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☠LETS GO GOLD SEARCHING☠ Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

inspicio: One or more of the following has occurred:

No response from the cache owner.
No cache to find or log to sign.
It has been more than 28 days since the last owner note.

As a result I am archiving this cache to keep from continually showing up in search lists and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements.

Should you like to resurrect the cache please create a new cache listing so it can be reviewed as a new cache.

From http://support.groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=70

4.23. Unarchiving a Geocache

The archiving of a geocache is intended to be a permanent status. That is why only community volunteer reviewers and Geocaching HQ staff have the capability to unarchive it. This is done only in rare circumstances and only if it meets the current Geocache Listing Guidelines.

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Hidden : 7/1/2013
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

one time long a go there was a gold battery here, ores were transported in by steam trains, from far and wide to have gold extracted using the, Gold cyanidation extraction process.

below is a bit more on how the process works, and for the chemistry nuts out there the chemical reaction involved.

Gold cyanidation

(also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest process) is a metallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly used process for gold extraction. Production of reagents for mineral processing to recover gold, copper, zinc and silver represents approximately 13% of cyanide consumption globally, with the remaining 87% of cyanide used in other industrial processes such as plastics, adhesives, and pesticides. Due to the highly poisonous nature of cyanide, the process is controversial and its usage is banned in a number of countries and territories.

History

In 1783, Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered that gold dissolved in aqueous solutions of cyanide. He had earlier discovered cyanide salts. Through the work of Bagration (1844), Elsner (1846), and Faraday (1847), it was determined that each atom of gold requires two cyanide, i.e. the stoichiometry of the soluble compound. Cyanide was not applied to extraction of gold ores until 1887, when the MacArthur-Forrest Process was developed in Glasgow, Scotland by John Stewart MacArthur, funded by the brothers Dr Robert and Dr William Forrest. In 1896, Bodländer confirmed that oxygen was necessary, something that was doubted by MacArthur, and discovered that hydrogen peroxide was formed as an intermediate.

Chemical reaction

The chemical reaction for the dissolution of gold, the "Elsner Equation", follows:
4 Au + 8 NaCN + O2 + 2 H2O → 4 Na[Au(CN) 2] + 4 NaOH
In this redox process, oxygen removes, via a two step reaction, one electron from each gold atom to form the complex Au(CN)2- ion

Application

The ore is comminuted using grinding machinery. Depending on the ore, it is sometimes further concentrated by froth flotation or by centrifugal (gravity) concentration. Water is added to produce a slurry or pulp. The alkaline ore slurry can be combined with a solution of sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide, however many operations utilize calcium cyanide, which is more cost effective.

To prevent the creation of toxic hydrogen cyanide during processing, lime (calcium hydroxide) or soda (sodium hydroxide) is added to the extracting solution to ensure that the acidity during cyanidation is maintained over pH 10.5 - strongly alkaline. Lead nitrate can improve gold leaching speed and quantity recovered, particularly in processing partially oxidized ores.

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