Handling Samples

Previous sampling, you must choose how the samples you take will be handle to find how much gold they have. The cheapest and easiest way is to take them to an assayer but as declared before, small samples taken from a placer frequently give unreliable results. An assayer uses a hot heater to dissolve the samples he assays. The size of his heater and tools control the size of his sample he can assay. The assayer uses an assay ton system when evaluating out his samples. An assay-ton is equivalent to 29,166 milligrams, or 29,166 grams, or about one ounce. Only this small quantity of material is assayed from each sample.

This apparently difficult system is essential because of the special system of weight and measures we use. Gold and other precious metals are weighed in troy weights and not in avoirdupois weights we commonly use. A troy ounce is about 1.1 times heavier than an avoirdupois ounce. Assay results are given in troy ounces per avoirdupois tons. There are 29,166 troy ounces in one avoirdupois ton. The assayer’s receptive balances are scaled in metric weights, or grams and milligrams. He calls 29.166 milligrams one assay-ton. This weight unit is a decent size for this gear and convenient for him when he estimated his results. Each milligram in his assay sample then, indicate one troy ounce. After he has finished his assay, he weights the gold he has obtained from the sample.

Each milligram of the gold indicates one troy ounce of gold. For in case if the gold drop he ends up with at the end of the assay weights 2 milligrams ,then the sample would assay at 2 ounces of gold per ton of substance. One ounce of material in a placer may contrast really from another ounce. Still if a bigger sample is taking to the assayer, he can still assay only one assay-ton of it. It is impracticable to mix a placer sample, so that the small quantity of material finally used in the assay will be delegate of the whole sample. An excellent way to procedure your sample is to deliberate the sample and then have the assayer find how much gold is in the concentrate. This is a better method since all of the gold will be recovered from the sample and sent to the assayer ,who will assay all of the gold contemplate and create a gold bead that indicate all the gold in the sample.