Hello all.
GSP
Your description of the rods in the other thread: http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=95&p=1485#p1485
goldsilverpro said:
I only saw them once, in about 1990. They are copper rods, with a rectangular cross section about 1/4" by 1/8". The ones I had were about 18" long. There were about 5 or 6 plated sections along the length. The plated sections were an inch or so long and wrapped all the way around the rod.
At the time, Au was $400/oz and the rods ran at least $50/pound.
At today"s price of $1367.00, that would be $170.88 per pound.
Your rods measured about .125" thick x .250" wide, which gives 0.03125" cubic inches per linear inch, and .750 sq. inches surface area per linear inch.
The rods I have measure .031" thick x .119" wide, which gives 0.003689" cubic inches per linear inch, and .300 sq. inches surface area per linear inch.
At a density of about 0.322688 pounds per cu. inch, (copper)
Your rods would have been about 0.010084 pounds/linear inch, and 99.167 linear inches per pound.
My rods would be about 0.001190396032 pounds/linear inch, and 840.057 linear inches per pound.
Your rods would have been about (99.167 x .750) 74.37525 square inches surface area per pound.
My rods would be about (840.057 x .300) 252.0171 square inches surface area per pound. (3.388 times more surface area per pound)
My rods have gold pads .65" in length x 16 pads on each 25" rod, or 0.1248 square inches of gold per linear inch or 104.839 sq. inches of gold per pound.
Your rods had gold pads 1" in length x 6 pads on each 18" rod, or 0.25 square inches of gold per linear inch or 24.79175 sq. inches of gold per pound.
That means my rods have about 4.23 times more surface area of gold per pound. (If your guess of the dimensions were anywhere close)
The gold wraps all the way around each pad, (as you said) and one of the narrow edges has some gold that runs the full length of the rod. Which means I can't cut the copper sections out, there is gold all the way down the rod. I think the gold is quite thick. (As you said)
I was thinking these could be CN stripped, but in this thread: http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7917&p=73399&hilit=cement+mixer#p73399
You wrote:
goldsilverpro said:
In this case, due mainly to the configuration of the material, I don't think that the cement mixer cyanide process (using NaCN and H2O2) would be the way to go. This system relies on 2 things - that a nickel barrier exists between the gold and copper and that the stripping be done very quickly (maybe, within 1 to 4 minutes. If it is not done quickly, the nickel will slowly degrade in the cyanide or it will abrade by the tumbling action. Once any nickel is gone and copper is exposed, the gold that is dissolved will tend to immerse (cement) back onto the copper.
I got no nickle. I got lots of exposed copper. I'm still thinking the slow CN process might work. (free CN held under .02%, copper not dissolved)
Do you remember how you did yours? I ended up with about thirty pounds of the rods plus many hundreds of the little fingers that rubbed against the rods. These little fingers are excellent material on their own.
Regards.
John