Inquarting = black flecks in gold???

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Foggy

Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2017
Messages
8
Hi guys. I just finished inquarting my gold with copper (my first ever attempt at gold refining!). I cleaned and smelted the metal in a graphite crucible using a ceramic/Propane fueled furnace, and poured it into water. The metal has some flecks of black in it which doesn't wash off. Pictures attached.

Is this normal (or will it be removed during the refining process)?

Any help is appreciated :D
Thanks, - Mike.

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It's certainly a good start Foggy. Welcome to the forum.

I would recommend though that you don't melt the inquarted product but refine it first. Its a lot easier to refine it in small particles than one big lump.

To answer your question the simple answer is yes the refining process will get rid of all the non gold and give you a clean sample assuming of course you do it correctly.

Jon
 
Hi Jon,

Thank you for that. Yes I have all the materials needed for full refining. Watched lots of videos and done a lot of reading. I just didn't know if the black was normal or not.

Thanks again, - Mike.
 
Hi foggy.
As Jon said it shouldn’t get carried through to your finished product and I’m guessing its a little smear of graphite. One point to note is that with inquarting it’s better to use silver if you can as it uses less acid and if you are refining carat scrap you eventually get more silver for free and it’s simple to recover by simply cementing the silver out using copper ready for the next batch.
 
Mike, what kind of material are you refining? Ewaste, karat gold, something else?

Inquarting and melting your material may be necessary for karat gold with high silver content, but may not be needed with ewaste. Tell us more about what you're dealing with and we may be able to help more.

Dave
 
Hi guys,

I am refining carat gold from a few gold chains I've been given over the years. I looked everywhere for an old sterling silver spoon/jewellery but I didn't have any, hence the use of copper. I am aware it will require 4 times the amount of nitric, but oh well! I only briefly looked over the silver recovery process. Am I right in saying that placing copper into the blue fluid will cement out the silver, then it's simply a matter of melting the cement down which can then be used for future inquarting?
 
Can I just add that there is no need to melt the cement silver just keep it as is dry ready for future use.
 
Yes, you can keep cemented silver as a powder or melted down. It's all silver.

Going back to the black spots, I would assume it is copper oxide and that it will dissolve in the nitric acid. Jewelers call it "fire scale", it forms whenever the silver or gold alloy is heated. It is usually removed with acids before a jewellery piece is finished.

Göran
 
Thank you everyone for your tips and advice. You've all helped me out a lot, even beyond my original question. What a great community to be a part of 8). - Mike.
 
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