How do you separate gold from alloys?

Answer 1

You can expose to alloy to heat and melt it. since alloys are two different metals one will melt faster than the other. Or you could melt the whole thing down and refine it.

The best way is to combine the melted gold with Mercury. This is a common practice in third world countries. Once melted the gold will bind with the mercury and can be poured off. Now here is the bad part. Gold panners will use a propane torch (aval. at even Walmart) to burn off the mercury. It has a lower boiling point than the gold and will turn to gas. I've seen it done in just a metal wok. I would not dare breathe in mercury fumes, but poor people will do what it takes to survive. If you do this, buy a good respirator, like one for spray painting. As for aquiring mercury it is used to fill vacuum carb tuners for motorcycles. You can buy a mercury refill bottle from a motorcyle parts outlet online. It usually comes in about a 2 ounce bottle. I would use double the mercury volume to that of the gold. It works but be safe!

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The first answer is wrong. Alloys melt as themselves, and although some partially dissociate with heat and time it is not a certain process without proper metallurgical equipment.

As for the second, I suspect the process costs would not be much lower than the recovered gold's value, and as indicated, mercury and worse its vapour (easier to ingest) and resulting condensate, or its oxide, are very poisonous. You would not be able to buy mercury over here in the UK - nor, probably anywhere in the EU - certainly not privately anyway! (Engine-tuning vacuum-gauges would use a Bourdon tube or some form of electrical pressure transducer instead.)

Answer 2

Alloy is the formation of different metals (and maybe non-metal or metalloids, but mostly metals).

One easy way to separate them is breaking the bonds between the metals and let them be separated by their densities. In other words, melt them hot enough to separate, the denser metals will sink to the bottom will the lighter ones will go to the top.

Answer 3

The sample mill is used to crush rock samples before testing for gold. It is powered by a petrol motor for portability. A sample is placed in the hopper which feeds the pulverisers, reducing the sample to powder. Ideally, the sample mill should be adjustable so that the desired grain size can be obtained. Most sample mills have hardened steel jaws. These can produce fine steel filings that show up in the residue when panned. When more than one sample is processed, residue from previous samples carries through. Therefore, a gold bearing sample followed by a barren sample will give positive gold results in the barren sample. When accurate results are required, the mill can be cleaned by grinding quartz between samples (sometimes, particularly with ironstone's, this is not effective).

A cheaper alternative to the sample mill is the dolly pot. A dolly pot consists of two parts: a mortar and a pestle, both of large dimensions (eg. 1 litre). It is used for crushing hand samples. Samples are broken into small pieces with a hammer, then placed in the dolly pot for crushing.

Answer 4

one way is to increase heat and pressure to turn one into a liquid then disperse it. Gold has a lower melting point so it would turn into a liquid at a cooler temperature than platinum, then you would disperse the gold to separate the two.

Answer 5

There are not many chemicals that can separate gold. A mixture of cyanide will cause the gold to break down.

Answer 6

Gold is quite dense, and also doesn't react or dissolve in water. This means that you can simply use a fine sieve to sift the gold lumps from the water.

Answer 7

Crush the iron pyrites into a powder. Heat it up to burn off the sulfur. Put the remaining in water and use a magnet to remove the iron. What's left is the gold if there is any...

Answer 8

An alloy can be separated by chemical methods.

Answer 9

Copper is easily dissolved in acids.