What's new
  • Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

You know you live in the country if......

S

St. Phatty

Active member
IMG_20210531_084549=.jpg


Good thing I Like Dust ! !

I would like to find a Chemistry lab that can analyze this dust for copper content.

Don't want to ignore a possible gift horse.

There is a lot of copper in our water and in the sand in the aquifer.

What if the universe is serving up Copper in the dust ?

I wouldn't have thought of that till a few years ago, I read an article about Mercury somehow going airborne in some dust, maybe related to burning coal.


The soil labs like doing NPK type analyses.

The water lab isn't interested in doing soil analysis.

The mining company says you have to submit 1000 samples to get the $3 price (per sample) and won't quote it differently.

God damn, what happened to free enterprise ?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20210531_084549=.jpg
    IMG_20210531_084549=.jpg
    67.5 KB · Views: 15
I

igrowone

Well-known member
Veteran
St. Phatty said:


Good thing I Like Dust ! !

I would like to find a Chemistry lab that can analyze this dust for copper content.

Don't want to ignore a possible gift horse.

There is a lot of copper in our water and in the sand in the aquifer.

What if the universe is serving up Copper in the dust ?

I wouldn't have thought of that till a few years ago, I read an article about Mercury somehow going airborne in some dust, maybe related to burning coal.


The soil labs like doing NPK type analyses.

The water lab isn't interested in doing soil analysis.

The mining company says you have to submit 1000 samples to get the $3 price (per sample) and won't quote it differently.

God damn, what happened to free enterprise ?
Click to expand...

testing for copper? not a problem if you don't mind a little garage chemistry
take a good size sample, toss a good measure of muriatric acid on it in a plastic tub
running like hell might be advised after this if there's anything nasty in there
let sit in shade for a week or so and covered
poor off the acid and cautiously add wood ash water that has plenty of potassium carbonate
if copper you see deep sky blue
do only if you've worked with nasty acids before lest you spray yourself and suffer horrors for real
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
igrowone said:
testing for copper? not a problem if you don't mind a little garage chemistry
take a good size sample, toss a good measure of muriatric acid on it in a plastic tub
running like hell might be advised after this if there's anything nasty in there
let sit in shade for a week or so and covered
poor off the acid and cautiously add wood ash water that has plenty of potassium carbonate
if copper you see deep sky blue
do only if you've worked with nasty acids before lest you spray yourself and suffer horrors for real
Click to expand...


I have to find my buckets of Nitric acid.

I know lots of guys at GoldRefiningForum use the Muriatic + Clorox (Chlorine) to dissolve gold ... or is it copper ?

I am way behind on workshop cleaning.

I would prefer to contract it to a lab if possible.

Also I want to know the quantity of copper, parts per million by weight.
 
I

igrowone

Well-known member
Veteran
St. Phatty said:
I have to find my buckets of Nitric acid.

I know lots of guys at GoldRefiningForum use the Muriatic + Clorox (Chlorine) to dissolve gold ... or is it copper ?

I am way behind on workshop cleaning.

I would prefer to contract it to a lab if possible.

Also I want to know the quantity of copper, parts per million by weight.
Click to expand...

you look well informed, whew
so you know how to handle acids
if you want a more exact number a lab is the way to go
I will mention the big implication
if there is copper there is also silver + gold
question is the proportions, gold in quantity is obviously quite rare
lab analysis can identify the nasties if present, arsenic and such
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
igrowone said:
you look well informed, whew
so you know how to handle acids
if you want a more exact number a lab is the way to go
I will mention the big implication
if there is copper there is also silver + gold
question is the proportions, gold in quantity is obviously quite rare
lab analysis can identify the nasties if present, arsenic and such
Click to expand...

The property 100 yards north of me was a Placer Gold mine 100 years ago.

When we had heavy rains in 2017, some of their gold washed down to my part of the creek.

Got about 2000 pounds of sand on my deck, it measures about 20 grams per ton, i.e. 1 gram of gold per 100 pounds.

But it's all flour gold.


I find that with handling acids, yes you have to be super vigilant.

I remember heating muriatic acid on the back porch a few year ago. No wind at the time.

The mist from the heated acid was sort of like smoke. You could actually see it.

It was this meandering path of acid-y mist that hung in the air.

Then while working on other stuff, I walked right through it and got one whiff.

Pretty much clears out all the sinus passages doesn't it.


One of the materials I fear the most: Aluminum Dust, when it's milled so finely that it is Pyrophoric.

When you open up the ball mill, the new oxygen gives it what it needs and it just starts burning.

If the pile of dust is disturbed, you have an explosion.
 
I

igrowone

Well-known member
Veteran
never boiled the acid, but have had my sinuses cleared out, once was enough
jaw dropping stuff you got there, 1 gram per 100 lbs is major league stuff
good luck with recovery if you can find time
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
igrowone said:
never boiled the acid, but have had my sinuses cleared out, once was enough
jaw dropping stuff you got there, 1 gram per 100 lbs is major league stuff
good luck with recovery if you can find time
Click to expand...

If my property was in South America, it would probably be heap leach mined using Cyanide.

Works great for recovering Gold, if you're willing to destroy the environment in the process.

If I had a budget and some human help for machining costs etc., I would be interested in developing a recovering process where you use lead but recover it.

Lead works great for extracting Gold. Then after you extract the gold from the lead, you have to extract the lead from the ceramic you used to separate the gold & lead.
 
I

igrowone

Well-known member
Veteran
St. Phatty said:
If my property was in South America, it would probably be heap leach mined using Cyanide.

Works great for recovering Gold, if you're willing to destroy the environment in the process.
Click to expand...
you know your gold mining
cyanide is the commercially accepted way to leach gold
it can be environmentally ok if done right, it can also kill the operator and others in the vicinity if your ph does an excursion
if you're game there is an alternative that might work for you
thiosulfate, very safe but more expensive
and tricky with the chemistry, but it does work(sometimes)
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
igrowone said:
you know your gold mining
cyanide is the commercially accepted way to leach gold
it can be environmentally ok if done right, it can also kill the operator and others in the vicinity if your ph does an excursion
if you're game there is an alternative that might work for you
thiosulfate, very safe but more expensive
and tricky with the chemistry, but it does work(sometimes)
Click to expand...

if I wasn't spending all my time as Keeper of the Keys and Head Chicken Shepherd, I would have more time to work on a Miller Table kind of thing.

Some guy is driving 60+ miles in 100 degree heat to buy one of my roosters.

That seems like a sign of somebody who wants to take care of his birds.

I told him we might not be able to catch it.


My daydream about the birds is to leverage their tendency to peck at white things.

Then use special light and let them peck up all the little pieces of shiney metal in the gold sands.

Then simply dry their droppings, burn off the manure, separate the heavy parts, maybe dissolve it in Aqua Regia.

On second thought that sounds like a lot of work.

Click image for larger version Name: IMG_20210311_091113_1+++.jpg Views: 1 Size: 105.6 KB ID: 17870261

UPDATE -
This guy is on his way to a new home.
On 5 acres with 9 hens.
Plenty of Hawks & Falcons overhead to give him a Purpose in Rooster Life.
He's already bigger than his father, a Brahma, and he's only 7 months old.
 
flylowgethigh

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
Mailbox bashing is a part of country life around here. Most just get a cheap box and replace them after they get hit. Here next to the old one is a replacement cheap box. The dude gave up trying and uses the old box as his guard now. He had tried to thwart the bashers, using armor like the American wheeled Strykers had to do in Iraq.

They just find a workaround. They like a challenge...

Click image for larger version Name: DSC00673.JPG Views: 0 Size: 454.7 KB ID: 17872506
 
C

CosmicGiggle

Well-known member
Moderator
Veteran
flylowgethigh said:
.........

They just find a workaround. They like a challenge...
Click to expand...

Had a snooty friend in Baltimore with a mini estate McMansion just outside of the city. His mailbox sat on top of one of those pretentious, hollow, thin brick bases, which was always getting knocked over and endlessly replaced.

........ until one day he finally replaced it with real bricks and no hollow core.

:good: The challenge had been accepted, the old guy won and the neighbors kid ended up with a cast on his right arm. :D
 
flylowgethigh

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
Kids here get hurt sometimes hanging out the window of a car with a baseball bat to bash a box. You re only supposed to have a 4 x 4 post to mount the box, for liability. Some people make them like fortresses.
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
CosmicGiggle said:
Had a snooty friend in Baltimore with a mini estate McMansion just outside of the city. His mailbox sat on top of one of those pretentious, hollow, thin brick bases, which was always getting knocked over and endlessly replaced.

........ until one day he finally replaced it with real bricks and no hollow core.
Click to expand...


Mailboxes make a great proxy for violence, so neighbors don't kill each other.

When I was in high school, one of the neighbor's dogs bit our dog.

We blew up their mailbox.

I'm surprised our parents didn't get sued.

My brother made firecrackers when we lived in Greece, and was happy to feed tips to the other members of the neighborhood gang.

One of the local teenagers wouldn't hang out with us. Vengeful mob, anybody ?

I watched my friends ignite a gasoline device in their front yard. It just made a big fireball.

This is in the semi wealthy COUNTRY neighborhoods of Connecticut, near New York City.

Somehow we made it to college without a trip through Juvie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top