This Oxygen-Gold bond in Nature is not the only one that exists of course.
Gold will also bond to Hematite, Magnetite, get covered by plant oils, attach to Native Mercury, bond to sulfides and probably left handed lizard lips as well...so the closer you are to the source of the gold entering the waterstream, the better.
Place your recovery efforts as high in the headwaters as practical, just below the gold source, to avoid the organic debris.
For those recovering "Acid-Mine-Waters", chances are you are fighting copper and other metals also leached into the water as well.
Here, a chunk of scrap iron or steel wool added to the recovery stream can remove that pesky metal...as copper interferes with clean precipitations later. The copper will "Ion-exchange" with the iron, and drop out as a powder to the bottom of the unit/tank, leaving fine iron in water, a lot easier to remove from leaches, and many times actually precipitate gold as well in the process.
This GMW-Activated Carbon is made from the finest grade available, specifically treated for this type recovery. It will gather and collect all metals that are "Un-Bonded" and attach them to the carbon without any effort on your part. This carbon can hold 3-1/2 ounces gold per pound of carbon, to the point it will often show up well on the surface, looking like little gold nuggets when fully loaded.
Recovering the gold from carbon is done in a variety of ways, well within the ability of most gold miner's "Basement Chemistry" skills.
One thing is for sure...Carbon is cheaper than gold.
If you are sluicing, dredging, trommeling or using any other gravity-based recovery system...you need pay attention to more than just the gold recovery at the riffles.
Be sure you classifiy your material to one size at a time when you run. Like #8,#12,#16, etc.
(If possible and practical)
Add at least 2 ft of Miner's Moss, Nylon Matting or other "rug" to follow this sluicing section, and finally, catch the waters coming off the tabling, gold wheels, etc. to either run through our MicronGold Machine, and/or add a GMW-Activated Carbon as a final gold collector.
This is the best I know anyone can realistically do to insure that the gold you came after gets collected.
Even if you have a sophisticated Micron Gold Table, a "Gemini", or concentrators...adding a Carbon, final filter will more than pay for itself the first time used.
Don't overlook "Irrigation Ditch" waters either.
A lot of them distribute waters coming from known gold-bearing areas, and as I said, to top 1/2 Inch carries the gold-bonded molecules and colloids, and easily collect on Carbons in our poly bags simply placed in the stream,
Test your waters first to determine whether or not it has gold by evaporating 5 gallons down to a 1/2 oz...(use glass or Stainless Steel pots, no iron) This can be tested with Sodium Hydrene or Stannous Chloride (freshly made) to check for gold or platinums, showing up as a dark purple, black for gold, reddish for platinums.
Handy devices are PH meters, TDS meters and ORP meters, available for reasonable amounts, with which you can determine whether waters might bear gold or PM's as well. (High TDS levels)
Known gold bearing rivers can deliver pounds of gold annually, just by placing our Carbon in protected places, or piping water from these areas through carbon located safely in places away from floods , logs, theft and similar hazards.
This is the "Lazy Man's Gold Recovery System".
Getting the gold out of the Carbon
*Note...Best results use a PH meter and "ORP" meter to track results.
Just like the leach we describe in our recovery process, you can make your own "Poor-man's Halox", for dissolving the gold out of both Poly filters or the GMW-Activated Carbon, regardless whether it's in a cartridge, bag or loose.
First, place carbon in container, add water and adjust the PH DOWN to .01, (usually means adding some HCL acid) and ORP reading on the meter above 1100 mv.
The "Halox" we make here is basically; 1/2 lb. iodized salt (household variety) per gallon of water, and 11/4 cup sodium hypochlorite (powdered pool bleach) per gallon, to start.
As the gold is attacked, along with everything else in the sediments, the ORP may drop. Try keep it as high as possible. We can do this by adding small amounts of 33% HCL (common Muriatic acid). The result will be renewed activity, as the ORP soars upwards, stripping the metals out of the carbon/filters rapidly, usually in minutes. Please do this outdoors because of Chlorine gas generation which can be deadly if inhaled, if not downright gagging unpleasant.
Idea here is to NOT generate too much gas, just keep the ORP high.
The stripped carbon leach can now be precipitated using a zinc bar, which will fizz like crazy, and go into solution, while the precious metals drop out as a powder on the bottom.
This "StrippingSolution" can be reused about 5 times before it gets too contaminated, at which time the Zinc can be removed by adding sodium Bi-carbonate (baking soda) to bring down the PH to 7.0, at which point you have salt water, ready to make more "Poor-man's Halox"
