Is there Gold in fools Gold

Some pyrites Do In Fact contain gold.

Down here in southern New Mexico, it has been processed and made money.

With the Up Prices of Gold it would kick but if you could keep the EPA off your butt.

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		Quote:			Posted by Hobbyist
	And I'm still wondering how arsenic is used as a leach agent.

It isn't.  You use cyanide or something similar to leach the arsenic out of the ore.

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I sure don't want to start another back and forth off topic, but, are you sure it was maybe cyanide you were talking about and not arsenic? The main process for removing gold from ore is cyanidation using a heap leaching process. It was/is cyanide that is used to leach out metals, and arsenic is one of the metals leached out. There was no use for the arsenic, so it was left to stand in the trash heaps after the gold and any other precious metals had been removed. The arsenic, being heavier in specific gravity than the host rock, then worked it's way down the heap and eventually deposited into the aquifer beneath the ground and also into surface waters. Current regulations and standards closely monitor escape of any water into the ground or even runoff from the heap area after a rain or whatever. Here in Cripple Creek, Colorado the local milling operation (Cripple Creek and Victor Mining) produces water at the end of the process that is more pure than the drinking water that runs through the taps of almost any city in the USA. They finish off the process in a huge building with what looks like a water slide. They use pecan shells, peach and apricot pits, basically burned into a charcoal, to get the gold which is in a liquified state to attach to it (adsorption). Then they used a kind of electroplating process to collect the gold onto a large strip of metal. After all this, they melt the collected gold and pour it into a cone that you can hold in your hands (after cooling of course). Hundreds of thousands of tons of ore, crushed, leached, water slided, electroplated, and finally - a beautiful cone of gold that only weighs mere pounds. I do want to acknowledge that there is a fairly new process where they do use arsenic and sulfides to leach out gold from ores that resist the cyanide leaching. I don't think this process was around long enough for the Peru Hill Mill to have been affected.

Once again, I am not trying to sound like a know it all. I did know Mr. Know It All, but I ain't him. I'm only responding in the hope that the new guy doesn't walk away totally confused enough to just throw in the towel and quit prospecting before he gets past the first few weeks or so.      
[/quote]

No Problems here.  I implyed in error that Arsenic Was the leach. It is the carrier.

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		Quote:			Posted by Hobbyist
	Every year, I get at least 10 samples from over-excited people. They think they found gold, and when I tell them it's iron pyrite, their reactions are usually of disbelief mixed with severe disappointment, sometimes anger. The attached photo is of some samples received about 6 hours ago. I no longer bother to explain to them WHY it is pyrite. They are free to take it to any goldsmith's or metallurgical lab for a 2nd opinion, and they can pay the fees to hear the same answer they got for free from me.

Near Colorado Springs is another little town called Manitou Springs. It is named this because it has about 12 tapped springs where people can try a drink of natural springs waer right out of the ground. Anyway, there is a creek that runs through the center of town. There is a park in the center of the town where people stop to drink from a couple of the springs and use a public restroom. While they are there, they look into the creek and notice a shiny gold color material on the creek's bottom. Jars are emptied, paper cups are emptied, and soda bottles are emptied and then they are all refilled with the shiny gold colored material, which they are certain is gold. You'll see posts in all kinds of blog sites where these people eclim how easy it is to fill a jar with "gold dust" in mere minutes. I get calls from excited visitors asking me just how they could test their gold, and before they eve say anything I ask them if they got it in the park in Manitou Springs. They say it is and I then have to burst their bubbles as I tell them they have nothing more than loose mica flakes. They refuse to believe me and as seems to often be the case, they let me know that they think I'm a wannabe and have no idea what I'm talking about. How could I know if I haven't even looked at their find? After telling them how to check it, they finally relent to the fact that they haven't come to Colorado to make money in the "Pikes Peak or bust" gold rush. Oh well, if it was that easy then gold wouldn't be around $1200 an ounce right now.   
 

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I managed to speak to a former supervisor and 2 workers of the long-defunct Mamut copper mine. They all said there is gold in the iron pyrite they encountered, but it's a very VERY small amount, and only economically feasible to extract as a by-product of copper extraction (which was the mine's bread n butter).

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