Geology & GeoMetallurgy

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Does refractory gold ore naturally release it's gold over millions of years? (2 replies)

E
ebnk15
3 years ago
ebnk15 3 years ago

Hypothetically, if I found sulfides while camping, would it be a waste of time looking downstream from these refractory gold ore locations for possible free gold? Or, would any free gold found have to come from an entirely different source?

Does free gold separate, naturally, from refractory ore when in an aqueous solution and given enough time? Thanks. 

sediment-hosted-minerals
3 years ago
sediment-hosted-minerals 3 years ago
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The short and simple answer is no.

First of all, just because you find sulfides, there is no guarantee that gold is in the area. Often times the gold is disseminated within Pyrite crystals. It is so tiny that you can't even see it under a regular microscope.

There are mines in the US in famous gold producing districts (Colorado Mineral Belt or the Carlin Trend) where economic amounts of gold is being produced from the host rocks but if you go downstream and look for placers you wont find anything.

Hope this helps!

 

r
huahua
2 years ago
huahua 2 years ago
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Theoretically not, the refractory gold ore can obtain the desired concentrate through flotation, and the most widely used method is froth flotation. The ore is crushed and pulverized to dissociate various minerals into single particles, so that the particle size meets the requirements of the flotation process. Various flotation agents are added to the ground pulp, mixed and mixed to interact with the mineral particles to amplify the floatability differences between different mineral particles. The adjusted gold ore pulp is sent to the flotation cell, stirred and aerated.
Hope this helps you. 

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