Discussion of Fire Assaying's purported problems
Fire assaying is a series of chemical steps that takes advantage of the precious
metal's chemical behavior. Those who claim they have non-fire assayable gold
are saying they have a substance that chemically does not behave like gold.
Arguments used to explain why fire assay is not applicable to their "Colloidal" or
"Micron" gold generally fall into one of the three categories discussed below.
"The particles are so small they vaporize and so are not in the button."
1850° is below the melting point of gold. Even if the temperature goes above
1850° the vapor pressure of gold is small. so very little is lost. H2O, for example,
has vapor pressure 6 orders of magnitude higher.
"Small particles of gold float on the surface of water so they float on the slag."
This ignores the process that goes on. It is not dependent on gravity. The PbO2,
now Pb, dissolves the gold. It is the Pb that collects at the bottom of the crucible.
"Interfering elements mask the gold."
The London Mint ran an assay of 1000 mg tellurium, 1 g Au, 25 g Pb and
skipped the fusion step! Even so the "worst" they could do was to lose about half
the gold. These conditions are highly unlikely in a rock sample. What about the
platinum group metals? These, if present, report with the gold in the bead.
Tim,
I am a neophyte, however when I read that the Agency concludes that because:
"The London Mint ran an assay of 1000 mg tellurium, 1 g Au, 25 g Pb and
skipped the fusion step" AND therefore determined that----------------------->>>>
Conclusion
Fire assaying, in use for thousands of years, still stands the test of time.
Unless there is more to the London Mints research, this is flawed as there are oh so many elements
which must be tested before the above hypothesis is true.
Any and all serious comments are welcome.
jec
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