How do you make fine gold powder into gold pieces you can sell?

Answer 1

Gold is bought by weight , and it does not matter what form it is in. It must also be assayed for purity to determine value.

While the above is true about weight, not many "gold buying" companies will take dust unless it is a lot of it , and is packaged professionally ( not in a ziplock bag, nor in a srew top jar as a lot of edible gold is sold in. That said,

If you have a few grams of 22.3 karat edible gold , or higher karat gold powder and are not a jeweler with a refinery account you would do better as far as getting the daily spot price plus a premium on top of that (for the process- as powdered gold is more expensive than a bar of fine gold of the same weight ) by selling your item on ebay , or craig'slist type sites.Not only would foodies be interested but those experimenting with metal clays, pottery glazes, glass making etc..all of which use powdered gold in either food, or art or craft.

If you still want to form it into an ingot a butane torch and charcoal block will do the trick.Fine gold melts fairly rapidly with the 2400+ degrees those torches generate, slightlyover 1900 is required to melt gold..If you don't have that equipment but have a jeweler's supply near you buy the harder charcoal block ( about 10 bucks ) as it will last longer:

• carve a channel in it,
• sprinkle it with powdered borax ( a pinch is all that is necessary) and melt the gold, rapidly pour into the channel with the block on a heatproof surface. once cooled ( you may quench in plain water) remove it- and go sell it or send it off to a refiner, or otherwise get the valuwe of the weight back...
• .If you choose you can opt for a fused clay crucible instead of the block, but then you will need a mould to pour the molten metal into- it is also available at a jewelry supply ( not a craft store).A crucible must be glazed with borax first.melt about a tablespoon of borax with the butane torch into the crucible held in tongs sold to fit the crucible style, turning it to fully coat the entire thing- if its a high back style crucible, make sure you also glaze the "roof', and do not clog the hole for pouring at the rear of the crucible.- then melt the gold in it and pour into a mould
• a cheap one-time mould can be made of cuttlefish bone bought at a pet store, rubbed flat against a piece of sandpaper or concrete, or itself ( break into 2 pieces first) then you would press a large disc into the halves, or a length of rod large enough to hold the gold you'll melt..If I knew how much gold you have it would make this explaination far easier!..then mark with a sharpie to register the exact position of the object.then cleanly separate the halves that held the shape, carve a "v" shaped well in the top of the halves, and with a skewer make a straight line to the shape ( called a sprue),you can enlarge it slightly after it is delineated..with a pencil draw a few lines towards the outside of the bone halves to vent any gasses from the pour.Then tape the halves together keeping the registration marks visible.
• firmly set the mould in bucket of sand.with the well at the top.make sure its at least half the length (of the bone pieces) in the sand if you have never done this before as molten metal can leak out the sides if not completely flat relative to each other ( rubbing the 2 halves together is the best way to go and then inspect the fit- mark this too..the more registration points the better the fit will be and the piece will look like the item you embedded in the material.Jeweler's duplicated rings, etc this way for centuries.The moulds are a one time proposition though and aren't good for anything but bird's beaks, ( after removing the charred areas).
• melt the gold in the crucible
• poiur into the mould OUTDOORS- the smell of buring cuttlebone is not at all pleasant
• allow about 15 minutes before opening the mould, quench the piece in water to be certain it isn't hot - even greyish appearing metal can be" red hot"- so be safe and put the water in a non plastic container as you don't want a piece of hot metal sinking and melting the plastic.Make sure it is large enough to retrieve the piece with your whole hand submerged in the vessel...that way I am sure you will be adding enough water!

My point is, selling it as powdered gold will get you more than the value if you advertise it yourself..Look at edible gold sites and powdered metals sites to get an idea of current prices for powdered gold of high purity.If you have taken some credit suisse bars and dissolved them in nitric acid or aqua regia, or stolen it from a chem lab, and try to precipitate the gold out with oxalic acid and that is the powder you are trying to sell..the purity will be questionable, not to mention the amount recovered may not be the amount the solution contained..I could say alot more on the subject but noit knowing the source,weight, or fineness of the material , nor how it was powdered or the particle size- I'll just stop here...

Answer 2

A Gold Genie wheels are nice, for non-tonic recovery use water only.

now for the other types of gold recovery . Charge Mercury will pick up and hold 60% of its weight in Gold.

Though i would not do this un-less you have a real reason to do this type of fine gold recovery.

Sluice box works great....with a carpet of real lambs wool to pick out the micron fines.

in the world we live in now keep it clean.

Save all Black sand and send it in for smelting, as black sand well coat gold and you can`t tell in the flied what you have..

myself i work all black sand at home........

Cyanide leech ponds...........don`t go there.

The government well bond your site to the point that the cost will be at least 400 Oz. to recover gold.

Answering "How do you separate fine gold?"Your Question has been....Be safe !!!