How to get your Gold Out of the Tellurides

This is only a primitive method of removing Gold out of Tellurides...
Basics; What you will need to do the job
1, 2 roasting pans [high temp] not aluminum foil type.
2, Standard table salt [equal amount to concentrate volume.
3, charcoal brickets.
4, outdoor area "well ventilated".

Step by step procedures...
1, classify your concentrates with a 20 mesh classifier...
2, mix the classified concentrates with equal amounts of salt...
3, put mix into a high temp roasting pan...
4. place pan with concentrates into a hot, well established coal bed...
5, leave in coal bed untill coals are completely consumed [overnite]...

What exactly is taking place...
Your concentrates have tellurides in them that according to our assay, are as much as 70% and as minimal as 30% in volume. You are heating the concentrates to an appx temp of 1000*F. What happens is that the salt and the heat enable the tellurides to burn off into a tellurium gas, leaving the chemically attached gold behind...

What will I see when done roasting...
1, actually nothing with the naked eye...
2, use at least a 10 power loop to get a view...
3, you are dealing with "micro gold" in very high concentrates...
4, if using a loop, you will see the remaning gold has kind of melted together into small globules...

Okay, now HOW DO I RECOVER IT...
1, get out your keene gravity bowl...
2, get it started up with a "GOOD SURFACTANT" in the water... [calgon]
3, NO soap w/lanolin or hand lotions in it...
4, remember you're dealing with ultra fine micro gold...
5, run your bowl with care and use caution, "don't get in a rush or get nuts"...
6, you will see GOLD in the gravity bowl, all will be in a 20 mesh and smaller...

What about the rest of the concentrates that I did not roast...
1, process them with your micro sluice or poop tube or gold wheel...
2, processing the remaining concentrates will get the free gold that did not pass thru the 20 mesh classifier...

Okay, I did all of this for what...
1, the Free Gold is running "according to assay" 1 troy ounce to each ton of classified concentrates...
2, the Gold Tellurides are yielding as much as 4-5 troy ounces per ton of classified concentrates...
3, how much is a ton of classified concentrates... [a 30 gallon garbage can in size]
4, or an average of 6-7, 5 gallon buckets of classified concentrates...

Thats a hell of a lot of concentrates...
1, yup sure is, but so is 5-7 ounces of GOLD that you normally threw out...

Summation
If you are really interested in Gold Recovery and you want to recover as much as physically possible, a telluride roast can be very benificial. Its entirely up to you as the Gold Prospector.

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