So I’m using the Clorox method over placer and I’m running into problems. Any answers are appreciated greatly.

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Mmbullion1776

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Apr 3, 2019
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So I guess this will be my introduction post. I’m a young man trying to get into the hobby/business of refining. I’ve been stacking for over a year and researching refining for an equal amount of time. Now on to my problems..
I decided to try the Clorox method first with a small amount of placer gold. 3 grams to be exact. I’m greatly regretting it now though as it has been 2 days and it doesn’t look like I have any gold in solution. I have added minimal bleach to my HCL every few hours to try and reduce volume of waste. I am not using heat. (This might be my problem). I filterd my solution today to remove the salt from the bottom, it appears the placer has turned a dark grey almost black I will post a picture. I kept my solution and dried my material and weighed it now it weighs 2.5 grams instead. I’m thinking about just scrapping this and investing in the proper nitric acid. Thanks guys hope I provided adequate information I really try to do my research.
 

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HCl and bleach just doesn't have the power to dissolve 'chunky' stuff... its great for high surface area items like foils and sponge... not so good for things like nuggets, bonding wires, or karat gold.
 
Thanks for the reply. I think I agree that’s the conclusion I have come to. Any idea why it turned black is that just oxide? It’s weird cause there is still specs of gold coming through on the black? There is .5 grams in solution I’m going to try and drop it out tomorrow.
 
As the former poster stated Hcl bleach is not ideal for chunkier material such as karat scrap or placer gold, you have dissolved some of your gold so test your solution with stannous but you will need bigger volumes of Reagan’s to dissolve it all so you could try Hcl and a nitrate to make poormans AR which should do the trick.
 
So here’s an update. I filtered my solution and got back my unreacted material. I got 2 out of three grams back. Some of it is purple. I smashed it with a hammer and it gets a gold shine very strange. Also the solution I filtered I decided to try and drop and it worked. Just waiting for it to settle.
 
Are you using scented or any type of bleach that is anything other than sodium hypochlorite? Sometimes it will have a small amount of hydroxide added.

Is that a beaker or a jar?
 
snoman701 said:
Are you using scented or any type of bleach that is anything other than sodium hypochlorite? Sometimes it will have a small amount of hydroxide added.

Is that a beaker or a jar?


No Lowe’s industrial bleach. Yes I know cringe at my glass jar. It’s all I can really afford right now. I have taught myself some valuable lessons this time. I’m buying real glass ware and actual reagents. It seems much safer and easier to spend the money. Thanks for all your help guys I’ll be posting more.
 
You can use Pyrex glass, measuring jugs etc,for reactions but be careful with thermal shock as if you are going to use either poormans or straight AR you will need heat to drive the reactions, whichever method you use be careful of the fumes as they are highly toxic and corrosive so do it outside with the wind at your back at least.
 
Just wanted to update you guys! So everything worked out for the most part, I learned a lot which is what I was aiming for. I learned why we need proper equipment, chemicals, and techniques. I also learned why inquartation is necessary. I managed to refine some gold so I am very happy. I’ve decided to take some time and invest in the proper safety equipment, chemicals, and glassware. I appreciate you guys coming on my post and helping me. I’m such a noob but I am really passionate and ready to learn so I am going to stick with this.
Here is a picture of what I got. I had a hard time melting the mini button with map gas alone on cast iron that was a waste of money but I am still happy as a clam.
 

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So am I correct in thinking that hcl and bleach will work great on my now super clean gold in my filters
 
Mmbullion1776 said:
So here’s an update. I filtered my solution and got back my unreacted material. I got 2 out of three grams back. Some of it is purple. I smashed it with a hammer and it gets a gold shine very strange. Also the solution I filtered I decided to try and drop and it worked. Just waiting for it to settle.
Old thread but...

Placer gold often contains quite a lot of silver. Dissolving this straight into a HCl + clorox would form silver chloride on some grains. Silver chloride turns purple in sunlight.
Smashing the grain removes the silver chloride and the golden color appears again.

That is my guess on why some grains turned black or purple.

Göran
 
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