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BUTYL DIGLYME

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Paige

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
Messages
143
Location
Republic of Texas
I am ordering the ($63 per gallon) 5 gallon minimum of BDG from Ferro for pure gold extraction. If you do everything Harold_V set out for you in "Shining gold", you should be able to get to 9999+.

You will need a separatory funnel.

Will sell at my cost to members before selling on eBay.

May need a metal container; will ask Lazersteve.

Cost will be: $16 per quart
shipping to me,
shipping to you,
proper container,
any taxes

Will sell 13 quarts.

PM if interested.

Will sell at my cost, rounded.

First come first served. Will confirm total before shippping. Paypal add 3% or 4%. No credit cards. Perfer cash, well wrapped.

Paige
 
Getting pure gold (shining) :arrow: http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=325&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=getting+pure+gold+shin

It has everything to do with how you're refining.

There are NO shortcuts. If you want pure gold, you MUST follow accepted practice. Remember, those that went before us have gone through this time and again----and have perfected a process that will yield good quality------so if you're interested in achieving that level, follow instructions that are at your disposal. Don't experiment-----leave that for others with time on their hands that are content to re-invent the wheel. This is particularly important for you, considering you're trying to establish a refining service.

Depending on what you're starting with, you may have a hard time achieving a good level of purity the first time through. That's to be expected. Part of the problem is mechanical drag-down, where you're working with very heavily contaminated solutions, part of which follow the gold. They're not always easy to wash out, even when boiling with HCL.

My advice to you is this:

Process your gold the first time, using conventional means. Allow as little in the way of contaminations (metals) as is humanely possible, to be included with the gold. Use only clean vessels. Wash them well between operations-----and use BonAmi cleanser if necessary to remove stubborn stains. Do not use other cleansers, for they scratch the glass. Filter before precipitating, and insure that the filter does not allow particulate matter to pass. If it does, re-filter, or go to a better filter grade. A Whatman #2 does an outstanding job for first refined metals, although they are not cheap. I used them exclusively for filtering first run gold chloride. I felt they were worth the extra money. At all times, keep your beaker covered with a watch glass of appropriate size, to prevent contamination from other sources.

Precipitate your gold using conventional methods, collect it and wash it well. It's best to use a precipitant that does not add contamination. I preferred SO2, but there are others that work equally as well, I'm sure.

First wash should be in boiling HCL and tap water. Boil for a prolonged period of time. Take up the solution with tap water, decant after the gold has settled, then rinse with tap water, which should again be brought to a boil. After it has boiled for a period of time, add more tap water to cool the lot, then decant as before. Rinse again, and do it until the wash water comes off clear. Next, wash the gold with ammonium hydroxide and tap water. Heat it until it boils. You'll notice that the solution gets discolored. How much is determined by how dirty your gold was when you started. The ammonia evaporates fairly quickly, so you can't boil very long. Add tap water to cool, decant, and follow up with a tap water rinse, again, boiling the water. Add tap water to cool, then decant. You now repeat the HCL and tap water wash. You'll be amazed that suddenly more contaminants will come off. Boil well, add water to cool, decant, repeat the water rinse, decant, then, and this is important-------start the refining process all over again by dissolving the well washed gold powder in aqua regia. I'll talk about that in a minute, but these are indicators you should have observed along the way, aside from the fact that you could see contaminants being washed from your gold powder.

The gold powder, which started out quite dark, is now much lighter in color.

It may have been rather loose and flocculent, but now is eager to agglomerate, so it forms lumps and settles quickly.

While these instructions sound like a lot of wasted time, when you process what you think is pure gold, you'll see evidence in the remaining solutions that it was not. The evidence of which I speak will be in your solution when you've extracted the gold for a second time. It's a lot of work which is why I re-refined my gold in large lots, often as much as 200 ounces at each refining, so the time spent yielded a large return.

When you precipitate for a second time, one of the things that you can do to help eliminate unwanted elements is to use a different precipitant than the first time. I never bothered with that, but it's good advice if you're fighting with a given contaminant and can't get rid of it by other means. That was never a problem for me.

Wash the gold powder the second refining by the same methods and sequences as the first refining. Make sure all your equipment is scrupulously clean. Force dry the gold when it's washed by heating the beaker at a very low heat for a long period of time. Avoid allowing the beaker to achieve boiling temperature---you get minor steam explosions that blow gold out of the container. As the gold dries, it's a good idea to swish it around the beaker occasionally, which prevents the gold from bonding to the beaker. The residual matter in water tends to form around the gold and bond it to the beaker. While it's a contaminant of sorts, it does NOT alloy with your gold, so it is not a source of lowering the fineness unless you have strange elements in your water. For me, it was not a problem.

Once dry, you can then melt your gold. A clean, never used for anything but pure gold, dish can be used. It should be covered with a coating of borax, but nothing else. DO NOT USE ANY SODA ASH. If there are any oxides present, they'll be reduced and absorbed by the molten gold instead of locked in the flux.

Your torch should be cleaned of loose crud before melting your gold. Run fine abrasive cloth over it until it's very clean, then wipe it down with a damp cloth to remove any traces of dust. Think clean every inch of the operation-----otherwise you undo all the hard work you've done getting your gold pure.

Your other option is to operate a small gold cell, but you must have several ounces of pure gold for the electrolyte.. That is likely not a viable choice for you at this point in time.

Harold


How to clean gold. :arrow: http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=744
 
Thank you very much. The reading material is greatly appreciated.
I usually never refine my gold a second time. I would end up with a purity of 98% to 98.8%.....which I would sell and would be paid based at that purity ( % X spot price) .
My 1%+ impurity is usually copper , zinc, lead , nickel and iron.
I never go through the final steps because I have noticed that at every stage of process, there is a small loss...hence the lesser the stages the better.
It must be great getting 99.99% purity , but I am not sure what the economic advantages are , unless you are keeping the metal.
Picture shows 98.5% .
:)
 

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You are correct in your thinking from my point of view.

I would end up with a purity of 98% to 98.8%.....which I would sell and would be paid based at that purity ( % X spot price) .

Their are several ways to approach the matter. For some of the gentlemen it is a life long business of refining. They tend to have a passion for the excellence of the art . For others it is the money factor. Then for the others it is a little of all the above. I guess for me it's the thrill of the chemistry being as how i have always been a sucker for science. Nothing wrong with any of the above mentioned. Just all depends on what level of self satisfaction one is looking for.
 
Yes...I agree.
In the economic pursuits , one tends to overlook the enthusiasm , the thrill and the passion of the science. I used to be in this category , however....economics have caught up with me.
:)

Point to note: I have done recovery in one process and did come up with 99.99% on the single pass , but this was on a lab scale . Yield was 27 grams.
Fairly difficult to duplicate on a larger scale.
 
aflacglobal said:
Force dry the gold when it's washed by heating the beaker at a very low heat for a long period of time. Avoid allowing the beaker to achieve boiling temperature---you get minor steam explosions that blow gold out of the container.
I used to take the filtrate from the filter, drop it on a ceramic plate, pour on some Methanol and light it. That dried it enough that you could further dry without any steam explosions.
 
I would like to buy about 1 gallon of butyl diglyme in order to start experimenting with it for gold refining. Is anyone here able to sell it to me? I can pay via pay pal. thank you.
 
I would just like to advise you that no well informed member in their right mind would just fill up a gallon bottle with Butyl Diglyme and mail it off to you.

There are too many hazards associated with shipping chemicals and unless one spends the time and energy doing the paperwork and procuring the packaging to do it properly it is unadvisable.

Maybe if you live close enough to arrange a pick up from someone that is different, but shipping makes this quite risky. Why don't you give an idea where you live so someone may be able to help you.
 
Hi, Bob Noble here do you have any BD left? Mine was discarded by mistake, so I would like to purchase some.
 
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