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wop1969

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2008
Messages
177
Location
North Carolina
Well after 2 weeks of reading and turning my brain into jello, I made a run at the AP method on got some good foils, I only did a small batch as to go into this slow.

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Next will come HCI-CL and so on, Hope I dont mess up

I do have a question, I did 2 batches and the end color of the solutions where diffrent, any explanations would be helpfull..

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Wop,

The color difference is likely due to the metals that were dissolved in the mix. The one on the right appears to be more yellowish brown to me, indicating that iron may be in the solution.

Steve
 
hmmmm, that could be possible, I need to remeber what went into that batch. I will keep that in mind next time I am preping thing to go in a batch. Iron=bad Gold=good


Thanks Steve
 
Update:

Here is the AuCl3 after much work, I hope it gives me some gold.
The first few runs are nerve racking as I have no idea if I will get the final product or make a big leadball :)

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lazersteve said:
Wop,

The color difference is likely due to the metals that were dissolved in the mix. The one on the right appears to be more yellowish brown to me, indicating that iron may be in the solution.

Steve

Steve, what should I do to get the iron out and at what time in the proccess should it be done?
 
Hello All,

First post. :D
I've been reading til my head spins. :lol:

I've got 3 oz. of older finger foils that someone else peeled. I thank them.

I put them in AP (2 cups/1 cup ratio), it quickly turned dark green/brown.
After stirring for about an hour, and seeing brown still on the foil, i drained the foils, saving the solution of course. I put AP (6 cup/3 cup ratio) back on them. I know its not an instant remover. After a while they are starting to clean nice nice. :D

How much solution to the oz. of foils before its saturated?
How do i know if its saturated? When/if to replenish with HY. Per.?
How does the temp affect the process? It is 25' F here in NY. :cry:
It got warm when i started it and i saw vapors but its not warm any more.

Also:
I put 1 oz of older traces in AP (4cups/2 cups) in another batch. It quickly went to golden yellow then went to dark green. As i stirred them a little while later i saw very shiny (Nickel?) normal? and gold. Waiting and stirring, i see the traces getting smaller. :)

Is there a link to separate the metals out one at a time? Autodrop? What not to use in this solution?

I can't wait to get my first button of pure gold! The General :twisted: has been waiting since last year! Wondering if it's gonna happen.

Thanks for all the great advice and help. Much needed and welcome.
Keith
 
kmiles412, I would love to answer all of your questions but I am but a baby to this still, I would be afraind that I would say the wronge thing if I was to address any of the questions you posed.
Maybe in a month or two :)

I can comment on one thing, the tempature outside :( its 30 here, a bit warmer but still cold, I still have a good reaction going in my batches even in the cold, I dont know if im am just lucky or it dont matter at 30 degres but I do go out and shake them every few hours, but I do think it is safe to say that the reaction will continue in the cold it just gets slower and will work untill it hits freezing, it would probly stop then :(
 
kmiles412 said:
I've got 3 oz. of older finger foils that someone else peeled. I thank them.

I put them in AP (2 cups/1 cup ratio), it quickly turned dark green/brown.
After stirring for about an hour, and seeing brown still on the foil, i drained the foils, saving the solution of course. I put AP (6 cup/3 cup ratio) back on them. I know its not an instant remover. After a while they are starting to clean nice nice. :D

How much solution to the oz. of foils before its saturated?
How do i know if its saturated? When/if to replenish with HY. Per.?
How does the temp affect the process?

Heres some tips I learned myself and mostly picked up from the Forum (and Steve's videos). In my experience everythign i say works, but im open to correction from other members ;)

1- For that amount of fingers.... just cover them in HCl, with a little extra on top so when you agitate them none will end up uncovered. You don't need much at all.

2- I think you may have put way too much H202 for that amount of fingers. Too much H202 will dissolve the gold. If there is enough copper in the solution, the gold will self drop out as fine black mud.

3- I would set it all up, stir for a few min then let it sit. After an hour or two, go back stir some more. Should see bubbles come out. Then let it sit for a few more hours (rather overnight) and then it should be good. As it is colder now, it may need longer. In the spring when it would be 60-70 in the day and 50 at night i could strip a large amount with none noticeably dissolved (negative stannous, no dropped gold). Key is to not rush it...

4- If it is saturated, the solution is a very dark green. You can add more H202 then if they are still not stripped, but I found water will do just as well to get it going (some pump air through). But from the amounts you said you added to your fingers, I don't think the solution would get fully saturated with copper chloride. Atleast in my experience.

5- Yes, temp will effect it. I just ran a batch when it was below freezing at night and it took 2-3x as long (i didnt watch it as closely) but still worked.
If it is too hot out, there is also a better chance gold may get dissolved faster.
I dont know at what temp HCl freezes, but it is very low. Earler this year, i put refinign aside for duck hunting and one day i checked all my stuff. It was single digits and the HCl was perfectly fine and still works.

Hope that helps a bit, good luck! 8)
 
I had to go away for a few weeks and when I returned my AuCl had a metalic film floating on top, is this the gold?
 

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wop1969 said:
I had to go away for a few weeks and when I returned my AuCl had a metalic film floating on top, is this the gold?
It can be, assuming your gold chloride was ready for precipitation. It's not unusual to see a minor reaction with constituents of air (think SO2, for example). When a solution is free of nitrides, gold is eager to revert back to the elemental form.

What's important is if the solution still tests positive for values. The amount shown appears to be very small, and floating on the surface. Surface tension is keeping in suspension what little is present as elemental gold. Considering gold is 19.3 times heavier than water, it is likely so light you couldn't weigh it even If you could recover the floating material for the purpose. I would recommend you simply precipitate and allow it to mix with the rest of the values. If, by chance, what you see isn't gold, it would be removed in a follow-up refining, assuming that becomes your policy. I recommend it does if you are quality minded. Not really necessary if you're in the game for gold to sell to a refiner.

Harold
 
Thanks Harold. I was worried but low and behold :) I mixed the 2 AuCl batches and poured in the SMB and it worked. It has been a long weeks worth of work to get to this point but here it is, Red mud!! later I will strain it and move forward. Also after I dropped the gold the acid turned clear and I strarted another run with it and it seems work better then the fresh HCL, I have a waste container with copper chloride that has a piece of copper pushing any remaining gold out, once strained I will hook up the power supply and drop the copper and reclaim all the HCL, I suggest this to anyone as it works great and the recycled HCL works awsome and no waste to hide till amnesty day :)

Once more thanks to everyone that has dealt with all my questions :)
 
Here's a little tip that can save you some grief. It's been well discussed, but I think most readers don't grasp the idea, or don't understand the significance.

After you've precipitated your gold, don't put it in a filter. There's no reason to do so, for in order to clean it it must be placed back in a beaker to be washed.

Instead, decant the barren solution, then proceed directly to the washing cycles. After the final rinse, you can force dry the gold right in the beaker, taking care to not allow any to be lost by steam explosions. Swirl the gold frequently so it can't form steam bubbles, then force dry it until no vapors are emitted. When gold has been well washed, it usually will agglomerate into clumps, which are much easier to handle, and you don't leave anything behind in a filter.

By the way, congratulations on a job well done! :wink:

Harold
 
Thanks on the congrat Harold. :)

What a great way to deal with the mud :) I filtered another small batch today and melted it, WHat a pain getting it out of the filter just like you said and I know thier was loss and now I will have to rinse the filter into another batch witch seems a waste of time. I will use the method you described next time for sure.
 
wop1969 said:
Also after I dropped the gold the HCL/CL turned clear and I strarted another run with it and it seems work better then the fresh HCL

Ok like i stated this works great but this solution was HCL/CL befor and now when I droped in a test peice, the gold has desolved into the solution LOL I should have seen that coming. So the jist of it is use reclaimed HCL/PX for getting foils and use reclaimed HCL/CL to desolve the foils Only. :)

Mabey if I let the HCL/CL sit it would gas off the CL and could then be mixed with PX to get foils ?
 
I have an ounce of gold in solution as auric cloride. I am wanting to precipitate out the gold with SMB. Do I need to dilute with water first? All the gold came from closely cut fingers and I don't think that there should be silver in the solution.

Secondly, would anyone recommend how much SMB I should use to precipitate out an ounce of gold?

Muchas gracias!!
 
Ok I am no expert but I have done this once with good success so I will explain the directions I used :)

One thing on SMB it depends on the ammount of AuCl and the gold concentraion in the AuCl, look at my avatar, that is the amount of AuCl these instructions are intended for. I am sure their are variables but all that really matters in the end is that the gold precips :)
as for preciping an ounce ,you should wait for an expert to comment on the water/SMB amounts I describe below, I am almost sure it would take more to precip and ounce. ( I wish that was my only delema) :)

First let the AuCl sit overnight To gas off the CL.
Dilute with water 3 times the amount you have then take 240Ml of water (tap will do) mix in 28 grams of SMB stir till SMB is desolved. Pour in about half the SMB and stir, wait 15 and add the other Half of the SMB solution and stir then let it sit over night to amke sure all the gold is preciped. after the gold precips as redish mud test the AuCl with StCl to see if all the gold is preciped, if not let it sit a few more hours and if it still has gold then do another SMB treatment at half the volume described above.

once you get the gold out filter the left over solution and if it is clear I am preety sure you can re-use ot for the next batch of AuCl with the addition of some more CL.
Lazersteves website has complete videos on this if you want to see it in action befor you try it :)
http://www.goldrecovery.us

Please anyone correct me if I am wrong on any of this :?:
 
what is the best way to remove the washed and dried gold powder out of the beaker (Goodwill coffee pot in my case)? I'm not real mechanical so your practical suggestions are appreciated! :)
 
glorycloud said:
what is the best way to remove the washed and dried gold powder out of the beaker (Goodwill coffee pot in my case)? I'm not real mechanical so your practical suggestions are appreciated! :)
If, while drying, you swirled the gold around to prevent it from sticking to the vessel, it should have clumped up and behaved more or less as a solid.

A great deal depends on how clean the gold was when it precipitated. If yours remains as a fine powder, or if you didn't swirl it as it dried, that may not be the case.

Assuming it did as I described, it should pour right out, leaving little, if anything, behind.

Might be a good idea for you to describe what yours looks like.

Is it stuck to the vessel? Fine particles, not clumped up? Did you force dry the gold by heating the vessel above the boiling point of water?

Harold
 
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