Not the atomic structure, but just how to find it, how to acquire it in sufficient quantities to be worthwhile, and what to do with it once you've got it.
My focus was on identifying old Spanish gold source areas in the Eastern United States ~ which have been abandoned for the last 400 years ~ so I could go tap into some of this stuff while it's at $1500 an ounce.
Recently some of that work has paid off in a surprising way ~ and this is not an investment offer. But it did pay off.
Alas, the problem is most of the gold is in the form of a substance called GOLD FLOUR.
As you know gold has one isotope. On the other hand due to its very special characteristics it has very small molecules ~ it is a regular practice to make 2 molecule thick gold films on satellites to protect them from cosmic rays ~
Turns out GOLD FLOUR can be so fine that gold will literally float on water. The Vanderwall forces are so strong at a certain small size that the gold is unable to break through the surface tension of the water at its interface with the atmosphere.
A great deal of the American Midwest is covered with a thin film of GOLD FLOUR rapidly making its way to the center of the Earth ~ and since its deposition some 12,500 years ago it's now anywhere from 6 inches to 18 inches deep!
You can spend some time if you want digging up all the statistical and scientific details regarding this deposition by looking up Comet Hits Canada in 12500 BC.
Good luck. There are some who don't believeit happened but the geological astronomers have found the gold film and traced the diamonds associated with it back to a site in Ontario immediately under the strike or explosion.
Amazing something like that has its own professional detractor group.
Now, back to GOLD FLOUR, this stuff was extracted way back when in Egypt and Arabia, and possibly Anatolia through the use of fresh, greasy animal hides or a substance like paper pulp. Once you've found a site showing a trace all you need to do is divert the surface of the water to a device that knocks the gold to the bottom ~ come back in 10 years and you have a bunch of it that's almost invisible.
I have an idea that the North American Indians managed to mine a vast quantity of gold this way, but how did they do it?
Any ideas how you can manipulate very wet nano particles ('cause that's what they are) so they clump or cluster where they can be extracted with more modern gold mining equipment?
This is the factual basis for the "Jason's fleece" episode in Greek "mythology" (which, in some cases, wasn't all that mythical). It was the lanolin in the wool (combined, of course, with the "high" surface area that the wool fibers made available) that collected the finely divided material.
"Any ideas how you can manipulate very wet nano particles ('cause that's what they are) so they clump or cluster where they can be extracted with more modern gold mining equipment?"
My best guess would be the addition of one or other surfactants, and then blowing air through the resulting solution. The particles "should" adhere to the bubbles, and can be "skimmed off" the surface by a weir. Process is called "flotation". But that summary about exhausts my store of info in the area.
Turns out GOLD FLOUR can be so fine that gold will literally float on water. The Vanderwall forces are so strong at a certain small size that the gold is unable to break through the surface tension of the water at its interface with the atmosphere.
Well, I've seen the gold leaf they use for painting and it is far thinner than aluminum foil. You can make things that aren't supposed to float on water float by gently setting them in the water. This won't work with an anvil.
Now, back to GOLD FLOUR, this stuff was extracted way back when in Egypt and Arabia, and possibly Anatolia through the use of fresh, greasy animal hides or a substance like paper pulp. Once you've found a site showing a trace all you need to do is divert the surface of the water to a device that knocks the gold to the bottom ~ come back in 10 years and you have a bunch of it that's almost invisible.
Why would it be invisible? I would think if you have enough of it, you would see it. Spill a tiny amount of flour on a counter and you can barely see it but pour the whole bag out and you can easily see it.
Why is it only on the East coast? I'm less than 30 minutes from Sutter's mill and they discovered plenty of gold there.