Processing Samples

The material in the concentrate pan is separated and dried. Concern is taken that all of the material is separate from the pan and that none of the concentrate is gone. The material in the mids and tails are cautiously checked, frequently with a gold pan to see if there is any gold in them .The tails will include the largest bulk of the sample and should not have any gold. The mids might have some crumbling gold, but should be small enough that they can be panned down and the gold in them additional to the concentrate.

Once has being dried the concentrate is cautiously placed in a small pot and sent to the assayer .The quantity of material in the concentrate from a one hundred pound sample should not be too large for the assayer to shoot in one crucible. If the concentrate is large it can be charily panned down to a more attractive size. The assayer will dissolve the material in the concentrate and produce a small drop which is frequently poised of both gold and silver. Generally placer gold has an excellence less than 950. This means that at least 5 percent of the weight of the gold is composed of dirtiness. Silver is the typical dirt of placer gold.

The drop will be weighed and then boiled in a nitric acid resolution .This is identify as parting and eliminate the silver from the bead. The gold bead which residue behind is completed a weighed. This weight reveal how much pure gold is present in the sample .Still if the gold revered from a placer is to be kept in its normal free form and not refined or dissolve, the weight of the gold silver bead would be use to determine the sum of placer gold per ton of material.