Bulk Leach Extractable Gold, more commonly shortened to BLEG is a geochemical sampling/analysis tool used during exploration for gold. It was developed in the early 1980s to address concerns relating to the accurately measuring fine grained gold, and dealing with problems associated with sample heterogeneity.
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79, making it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions. Gold often occurs in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper and palladium. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium.
A large quantity of sample (between 2 and 5kg) is digested or leached with cold sodium cyanide (NaCN) solution (generally 0.1% NaCN), for one to several days (depending on the assay laboratory involved). The gold is dissolved through its formation of a cyanide complex, which is concentrated through the solvent exchange process into an organic solvent and subsequently analyzed. The use of large sample weights and solvent extraction enables low detection limits, as low as 0.1 ppb. The digest is analyzed for Au (0.01 ppb), Cu (0.01 ppm), Ag (0.5 ppb), and depending on situations, for other elements. However, gold values in BLEG are lower than total assays such as those of fire assays, as it analyzes only the fine grained gold fraction and largely ignores coarser and nuggety gold.
Sodium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula NaCN. It is a white, water-soluble solid. Cyanide has a high affinity for metals, which leads to the high toxicity of this salt. Its main application, in gold mining, also exploits its high reactivity toward metals. It is a strong base. When treated with acid, it forms the toxic gas hydrogen cyanide:
Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.
Silver is a chemical element with symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earth's crust in the pure, free elemental form, as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.
If the need arises, a separate split of the original sample is used for pathfinder elements.
Sampling Considerations
BLEG requires the collection of large samples, generally greater than 2kg. It is necessary to collect fine sized material – silt to clay - where the fine flakes of gold will reside. Given their shape, these fine flakes of gold don’t act hydro-dynamically like heavy minerals, and will not settle in the same locations in a stream bed. Where possible, attempts should be made to sample flash flood sites (where finer material concentrates) – overbank deposits.
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay, whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as sediment mixed in suspension with water and soil in a body of water such as a river. It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body, like mudflows from landslides. Silt has a moderate specific area with a typically non-sticky, plastic feel. Silt usually has a floury feel when dry, and a slippery feel when wet. Silt can be visually observed with a hand lens, exhibiting a sparkly appearance. It also can be felt by the tongue as granular when placed on the front teeth.
Clay is a finely-grained natural rock or soil material that combines one or more clay minerals with possible traces of quartz (SiO2), metal oxides (Al2O3, MgO etc.) and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure. Clays are plastic due to particle size and geometry as well as water content, and become hard, brittle and non–plastic upon drying or firing. Depending on the soil's content in which it is found, clay can appear in various colours from white to dull grey or brown to deep orange-red.
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, tropical storm, or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields. Flash floods may occur after the collapse of a natural ice or debris dam, or a human structure such as a man-made dam, as occurred before the Johnstown Flood of 1889. Flash floods are distinguished from regular floods by having a timescale of fewer than six hours between rainfall and the onset of flooding. The water that is temporarily available is often used by plants with rapid germination and short growth cycles and by specially adapted animal life.
BLEG vs Sieving
BLEG is essentially a chemical sieve, designed to focus on the fine grained gold fraction. While many exploration geologists attest to the value of BLEG, some question its value compared to analyzing a simple sieved-out fine grained fraction. BLEG has been tried and tested over 20 years, applied successfully in different climatic settings, provides robust, excellent repeatability of results and has had an important role in discovery of massive Au deposits. However, some comparisons show that fine-grained sieved samples (<75 μm) show comparable results to BLEG, making the more complex process potentially unnecessary. With the exception of BLEGs applicability over a wider range of climatic conditions, the superiority of one method over the other is, at this point, still largely determined by personal preference.
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