Sample Salting
Processing or Washing
Salting: can occur intentionally or unintentionally. Intentional salting is the deliberate addition of valuable mineral to a sample. Unintentional or innocent salting is usually the result of careless or improper working procedures. No matter how salting occurs, the results can mean the failure of a project after many thousands or even millions of dollars have been spent bringing a property into production.
Sample Processing or Washing: The consideration is: if the actual sample washing should be manual or by some sort of equipment. Once a sample has been taken from a placer deposit; it must be washed to separate the valuable mineral from the waste material. The valuable mineral thus separated is then weighed to determine the value of the ground being tested. Most washing devices use some type of riffled surface to retain the heavy minerals as the lighter waste material is washed away. In dry washers, a current of air floats away the lighter material while leaving the heavy minerals behind. No production equipment, designed for the recovery of heavy minerals, actually recovers 100% of the mineral. Because of this, it is important to select a sample washing system
that will indicate the commercially recoverable mineral content of a sample. Other essential features of a sample washing system are low initial cost, easy maintenance, easy transport and set-up, acceptability of a wide range of material size, efficient washing of the sample, efficient use of available water, ability to process large and small samples, good mineral recovery, ease and speed of cleanup, and reliability.
The main Washing Equipment is:
- Miner's Pan: The old-fashioned gold pan is still the most widely used device for washing small placer samples. The pan is well suited for washing small samples but it is not well suited for handling samples over 13.6 kg (30 lb) or if samples are taken very frequently.
Fig. 4.5 Pan. |
