 to supply oxygen to the mix. What are your thoughts?
As I said repeatedly in the video, this is not a video to explain how to do cyanide. So I will offer no instructions. Significant copper in the ore is a problem.
Its hard to treat the copper, dont you have a lab down there to do some tests, but the best way to remove the copper is by froth flotation you will need equipments to do that, the concentrate of copper will be separated from gold concentrate before leaching the solution by cynade
Most Gold in our part of the world is caught using cynade, Tanzania what happens is the free gold is caught using mercury and some sluice, the remaining tailings are kept either in VAT tanks cynade is added, tanks are closed for few days untill the Gold is leached, than the solution is passes throught carbon were the Gold is caught, its a common practice here.
Thank you for your amazing clips. Have you seen gold chloride inside the gold-bearing stone? I have come to the conclusion by testing the stones that there is gold chloride inside some stones, which turns into free gold when heated.🙏🏻💛
@@ChrisRalph thanks 🙏🏻 Is it possible that acidic solutions similar to aqua regia in the earth replace the gold from the depth of the earth to the surface in the form of gold chloride in the rock?
I burn it and it forms I can do a rock a crush it and burn it again and it seems like material the dirt goes away or whatever it gets smaller and smaller pile and the pieces get harder and harder
I would like to invite you to the state of Maine to my 159acre mountain of witch is a ancient hydro vent here at the end of the Appalachian mountains before they drop into the Atlantic! As I said this is newly found and I have not told many but the few I have talked with are overwhelmed with excitement! The reason I invite you is because of your experience and I have followed you for years.. l promise you you will not regret taking me up on this offer!! This find is right across the valley just a few miles from where they just found the high grade lithium in Nery Maine!!!
If 5 gallon bucket before Bernie weighed about 90 pounds well maybe 75 I didn’t wet but it wasSuper heavy could barely carry it up the hill basically had to drag himWell lift outside it down lift it set it down all the way up the hill couldn’t walk with it
What I have always wanted to do with my ore is extract everything and use all of the minerals in it, not just the precious metals, the entirety of the rock. Just one of many experiments I have in mind.
@@ChrisRalph The knowledge is more important than the actual cost at this stage. Learning of how to do it, and knowing that I can do it is far more interesting than just avoiding doing it because it seems cost prohibitive. Pollution is a problem everyone will have to face in the future our own made or by someone else.
@@kateonianlaw1127 Having the resource$ and being curious/committed to learn and share is what will benefit humanity most as we continue producing Always Remember, Teach & Share "Do Something Useful"
The super fire and gold is not metallic looking correct I’ve been burning dirt that I think I see is microscopic gold in and then I it kind of forms like a rock again and then I crash out and then burn it again and every time I do it it seems like it turns into more and more gold and I lose less than less material but it seems to be working I haven’t processed any to metal yet but I’m trying it’s been quite a learning process and I think they Hide the information do you know who I’m talking about been lied to our whole l lifeAnyways thanks for all your info no hard work it’s great watching your videos I love them❤
Roasting the ore will burn off sulfur selenium telluride and arsenic. What is left is much easier to process for getting the gold out. My process is crushing followed by gravity separation to get a concentrate of metal ores. Next is roasting to free the metals and oxidize the more reactive ones. Next the concentrate is mixed with charcoal and a little limestone and some of the quartz sand and blasted with air to reduce and melt the metals that form an ingot at the bottom. This ingot is then put into a sulfuric acid bath. This dissolves everything more reactive than copper and copper plates out on the cathode. The gold silver lead and other less reactive stuff formes a paste on the anode side. This paste is then washed with nitric acid and that grabs the silver. Next the paste is washed with Aqua Regia and that grabs the gold. The stuff that remains is lead antimony and other insoluble stuff mostly as sulfates or oxychlorides.
Our dredge would do 60 tons and hour, we couldn't even get 60 tons in there in and hour and we built the dredge ourselves. We also made a rock crusher.
@@ChrisRalph am i supposed to watch you slowly talk us to death? Spit it out bro. I got other stuff to watch. 😂. But honestly, you are the one that will lose viewers because your 30 min video can be done in 15. So you should care.
No, buddy - just because you cant pay attention or don't want to learn - that doesn't mean everyone is like you. You need to realize you are the oddball and a tiny minority. Most a not like you. I get 20X more compliments on the detail I go into. You should just watch shorts and anything else you should ignore - real learning just isn't for you. My evidence is that I have 108K subscribers - because I don't listen to oddballs like you.
His energy says it all, this man knows & lives his work!!
Thanks much!
Another great video containing excellent information that is explained in laymans language that most miners can understand. Even with my professional background as a miner and geologist I find your videos very informative. I often have used them as a resource that I refer others to when I am asked to explain issues that you have taken the time to explain way better than I can. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving.
All rich things isotop, non, recovery brain alpha osmosis lake transmutation ❤❤❤
Cris I'm thankful for you I am not giving up I love this life and will till the day I die
Hk
Thanks Chris, I often wondered why cyanide processes are not often used by small-scale miners. Great explanation! Keep the videos coming.
Glad it was helpful!
Fantastic video! I also live in northern Nevada and work at an underground gold mine. Ive always been an equipment operator/face miner for my mining career and this video greatly explains the other side of my profession. Thank you!
Very cool! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Can't tell you how much I appreciate you r vids Chris. Thanks. MSC
I'm glad to hear you like them!
Very well explained............ Can you make a video about electrolysis gold recovery from ore or from a solution thanks.........
Perhaps one if these days.
Hello. Thanks for your video. Where can I get details of getting gold from the loaded carbon
Do a search on Google - there is much information out there.
Great course on cyanide, Chris does cyanide break down in nature or does it stick around. I have a hard time getting up in the morning no way I would ever use Cyanide or any other chemical, Dan Brent
It does decompose, though the speed of decomposition depends on the conditions.
Is cyanide only toxic short term or also long term effects im a welder working in tanks
I'm not sure of your situation, so there is no way I can say if it would be safe or not. Being exposed to very tiny amounts of cyanide over a long period of time is not known to be hazardous but by this I mean very tiny amounts. It does not take very much cyanide or cyanogen gas (that forms from cyanide) to be toxic.
@@ChrisRalph ok thanks for the feedback.
Interesting show concerning Cyanide metal extraction and also heap leeching of the sulfide ores.
This was not a video on "How to Use cyanide" for gold recovery. Do some research on the internet to find more info.
I enjoyed this fascinating episode. First I’ve heard about heap leaching. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
thanks for the information, vats are expensive to build or buy, can you help to understand how I can heap leach may be a plan. video or any helpful information towards a successful heap leaching. I Am based in east Africa small miners use the leaching tanks I want to try heap leaching.
This was not a video on "How to Use cyanide" for gold recovery. Do some research on the internet to find more info.
He's more of a Professor prospector than a professional prospector don't ya reckon.
Trust me, I make plenty of money on prospecting related activities. Two different mining companies pay me to lease my claims.
Indeed, Chris ought to go by “professional professor of prospecting”.
Hello prof I m in Zimbabwe and I love the knowledge you have .
Been trying to understand this now I get it but I steel need knowledge
@@michaelpaul2581 YES THAT SOUNDS GREAT,"THE PROFESSIONAL PROFESSOR OF PROSPECTING".HAVE YOU GOT YOURSELF HIS BOOK, ITS THE PROSPECTORS BIBLE
How is sodium thiosulfate used to extract gold?
Under the right conditions, it can dissolve gold like cyanide - but you have to have the right conditions. There is a lot of information on the internet, if you want to know more, do some research. One of these days I will do a video on using sodium thiosulfate to capture gold and silver, but it won't be real soon.
@@ChrisRalph I have a method and will try it. 30 kg of crushed soil from mineralized rocks and put it in a barrel with a little lime and pour 20 liters of cyanide solution on it to measure the acid percentage 12MPH and roll it for a period of not less than 7 hours. Is this method successful?
This was not a "how to" video, as I said a couple times. I'm not giving instructions. You are on your own to find out safety and proper use information for using cyanide to capture gold.
Thanks. Great fun delivery of an overview of ore leaching. Appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Is the trade off worth it the waste product is hazardous to the environment
The waste product is not released to the environment unless there is a major accident, and it quickly decomposes into non-toxic materials. The very computer or cell phone or TV you are using to see this requires gold to work. So are you willing to give up all your electronics and go back to living like its 1850?
@ChrisRalph I smell a strawman arguement.thats like someone saying they don't believe in all the wonderful things we enjoy because science just because they don't believe we landed on the moon.
@ChrisRalph your wrong in your statement about the waste from commercial mining it is dumped into rivers ,it buried and contaminates drinking water 180 billion tons is dumped yearly so just because my cell phone or desktop has gold components does mean it ok
to polute the environment. Cyanide acids ,arsinc, mercury and other chemicals should not just be dumped along with contaminated tailings.
Chris, two questions,
Is any of the cyanide recycled and reused ?
When dykes and fishers/veins are found cutting through the ore deposits, Will there be Gold in those too ?
Its recycled in the process, but some is lost to oxidation, so more is constantly added.
Hi Chris, I have a small scale alluvial mining site. I have just discovered it also has some primary rock gold. We have taken samples and crushed them, do you think gravity separation will be adequate for separate the gold from its ore or chemical process such as cyanide solution is the best route ? Thank you as I hope you get this please.
The only way to know is to test and see. Some ores work well with gravity separation, while others do not.
Thank you for this awesome information, that's very educational!
Glad it was helpful!
During the process I hope u will help me incase needed more information
I wish you good luck.
Sorry sir ,i have 1 question concernig in this process of gold with cyanide, i'm dealing with vat leaching for production of gold ,but i have experienced a verry deep blue pregnant solution after lwaching,which shows high copper metal has disolved and sulfur ,so my question is ,may you help me how to treat or deal with this poblem,i mean how to treat copper and sulfur from the gold ore during leahing,what kind of reagents may i use to overcome such problem,please help me sir
I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement. I get many such requests and simply do not have time to help all who ask. I suggest you consult a professional chemist or metallurgist to address this issue, as they have the expertise to develop a proper treatment solution.
Ok thanks sir 🙏
Hey Chris, I think the Ray mine in Arizona has heap leaching mountains that are being treated… how does copper react.??? Thanks…..
Copper has its own heap leaching process but no cyanide is used. Dilute sulfuric acid is used instead.
@@ChrisRalph ah, I think that is the process they are using. Thanks……
Where I used to work we had cyanide by the pallet and a dedicated fork lift for it. Now I can't find cyanide retail anywhere.. even shops selling books on CN leaching for miners.
Remember that HCN has a bitter almond smell BUT only about 40% of people can smell it the rest cannot smell it, so you probably wouldn't know if there was cyanide in the air.
Fortunately cyanide naturally oxidises on exposure to oxygen so small cyanide wastes self dispose to carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
In the old days, I bought hundreds of pounds of sodium cyanide with only a check and a driver's license. You can't buy it now because of lawsuits. You can however, buy as much sodium thiosulfate as you wish - its available on Amazon.
Thiosulphate is photographic fixer! Once used for film and paper. It should make short work of silver chloride ores and be re-usable if the silver is taken out by electrolysis
Its inexpensive, and its also the additive to pools if you put in too much Chlorine.
I come to comments for this kind of extra, continued info, thanks
Thiosulphate is the anti chlorine additive in "after swimming" hair shampoo.
great, this vid, really outlines the basics of things and what I need to know, going forward with my projects...
Not enough info to do it in that video.
I've heard of gold miners in the Brazilian jungle using mercury to extract the gold. Is that an alternative for the little man?
Many greetings.
Capturing gold with mercury is still a gravity based system like a sluice or shaker table. The gold must move down by gravity through the material to get caught in the mercury. It does not dissolve the gold like cyanide or thiosulfate. Mercury also has its own toxicity issues.
@@ChrisRalph Thank you for the information.
There seems to be some use of glycine as an alternative to cyanide , especially in places with unfavorable legal environments .
Can you share any insights on this process ?
It likely is an order or two in magnitude more expensive than common cyanide salts I would guess .
It is really new - much of the research is only a few years old and has only been done at lab bench scale testing. The other thing is that to work properly it needs to be done hot - at about 140 degrees F. It does not work well at room temperatures, and this really limits the applicability - more than the cost.
I'm going to look into this further and read a bunch of the research papers that have been published. Thanks for pointing it out.
What is process of participation thiosulfate leaching?
We have language problem. I do not understand your question. Someone who speaks English should help you.
is that what the piles of. beige dirt are in randsburg ,johanessburg ,red mountain. from crushing and chemical process the gold from ore i see them all over. ??? have a good day.
You know "piles of beige dirt" is kind of a vague description. I'm guessing you mean the hard rock mill tailings. In the Randsburg area, most were treated with cyanide at the time they were mined.
@@ChrisRalph ya we figured it was chemical leaching crushed ore. all of us stay away from the beige dirt.
You are not going to find anything in it, but any cyanide that was in it has long ago decomposed. It doesn't break down in a day or two, but after more than a century, that cyanide has been gone for many decades.
Awesome video! Living in Nevada and working in gold mines for nearly 10 years now, this facinates me. Could i ask which gold mines youve work for?
I worked out at Candelaria and at Virginia City - none of which are open now.
Thank you so much sir for such a wonderful episode. You are an excellent teacher. If I may ask is there any chemical that can be used to crash big rocks instead of crashing them using other mechanical methods.
No, mechanical is the best way.
Your video is much appreciated. I am an investor in a gold mining company - Fortitude Gold near Hawthorne, NV. I am trying to figure out how profitable it is to truck ore to a central processing facility. So when they are telling me that they take the gold to the carbon phase and then truck it to a main processing facility I now have an idea what they are doing.
The activated carbon is a very concentrated phase. if you have several satellite properties, it can make sense.
Great information, thank you. I have a good find in a place that's hard to find gold. However it's mixed with copper. I have been trying to come up with a "green" method to extract but no luck. Silver I was able to be more green with. And as far as waste Solutions I generally force an evaporation to avoid poisons that are left over.
Copper in the ore is a problem for cyanide and for thiosulfate too. The copper reacts with the leaching chemicals.
Hi Chris, do you know something about bacterias which can take out the gold at low grade ore and concentrate it?
Great video, thank you 👍
There is research being done - use google to search for research papers.
So if aquaregia holds iron or other minerals in it you can’t just get the gold to dissipate and drop back out without cross contamination?
AR takes out other elements as well as iron, it gets consumed by the other things before it dissolves the gold. Then even if you do get any gold in solution, the meta bisulfite reacts with those other things and the gold does not drop out. Ive seen many try it and never heard of any that were successful.
Aqua Regia is used late in the process. You get the coper iron and other BS out first with electrolysis using sulfuric acid. After that you are left with a paste of gold lead and silver. Next react with nitric acid to remove the silver. Decant and save. The remainder add HCL plus some nitric acid to get your gold out. The lead will stay as a precipitate and your gold comes into solution as a yellow solution of HAuCl4.❤
Could you do a video on how to take a proper sample for assay to, proper mailing and where to send it , how long it takes and maybe add in on doing a specific gravity test with gold in? quartz
I have a video on processing samples for free gold, but not much on how to take a sample. It depends on what you are trying to evaluate.
Thank you so much, sir, for your tons of useful information.👍👍👍👍👍
Always welcome
Are you going to have a video on the use of mercury too?
No, because I think you should avoid mercury and there are good alternatives.
@@ChrisRalph I watch a video the other day about Kenya gold mining. (Parker) It maybe good to explain why they uses Mercury and why it is so dangerous. I mean, I know but the younger generation may not.
@@ChrisRalph Cyanide is just as bad as mercury. We tried using a salt water leaching process.
Cool, really interesting!! My grandparents went back to work in gold mines in the Dakotas back in the depression era, I want to say (?) I wonder about all these processes. I pan gold here in Oregon, as a hobby. Thankyou for this educational video.
Glad you found it interesting.
I mistakenly dissolved gold with HCl and sulfuric acid how can I get my gold back?
Real gold will not dissolve in HCl mixed with sulfuric acid. Put some copper metal in the acid and if there is real gold, it will precipitate out on the copper.
The small particles of gold you said Is that what they call water gold?
No, That is not something I said.
Okay...i think i misunderstood...need to rewatch,
I just learned about cyanide. Thank you for your video.
You are welcome.
I wish I could take a class from you, do you teach some where?
No, I don't offer any special training.
Thank you for this valuable video
Glad it was helpful!
very informative. i really appreciate your video presentation. i want to learn more
Check out my older videos - lots of information to learn.
@@ChrisRalph thank you
Great presentation! For a layperson like me, I had no idea that commercial mining operations were based upon collecting all these microscopic particles of gold together. One question I had was that you referred to it being fairly straightforward to getting a reliable assay of the ore (I assume to get a benchmark for whether a specific area is worth processing). What is the best tried-and-true assay method you know of?
The best tried and true assay method is the fire assay.
Mr. Ralph,
If one doesn’t have the access to, or would particularly not want to use cyanide. What would be the preferred method for a very thin layer of gold on the surface. Simplest way to describe it would be a quick brush stroke painted onto it.
I’ve found this on my own reconnaissance. And through some home test found it to be AU. But that aside. Do have suggestions.
I love that you take the time to do these for us. Thank you!
I would suggest sodium thiosulfate. It is available through Amazon, is not very toxic (its actually the antidote for cyanide poisoning), and I intend to do a video or two on this in 2023. It is more complex to use than cyanide, you need to control the chemistry more closely. There is research on it on the internet. Do some research using google.
@@ChrisRalph: Thank you for taking the time. My Best
Took me three months this year to understand rocks and how gold and other metals are in rock and what things truly look like. I’m trying my best to study on everything that people produce for information and I’m at the point of have river print and zebra boulders and some other special rocks carrying metal them I been doing it all by hand and half ton truck I only have a bout 15 ton but it’s been one of the hardest things I been thru in my life now I have selected type of rock I know all that I carry ; as of today I am sitting on a great amount of gold 😢 need a idea how to extract.
I wish you the best of luck in your efforts, but I cannot help you.
Yah im hoping to be the one to figure out a way to pull this off without using crazy expensive chemicals to extract. I made a maze table that sits on 1/12 pitch ( carpenter by trade in real life ) and I put my wife’s old muscle vibrator for sore backs. And the hole’s transition back and forth from a 1/16 of a inch to 3/32 and it back and forth. It works but I can run that amount of rock through it in my lifetime never mind my sons hahaha thanks for your input and information. If I come up with a way to do it. I’d like to show the world. It’s on me. I’m one of the most creative characters in my part of the world. Anyways. Tiger colour stripe zebra print patterns it was suppose to say. But I tell you one thing. Pick rocks especially ones heavy as heck. You can lose 40 lbs in 3 months. Take care
Is this same as aqua Regia ?
No, it is totally different.
But in both it dissolves gold and precipitation is done with zinc
Both sugar and salt are white and dissolve in water. Are sugar and salt the same? Aqua regia is an acid. Cyanide must be used as a base - the opposite of an acid. If you add an acid to cyanide it gives off a gas that will quickly kill you. They are not at all the same.
Thanks for the perspective Chris. Liked and subbed
Thanks for the sub!
Just read an article on gold mining forum from 2017, did your silver ore refining/smelting project ever turn out?
I still really have not completed it.
@@ChrisRalphdarn lol question.. what could one do with small amounts of ore, besides sell them on eBay, etc. Since I assume the mint doesn't accept ore anymore.. Are there and places that will buy ore, or places that will process it for you etc? Or are the only options crushing and panning it yourself/selling specimens etc?
Great info here.
No way no how am I gona chemical leach but it's always good to know how the big boys are doing it
What you say makes sense.
Chris, why does gold dissolve in mercury or cyanide or even in a combination acid solutions? Cyanide is such a weird molecule, so what makes it dissolve a noble metal when it is dissolved in water? Please figure out another way to dissolve significant amounts gold quickly with "safe" chemicals, then tell only me.
Hundreds of top flight scientists have tried to come up with something safer than cyanide but equally effective and not wildly more expensive. So far, they have failed.
@@ChrisRalph You are every bit as smart as those top flight scientists, and in my opinion, even more so. You can do it.
Cyanide formes an anion with gold that is soluble. Gold forms a very thin and unstable oxide that reacts with cyanide forming a gold hydrogen fulminate that is reduced by the water to form water and an AuCN-1 ion The reason it does this is that the gold is more covalent than the hydrogen or oxygen in the water. Gold can be freed electrolytically regenerating the cyanide as HCN
Great information especially on the geography side and always like to know about processes.
Glad it was helpful!
I read a paper a while back about using electrochemistry to convert isocyanate back to cyanide but I can't find it, do you have any idea what I'm talking about?
Also what do you think about urea extraction?
I'm not sure about the electrochemistry conversion, but the best non-cyanide leach is thiosulfate, and there are plenty of research papers on it.
this exactly what i need, i have the procedure but still need the basic to run it
Glad that it was helpful.
Glad that it was helpful.
In Oregon I have recoverd placer gold in Josephine Creek with mercury coating as an amalgam, At first I thought the little bits were platinum.
Yep, the old timers left mercury in the creeks in some places.
Thank you for your time. Good stuff.
Glad you enjoyed it
I started gold mining.. Via vat leaching.. Thank you for the information.. And I'll keep my work update..im so optimistic about it
Best of luck to you.
I like to know sand gold and yellow gold I have some Tq
We have a language translation problem.
Thanks for your great explanation of heap leaching process and got a lot of information from your video.
Only I have one question that's
What happens the west that they have taken Gold? And how do they remove and prepare new heap leaching process?
What are the characterization of wastes generated in gold beneficiation?
Can you explain it or make a video about it? I don't know if did it?
Sorry for my ridiculous questions!!! I'm trying figure out. And I'm mining engineering student 😊
Pretty sure I covered all that in this video. Usually heap leach piles are left in place, covered with topsoil and reclaimed.
Great video Ralph ! Very informative on a subject that is not very tangible to most hobby prospectors. I used cyanide many years ago on a silver vat leaching project. Unfortunately, at $5 silver it wasn't profitable. The ore was in dolomite and the silver was completely oxidized into black dendrites. Leached like candy.
I got a bunch of ore I need to crush and test. I'm going to try thiosulfate to do the job.
I used it once before and did ok. Expensive at the time.
You can buy it cheap right on Amazon.
Is there anyway i can email you? I have a few questions
First, as I say in this video it is not a "How to do it" type video. A strong knowledge of chemistry both for the ore and use of cyanide is required. I appreciate your interest, but I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement. I get many such requests and simply do not have time to help all who ask. I have many business and family commitments and simply don't have the time available. I do wish you the best of luck, but I am sorry that I cannot offer any help on that level.
@@ChrisRalph I wanted to send you some ore and wanted your thoughts on it
As I noted above - I get many such requests every day and simply do not have time to help all who ask. So I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement.
I used to make black cyanide at cyanimid plant in Niagara falls Canada. I made black flake 48 to 52 percent grade. Before I worked there they also had a white cyanide furnace but it was finished running when I started. We would fill tank trucks to take to northern Ontario for gold mines. We also put in barrels we made at the plant. Unfortunately plant closed 92 I then became a maintenance foreman at a Dana plant building for truck frame 95 to 2008.then close that plant too.
Manufacturing cyanide is an interesting process.
Great video, Chris! I am running a small VAT leaching operation in Southern Africa.
Need some advice, as we're getting a huge amount of copper coming out of the activated carbon when doing the electrowinning process, meaning there's a lot of copper being leached with the cyanidation process.
Also, as for the oxygen within the equation, instead of bubbling air through the mix, we use H2O2 to supply oxygen to the mix. What are your thoughts?
As I said repeatedly in the video, this is not a video to explain how to do cyanide. So I will offer no instructions. Significant copper in the ore is a problem.
Good Day Agnaldo...Im based in Johannesburg I also have a vat leach and working on a CIL /CIP plant. Can we chat on email ?
@@vimbiv3133 sure. How can I reach you?
Its hard to treat the copper, dont you have a lab down there to do some tests, but the best way to remove the copper is by froth flotation you will need equipments to do that, the concentrate of copper will be separated from gold concentrate before leaching the solution by cynade
Great information thank you sir
Glad it was helpful.
great information !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad you found it interesting!
@@ChrisRalph very !!!👍
Most Gold in our part of the world is caught using cynade, Tanzania what happens is the free gold is caught using mercury and some sluice, the remaining tailings are kept either in VAT tanks cynade is added, tanks are closed for few days untill the Gold is leached, than the solution is passes throught carbon were the Gold is caught, its a common practice here.
It must be properly handled or it can be dangerous.
Thank you for your amazing clips. Have you seen gold chloride inside the gold-bearing stone? I have come to the conclusion by testing the stones that there is gold chloride inside some stones, which turns into free gold when heated.🙏🏻💛
I am skeptical of this.
@@ChrisRalph thanks 🙏🏻
Is it possible that acidic solutions similar to aqua regia in the earth replace the gold from the depth of the earth to the surface in the form of gold chloride in the rock?
No.
❤❤❤❤thank you , how about jinchan
Jinchan is not a word in English, so I do not understand what you mean.
@@ChrisRalph I think he talk about the patented Gold stripping (cyanide free) chemical from China.
I burn it and it forms I can do a rock a crush it and burn it again and it seems like material the dirt goes away or whatever it gets smaller and smaller pile and the pieces get harder and harder
What? Siri does not understand what you mean, and neither do I.
These video's start giving me gold fever.
That was the intent in making them!
I would like to invite you to the state of Maine to my 159acre mountain of witch is a ancient hydro vent here at the end of the Appalachian mountains before they drop into the Atlantic! As I said this is newly found and I have not told many but the few I have talked with are overwhelmed with excitement! The reason I invite you is because of your experience and I have followed you for years.. l promise you you will not regret taking me up on this offer!! This find is right across the valley just a few miles from where they just found the high grade lithium in Nery Maine!!!
I live clear across the country In Nevada. Thanks for the offer but I will decline. Best of luck to you.
Just found this video. This is great. 👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
Siri doesn’t type quite right thanks for all your hard work buddy
What? Siri does not understand what you mean, and neither do I.
I’ll have my first gold bar next week from dirt yes from Black GUI mud
If 5 gallon bucket before Bernie weighed about 90 pounds well maybe 75 I didn’t wet but it wasSuper heavy could barely carry it up the hill basically had to drag himWell lift outside it down lift it set it down all the way up the hill couldn’t walk with it
Almonds, apple seeds and peach pits contain cyanide. It has a specific taste some people like in tiny amounts. I would not suggest trying it pure tho.
Incredibly tiny amounts can be found naturally, but fairly small (not tiny) amounts can kill.
I'll see about buying your book.
You may be able to get it through Amazon.
Right on
glad you found it interesting.
Hervorragende Lösungen. Quecksilber spekulieren.
I dont recommend the use of mercury.
What I have always wanted to do with my ore is extract everything and use all of the minerals in it, not just the precious metals, the entirety of the rock. Just one of many experiments I have in mind.
OK. What if it cost more to extract it than it is worth? Like it cost you $100 to extract $2.50 worth of iron in your ore?
@@ChrisRalph The knowledge is more important than the actual cost at this stage. Learning of how to do it, and knowing that I can do it is far more interesting than just avoiding doing it because it seems cost prohibitive. Pollution is a problem everyone will have to face in the future our own made or by someone else.
@@kateonianlaw1127
Having the resource$ and being curious/committed to learn and share is what will benefit humanity most as we continue producing
Always Remember, Teach & Share
"Do Something Useful"
The super fire and gold is not metallic looking correct I’ve been burning dirt that I think I see is microscopic gold in and then I it kind of forms like a rock again and then I crash out and then burn it again and every time I do it it seems like it turns into more and more gold and I lose less than less material but it seems to be working I haven’t processed any to metal yet but I’m trying it’s been quite a learning process and I think they Hide the information do you know who I’m talking about been lied to our whole l lifeAnyways thanks for all your info no hard work it’s great watching your videos I love them❤
What? Siri does not understand what you mean, and neither do I.
Roasting the ore will burn off sulfur selenium telluride and arsenic. What is left is much easier to process for getting the gold out. My process is crushing followed by gravity separation to get a concentrate of metal ores. Next is roasting to free the metals and oxidize the more reactive ones. Next the concentrate is mixed with charcoal and a little limestone and some of the quartz sand and blasted with air to reduce and melt the metals that form an ingot at the bottom. This ingot is then put into a sulfuric acid bath. This dissolves everything more reactive than copper and copper plates out on the cathode. The gold silver lead and other less reactive stuff formes a paste on the anode side. This paste is then washed with nitric acid and that grabs the silver. Next the paste is washed with Aqua Regia and that grabs the gold. The stuff that remains is lead antimony and other insoluble stuff mostly as sulfates or oxychlorides.
I watch every video twice 😍
Glad it was useful.
Darn it looking for a diy how to video
Use google and search around for written things on the internet. Its a pretty powerful poison, so be sure you know the safety requirements.
Our dredge would do 60 tons and hour, we couldn't even get 60 tons in there in and hour and we built the dredge ourselves. We also made a rock crusher.
Interesting.
"Lay plastic underneath" lol
Plastic comes in thick sheets my friend.
9:45
28:48
3:16
This is a 3 min video stretched out to 40.
If you want a 3 minute video and you see a video that is 40 minutes long, why do you watch? Seems pretty stupid to me.
❤❤❤
Glad you enjoyed it.
2x speed. You are welcome
Oh, wait - I am supposed to care about your opinion? LOL 😆
@@ChrisRalph am i supposed to watch you slowly talk us to death? Spit it out bro. I got other stuff to watch. 😂. But honestly, you are the one that will lose viewers because your 30 min video can be done in 15. So you should care.
No, buddy - just because you cant pay attention or don't want to learn - that doesn't mean everyone is like you. You need to realize you are the oddball and a tiny minority. Most a not like you. I get 20X more compliments on the detail I go into. You should just watch shorts and anything else you should ignore - real learning just isn't for you. My evidence is that I have 108K subscribers - because I don't listen to oddballs like you.
@@ChrisRalph sure buddy. I hurt your feelings….. at 2x speed.
As I said at first, I could care less about your opinions. You still watched, I still got paid, I'll laugh about it all the way to the bank.
😘
Glad you liked the video.