Scrap Used
*CPU processors
*PCB trimmings
*Gold plated pins
(Trash in trash out)
1. I soaked the scrap in AP solution for 2mths because I didn't make it strong and didn't want to dissolve gold.
2. 2mths later the scrap struck together I broke it apart and made a new AP solution and agitated once for a few days.
3. I strained the scrap through kitchen strainers and set it aside.
(Most of your gold could still be in the scrap).
4. I then filtered and got a grey sludge mixed with a lot of gold foils so I washed it in HCL a few times with the filters also, then with water, I tested it with stannous and it was negative.
I still had some grey muck mixed with foils so I thought it was the filter so I let it sit in HCL+ H2O2 to cut down on it.
(Which could now have put some gold in solution)
5. I filtered again and just got grey muck with few gold particles I tested the water again and it was still negative. This is where I am right now.
What I wanna know
*How to get gold from all the muck
My stannous should be good because it was bought and opened a few days later.
GoldrecoveryNoob,
Ok so you have made a mess, and want to know how to get gold out of this "Muck"
You also asked for some advice, I can only speak for myself, and how I would deal with this.
Well, I would put all of the "Muck" in one bucket along with a bar of clean copper, with a lid, store in a safe place away from children, pets....
I would not be very concerned about recovering the gold from this mess, although we can get to that point later.
How much time do you want to spend learning how to get gold from doing things you do not understand making a mess from mixing acids and metals, working with dangers you do not understand?
Is this tiny amount of gold in the trash "Muck" worth the health of your family? How much time would you spend chasing your tail after it?
That time would be better spent educating yourself, Gaining an understanding and learning a skill, and learning how to recover and even refine these precious metals.
Now I would start with learning to deal with waste, basically, the toxic trash like you have in your bucket.
Study, dealing with waste in the safety section, while your safely stored bucket of Muck is doing its chemistry. The time spent in this study will help you gain an understanding of the chemistry we will use to recover your gold foils, and learn how to deal with the toxic solution...
I gave you the first step, I would take on a long journey of learning this skill, if you decide to follow my footsteps, then after you catch up, we can discuss more steps along the journey...
You can take pictures and we can then discuss further steps that we can take...
I would put away the acids and chemicals, for the time being, we have a lot of things we need to do, to begin preparing for this long journey, we do not want to buy anything we do not need, we can collect scrap but we must learn more of how to prepare it for recovery, we do not want to buy anything including scrap we do not know the value of, we will probably at first try and collect a scrap material like memory fingers we can begin to learn with, which we can save up for use later in the journey.
Get a copy of Hoke's book we will need to refer to it as we learn more.