Two jobs: get the black sand out, and get it dry. Both protect you from the most common argument in this trade — a disagreement about what the scale said.
Magnet out the magnetite, pan or snuffer the rest, dry it completely, and weigh it yourself before it ships. Do not polish, tumble or acid-treat anything — especially not nuggets.
Black sand is mostly magnetite and hematite. It is dense, it looks a bit like fine gold in a pan, and no buyer pays a cent for it. Leaving it in inflates your own scale reading and nothing else.
This one costs sellers money constantly. Water trapped among fine gold reads as weight on your scale and is gone by the time anyone else weighs it. You then believe you were shorted, and the buyer believes you are mistaken, and both of you are looking at real numbers.
Air-dry on paper, or warm gently — low heat, no flame. Then weigh, and write the figure down.
Melting a good nugget can cut its value by a third or more, and it is completely irreversible.
Optional, but it pays. A set of classifier screens separates your lot into grades in a few minutes, and coarse gold earns a higher rate than fine gold. Sold as one undifferentiated pile, your best material gets averaged down.
Record the dry weight before you ship, and keep the receipt from the carrier. Any honest buyer will confirm a weight that matches yours — and if you are dealing with someone who films intake, you can simply watch the scale.
A magnet takes out the magnetite, which is most of it. Work through a plastic bag so the sand releases cleanly instead of clinging to the magnet. What remains is usually hematite and garnet, which a careful pan or a snuffer bottle will separate.
No, not for selling. Acid treatment is dangerous, it can strip the natural surface that gives nuggets their value, and it does nothing a buyer will pay you extra for. Rinse, dry, and stop there.
Yes, and that is exactly the problem. Trapped moisture reads on your scale and evaporates before the buyer weighs it, so the two figures disagree and the conversation turns into a dispute. Dry it thoroughly first.
With us, yes — tell us up front and we separate it on camera as part of intake. Many mail-in buyers will not accept concentrates at all, so check before shipping anywhere else.
Never. Natural texture is part of what a collector pays for on a nugget, and polishing it off permanently removes value. Rinse loose dirt and leave the surface alone.
Clean or not — we handle separation on camera. Free insured shipping both ways.
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