Dropping Au and PGMs with Cu (sort of affirmation question)

[ZiegenSauger]

Fellow enthusiasts,

I consistently use Cu to drop Ag and very successfully, however I tried twice for precious metals upper in the scale (please ignore stock pot for this question since my "waste" recovering and treatment works fine).

I have a beaker where I first collect the solution after the gold is dropped. With time, I started to use this leftover solution as a "dumpster" for a waste or similar bits and bobs of Au I randomly collect for some random reason.

When it accumulated certain volume, I put this solution for treatment.

During the process, Stannous was positive for An but clearly low concentration. I decided to move the "cleaner" pregnant solution a smaller beaker and continued to dump flakes from circuits boards and similar. After a time again I moved on to prepare the solution for the first Au drop. During boils and other treatments, I split the material in two and both chunks continued to show Stannous positive for An (bit darker or more concentrated than before).

At the very end, when crystal clean contaminated solution was ready for SMB. At this point the Stannous showed a very thin (apparent) concentration of Pt.

I stopped right there and dropped a clean Cu bar and set aside. While checking today, there was a very dark grey sand dropping after I shook the bar. The amount collected is perceived to be my estimate of An present is the solution ( 1g < Au < 4g ).

Here is the silly question for my comfort of mind: all of the references to this process I can find throughout the forum state that recovering precious metals with Cu is a solid and trustworthy process to recover whatever is above Cu.

I used a solid, brand new, shining Cu bar that came sealed from the store (or for certain it was not contaminated). Can I have a high percentage of certainty that this is something from the target group of precious metals? The solution goes to stock pot and the dropping goes to the "to be refined" flask. I just don't want to put there something I have suspicious about. I am insecure since I never succeeded in recover other metal than Ag (not considering the stock pot). This is the first intentional time I am doing this and not secure at all.

Thnx and sorry for the silly and repetitive question, I need like moral support.

Regards

PH

 

[Yggdrasil]

Fellow enthusiasts,

I consistently use Cu to drop Ag and very successfully, however I tried twice for precious metals upper in the scale (please ignore stock pot for this question since my "waste" recovering and treatment works fine).

I have a beaker where I first collect the solution after the gold is dropped. With time, I started to use this leftover solution as a "dumpster" for a waste or similar bits and bobs of Au I randomly collect for some random reason.

When it accumulated certain volume, I put this solution for treatment.

During the process, Stannous was positive for An but clearly low concentration. I decided to move the "cleaner" pregnant solution a smaller beaker and continued to dump flakes from circuits boards and similar. After a time again I moved on to prepare the solution for the first Au drop. During boils and other treatments, I split the material in two and both chunks continued to show Stannous positive for An (bit darker or more concentrated than before).

At the very end, when crystal clean contaminated solution was ready for SMB. At this point the Stannous showed a very thin (apparent) concentration of Pt.

I stopped right there and dropped a clean Cu bar and set aside. While checking today, there was a very dark grey sand dropping after I shook the bar. The amount collected is perceived to be my estimate of An present is the solution ( 1g < Au < 4g ).

Here is the silly question for my comfort of mind: all of the references to this process I can find throughout the forum state that recovering precious metals with Cu is a solid and trustworthy process to recover whatever is above Cu.

I used a solid, brand new, shining Cu bar that came sealed from the store (or for certain it was not contaminated). Can I have a high percentage of certainty that this is something from the target group of precious metals? The solution goes to stock pot and the dropping goes to the "to be refined" flask. I just don't want to put there something I have suspicious about. I am insecure since I never succeeded in recover other metal than Ag (not considering the stock pot). This is the first intentional time I am doing this and not secure at all.

Thnx and sorry for the silly and repetitive question, I need like moral support.

Regards

PH

I'm a bit puzzled by your notation An not Au.

I stopped right there and dropped a clean Cu bar and set aside. While checking today, there was a very dark grey sand dropping after I shook the bar. The amount collected is perceived to be my estimate of An present is the solution ( 1g < Au < 4g ).

Besides that your plan of dropping it with Cu bar is quite sound,
how did you come to the conclusion as to Pt in solution when you already have Au in there?
What material are your feed stock?

 

[ZiegenSauger]

I'm a bit puzzled by your notation An not Au.


Besides that your plan of dropping it with Cu bar is quite sound,
how did you come to the conclusion as to Pt in solution when you already have Au in there?
What material are your feed stock?

Thank Yagg, thank you very much indeed for your reply!

"I'm a bit puzzled by your notation An not Au": just a typo (my autocorrect sucks).

"Besides that your plan of dropping it with Cu bar is quite sound,
how did you come to the conclusion as to Pt in solution when you already have Au in there?
What material are your feed stock?"

The Stannous test result: gold concentration was estimated larger than any other precious metal. When I missed the two parts, for some reason the test did not show Au, only a dim presence of Pt (even though I was expecting traces of Pd).

All source was eWaste: pins, circuit board clips, some cable connector. I also used powder from previous Au recover: I cleaned and renewed the workstation and the second layer was cardboard from moving boxes with spills accumulated over last 6 years (all spills from Au refining phase).

Cheers!

 

[ZiegenSauger]

Thank Yagg, thank you very much indeed for your reply!

"I'm a bit puzzled by your notation An not Au": just a typo (my autocorrect sucks).

"Besides that your plan of dropping it with Cu bar is quite sound,
how did you come to the conclusion as to Pt in solution when you already have Au in there?
What material are your feed stock?"

The Stannous test result: gold concentration was estimated larger than any other precious metal. When I missed the two parts, for some reason the test did not show Au, only a dim presence of Pt (even though I was expecting traces of Pd).

All source was eWaste: pins, circuit board clips, some cable connector. I also used powder from previous Au recover: I cleaned and renewed the workstation and the second layer was cardboard from moving boxes with spills accumulated over last 6 years (all spills from Au refining phase).

Cheers!

Hello mates,

Just to close this one, I finished up with two filter papers with material to be refined.
The first, little leftover gold flakes and also a thin layer with more flakes mixed.
The second one with the droppings from the Cu recovery: perfect color, perfect texture and estimated weight.
The Cu process ran for 5 days.
So this material is now on Acqua Regia (this is the late latin script how this should be written ).
Since the material should Au, traces of PGM and dirt, a beautiful cloudy yellow color is cooking.
Can't wait to filter.
This is a ~2 grammer so possibly I will store in a sealed flask.

Cheers mates
See you next