First off I'm a newbie so bare with me here.
The other day I finally decided to process some of the waste from My exploits in electronic scrap gold recovery. I used the copper chloride or "AP" process, using HCl and H2O2 to dissolve the base metals and free up the gold. All waste was poured into a 5gal bucket to which I added a bunch of bare copper and let it bubble for a few months to cement out remaining PMs, then I removed the air pump and let settle for another month before decanting and collecting the grayish white sludge at the bottom. I assume the bulk of the sludge is AgCl but at the very bottom of the collection beaker is a dark black powder (gold powder?) and I can still see flakes of gold. I intend on converting the AgCl to metallic form using the lye and sugar method but before I do is there a simi easy way to separate the AgCl from the other material? I was thinking about dissolving the AgCl in Ammonia and filtering to remove the "other crap" but I've read this can form a touch sensitive explosive, which I'd rather stay away from no matter how rare it might be. My other idea is to continue with the lye/sugar method and once I've gotten "contaminated" metallic silver dissolving it in Nitric and filtering out what ever doesn't dissolve. Any ideas/Help would be much appreciated.
The other day I finally decided to process some of the waste from My exploits in electronic scrap gold recovery. I used the copper chloride or "AP" process, using HCl and H2O2 to dissolve the base metals and free up the gold. All waste was poured into a 5gal bucket to which I added a bunch of bare copper and let it bubble for a few months to cement out remaining PMs, then I removed the air pump and let settle for another month before decanting and collecting the grayish white sludge at the bottom. I assume the bulk of the sludge is AgCl but at the very bottom of the collection beaker is a dark black powder (gold powder?) and I can still see flakes of gold. I intend on converting the AgCl to metallic form using the lye and sugar method but before I do is there a simi easy way to separate the AgCl from the other material? I was thinking about dissolving the AgCl in Ammonia and filtering to remove the "other crap" but I've read this can form a touch sensitive explosive, which I'd rather stay away from no matter how rare it might be. My other idea is to continue with the lye/sugar method and once I've gotten "contaminated" metallic silver dissolving it in Nitric and filtering out what ever doesn't dissolve. Any ideas/Help would be much appreciated.