Following my challenge to make a copper nugget from first principles using nothing but things I had in my shed and sulphate laden chrysocolla, I now fancy having a go at making a tin nugget from first principles. Thus I turn my attention to panning.

I was down at St Ives and managed to convince myself that the swathes of darkness in the sand were in fact cassiterite. Since the light and dark areas of sand had been separated by the action of the waves and seemed approximately equal in size, I figured I could affect the separation further.

Using a 2L coke bottle I found, I grabbed as much of the dark stuff as possible. On coming home and buggering about with waterlogging the mix and sitting it on the washing machine, I observed no concentration whatsoever. I playead around with swirling the mix on an enamel plate and again, no real separation. I have no doubt that I have labelled the dark stuff wrongly, but it does occur concentrated on beaches, so I gather.

I would also consider adit-tin as a source. I have set myself the challenge of producing a half decent nugget.

I assume a fair few of you lot have done as well, or at least have got to a concentrated SnO2 product.

Any hints or experiences would be much appreciated.

NB:- Rather than smelting, which was not that successful last time, I plan to reduce the tin oxide using a tin thermite reaction.... which should be very vigourous and produce a very high grade product....assuming it doesn't get sprayed all around the garden....

Cheers, Stu

The black sand you refer to is nothing more than coal. simple test: rub it between your fingers and see how black they get.
For tin on the beach the best place is Perranporth after a long period of north wind

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you will be amazed how much stuff you will need to get a small amount of tin (gwithin is quite good sometimes) you should be able to use a gold pan if your carfull! have fun 😉

Spitfire, am I right in thinking that coal was dumped over the side of boats at high tide like at Trebarwith Strand? Otherwise what is coal doing there? Culm measure outlier?

I have definately seen big stripes at Portheras as well as St Agnes and Perranporth.....

I've concentrated tin from coarse sand/fragmented rock in an old cement mixer with the paddles taken out and the bolt holes bunged up.
Six old steel balls from a ball mill chucked in for grinding and a hosepipe running water into the drum to wash off the waste. A fine balance between angle of drum and water flow is easily attained with a little ingenuity. I used a road pin to hold the hose in position and adapted the tilting mechanism to hold the drum at a good angle. It's surprising how efficient this can be.
I always wanted to try a stream in breage using this method. You can pan the stuff out on a dinner plate, as well as lots of lead shot from shotguns.
I borrowed an electric muffle furnace and used a ceramic crucible with the 'charge' of cassiterite and activated charcoal well mixed and a 'lid' of about an inch of charcoal on top.
Set furnace for 1500 C and went away for forty minutes or so. A quick tap and a stir of the mix and then run the tin out into ana piece of angle iron. Crushing and panning the slags got a few small beads afterward too. :thumbsup:

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There are several reasons for coal being on a beach. One you have mentioned then there is the break-up of the countless wrecks that are off our shore. The coal you have found at St Ives may have washed down from the power station at Hayle or spillage from the millions of tons that were landed at that port

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Interesting. I forgot to note that halfway along St Ives Porthmeor (not the other one near Zennor) there is a flow of water coming out of the cliff. The dark matter appears to be only present in this stream. I would say washed out of the adit. I suppose it could actually be "country rock" as the killas and quartz sand of the beach are totally different.

Anyway, I wonder if when you smelt/reduce the oxide, if there is silica present, I assume this floats as a slag.....

I'm not 100% sure that silica gets reduced to silicon when you smelt a mixture of sand with tin oxide. I know that when you do a thermite reaction it does.

Here is an interesting site for all you reducers/pyros! :thumbsup:

http://amazingrust.com/experiments/how_to/Thermite_pics-videos.html