What a great sight. In the late 70s I know I read in JEWLERS
KEYSTONE QUARTERLY that in Russia they had synthesized gold @
about 700$ a oz . Never heard another word about it in the
press. Any one remember anything along those lines? Im tired of
being laughed at !! Also , what is lost,changed,or what ever when
melting old gold that requires 50% new mix ? Sure would like a
definitive answer. Thanks Larry Tankersley
Hi Larry,
I do vaguely remember that this had been done (also in the late
70’s). A micro thin (my term) sheet of a base metal was
bombarded with ions… or something like that. The cost of
doing this was laughably expensive compared to the cost of real
gold. Kind of like recovering the gold content from sea water…
might as well just buy some, as it would be cheaper.
I bet I’ve really impressed you with my scientific prowess,
haven’t I??? 
I just wanted to let you know I’ve heard of it
and you aren’t crazy. Or maybe you are crazy, but at least you
were right about this one thing!
Dave
Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio
Charlotte, NC (USA)
dave@sebaste.com
http://www.sebaste.com
Also , what is lost,changed,or what ever when melting old gold that requires 50% new mix ? Sure would like a definitive answer.
Deoxidizers mostly. These are additives to casting alloys that
actively scavenge oxygen from the melt, thereby preventing oxide
inclusions and surface problems in the castings. Generally, they
are designed to slag off as surface dross or dissolve in the
casting flux, so they get lost. Silicon is a commonly used one.
The metal doesn’t disturb the alloy, but scavenges oxygen,
turning, for example, copper oxide back to copper plus silicon
dioxide. The latter, of course, is quartz, and not soluable in
the melt, so it slags out. Zinc will do much the same thing, as
well as simply evaporating to some extent. Each melting cycle of
the alloy destroys more of the deoxidizers, so additions of new
alloy keep it up to functional levels. The other thing that
adding fresh metal does is to keep the general alloy composition
within controllable bounds, since various components of the
alloys are more or less reactive than others. Even with
controlled melting conditions, some copper and zinc, for
example, are likely to oxidize and be lost, dissolving in the
flux each time. Repeated meltings thus reduce the copper and
zinc content of the alloy thus both changing the alloy color and
characteristics, but raising the karat as well. Regular
additions of new alloy to old keep this effect from becoming
significant.
Peter Rowe