Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Crush your piece of gold ore into as fine a solution as you can grind it. First hammer it into crushed particles with a hammer, then grind it further with a mortar and pestle.
Scoop a precisely measured quantity of your powdered ore into a large glass test tube. It is important that you measure, weigh and record how much you poured into the tube because it will later make it easier to calculate the percentage of gold in your ore.
Pour your Legol's iodine (iodine dissolved in a solution of potassium iodide) into your vial until the crushed ore is completely soaked and covered with its depth in liquid. Seal this vial and shake it occasionally for about half an hour. Make sure you shake it thoroughly.
Separate the iodine from the gold as thoroughly as you can. You can do this by letting the mixture settle, pouring off the liquid on top, then dumping the rest of the ore into a coffee filter and allow the remaining solution to drip through it. The important thing is to preserve as much of the liquid Legol's iodine as possible from the ore into which it was mixed and save it in a small jar.
Add mercury to the dirty looking iodine solution you've extracted from your ore, about 1/20 of the solution by volume in mercury should be enough. Shake this mixture vigorously until the iodine solution has turned from a rusty color to a yellowish translucent shade. Allow the mercury, which will look very dirty, to settle at the bottom of the jar.
Pour off your Legol's iodine and leave the mercury in the bottom of the jar. Add enough water to cover the mercury and shake it again, once again allowing it to settle. Pour off the water and you're left with a dirty mercury solution that contains your gold. Add a 1/1 mixture of nitric acid and water to the mercury solution and allow it to dissolve the liquid metal. Keep doing this until all the mercury has dissolved and you are left with a black or brown material that cannot be dissolved. This is your gold and trace amounts of platinum. The mercury and any silver have been eaten away by the nitric acid.
Weigh the remaining extract on a jeweler's scale and compare this weight to the original weight of your crushed ore. This will give you some idea of how rich your ore sample is.