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Tarnagulla Specimen Again


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I checked that Tarnagulla specimen again today and it`s just about disintegrated, all that was holding the quartz together was the brown rock. You can`t really see it but there is a fair bit of powder gold in the pan.   When I first sg`d it the sg said about 1½ ounces of gold but I doubt there is that much. I`ve put the pieces back in acid to get rid of the last bits of brown rock, then I`ll crush it all up and have a go at making my first ingot. 

 

Tarnagulla speci 3.jpg

Tarnagulla speci 2.jpg

Tarnagulla speci 1.jpg

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57 minutes ago, phrunt said:

How are you planning on melting it down?

I`ve got a couple of propane burners and a little kiln and Wikipedia tells me propane and air burns at 1980º C and gold melts at 1064º C and, like I said, I`ve never done it before, but I think this little setup will probably work.   I`ll know in a couple of weeks ?

SDC14114.jpg

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I used the cheap cans of gas that campers use and a blow torch attachment. It took a while in a fire brick that I had made a bowl indentation in it with an angle grinder. Providing I kept the weight below 4 ounces it worked OK. The photo below shows 16+ ounces I did once, not bars like you can do with the unit above

p1012012.JPG

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Phrunt the second is very similar to the one I used. (I hope NZ standards are up to our Aussy ones :biggrin: ) The big trick is to use a fire brick or some sort of heat insulation that won't melt as the set up phoenix shows. 

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Agree with Geof, I struggled to get enough heat without insulating with firebricks, as the heat loss is too much. Using the small kilns with propane/butane will work fine. I made my own easily enough.

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