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Gold/Mining/Energy : International Precious Metals (IPMCF)
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To: Zeev Hed who wrote (23232)10/25/1997 10:38:00 PM
From: E. Charters  Read Replies (1) of 35569
 
BTW the collector in a gold assay is native silver. It stays metallic throughout the assay. The other collector host is lead, which is added as an oxide to oxidize the silicate material and comes down as metal in the button. It is a lead amalgam.

To collect a finely divided metal you must have a turgid viscous melt
until it reaches 1857 degrees. The it must become very fluid to pour well. I have a way to disseminate the collector and pre-oxidize fine
metals that contain gold without causing volatilization that would result in losses. There is no point in going to temperature past the slagging of the refractory metals. That would be much less than the 2100 melting point of gold. You must remember that the average gold size in Canadian mines may in some case be as low as 20 microns..and we have our share of refractory gold tied up in arsenopyrite and pyrite atomically. You will notice our gold industry is quite healthy despite the price. As a matter of fact it was Canadian companies in Arizona and Nevada that revived the American gold mining industry and made it one of the world leaders, now surpassing Canada which used to out-produce America by 2 to 1.

I think you will find that at a yellow heat virtually all the metal is at the bottom of the melt. When you put the gold and lead slip by quick as a wink and are first into the crucible. That tells me to heat slowly with refractories and keep it at a low temp for a long time while they oxidize and along with the silicates. It also tells me to have a finely divided collector well distributed throughout the assay.
This is the chief weakness of the standard assay and may well cause low reporting in a fine metal system. I have a way of making sure the
collector reaches the metals but I won't share it. I guess its ok if it dies with me.

Having said that and being aware of the Salt Lake City work for the
last 20 years I am saddened by the sorry approach to the matter by some obviously recalcitrant companies. They don't do research or the industry any good.

echarter@vianet.on.ca
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