How does gold ore differ from gold nuggets?

Answer 1

Gold ore is any gold bearing material. Most gold mines contain ore with only trace amounts of gold chemically locked inside. The material is crushed to a fine powder and mixed with potassium cyanide in a slurry. The cyanide dissolves the gold where the liquid is physically separated from the waste material. The pregnant solution is then mixed with usually zinc where the gold precipitates out and is collected. the gold is then separated from the zinc and melted to form bars known as ingots. These ingots are usually 95% pure and are sold to refineries or the us mint where it is further refined to .999 pure. A gold nugget is just a lump of gold. Sometimes it still has bits of the host rock attached (usually Quartz) The question is when is it a flake and when is it a nugget. Most miners start claiming it is a nugget if you can pick it up with your fingers (picker nugget) Nuggets are more rare and usually command a better price than spot gold. If you have any gold related questions email me. be glad to help

Answer 2

Gold ore is the gold as it comes straight from the mine, unrefined and still mixed in with soil, rock and other minerals.

The term gold nuggets was more commonly used during the gold rush before gold mining became industrialized to describe the refined gold. Gold miners would melt the ore down to remove all the impurities themselves and make nuggets out of it which was the more common form to sell it in back then.

These days it is mainly refined by large manufacturers into ingots and bars for resale.

Answer 3

a nugget is a chunk of pur gold, ore is often sandy or little pepples that must be melted into a brick.

Answer 4

Purity and configuration.