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Fantastic video, Sam!

I was amazed that the structure of the flakes is still intact after the silver and basemetals are dissolved. I would never have reckoned this! How long did it take to dissolve Ag and basemetals and what was the estimated temperature? Maybe you said this in the video, but I do not understand every word in fastly spoken english.
 
solar_plasma said:
Fantastic video, Sam!

I was amazed that the structure of the flakes is still intact after the silver and basemetals are dissolved. I would never have reckoned this! How long did it take to dissolve Ag and basemetals and what was the estimated temperature? Maybe you said this in the video, but I do not understand every word in fastly spoken english.
Click to expand...

I remember being able to completely leach some supposed 10K class rings with nitric. These have lots of lettering, emblems, etc., on them. When all the silver and base metals were gone, the rings were dark brown (gold), still in ring form, and you could still read all of the lettering on them. When probed with a glass rod, they crumbled to powder.
 
Hello, excellent video! the best out there imo.

I'm new here and about to start on some high grade plated pins and other connector parts from the 70's.... can't wait to start.
but some questions first:

Since i also have a lot of cicuit boards i want to process, i would like to know what happens to the platinum and other PGM's left in the AR solution during SMB addition and precipitation of the gold. Does it stay in solution, does the SMB push it out as well and is it washed out with the last HCL washes? i can't read about it going out in earlier steps in the text.

how do you separate the PGM's from the silver and copper nitrate?
 
Martijn,
From your questions it looks like you have not even studied the basic principles of recovery and refining, doing so will answer these and a thousand other questions you will have. Hoke's book found in the book section is where you will need to begin; you can also find links to the book under many of the members signature lines.

The book does not cover electronic scrap, but it does cover the basic principles you will need to understand to be able to recover and refine values from most any material even electronic scrap.

You will also want to study the safety section of the forum, an important topic that is a must read and understand is the dealing with the toxic waste, the safety section can also be helpful when working with these deadly gases and the dangers of the chemistry involved with them.

Most of this probably looks fairly simple to you at this point, but there is an awful lot to it, this can be a fairly complicated science, with lots of small details you will need to learn if your going to be able to make what may look very simple work for you.

To try and help with your question, you will most likely not have enough platinum in electronic scrap to even look for it, unless your dealing with tons at a time, depending on what you are working with some palladium is more likely.
Several of the precipitants we use are fairly selective, sodium metabisulfite is pretty much selective for gold, if you had platinum in solution, most of it would still be there, then you could precipitate it after removing the gold, with another precipitant like ammonium chloride, although in this case my personal choice would be to use ferrous sulfate instead of SMB for the gold...

There are a couple of different methods we can use to separate silver from the platinum group metals, depending on what we are working with, and how much of these are combined with the silver, sometimes we may use chemical methods to separate the most of one metal from the other, and use electrolytic silver cell to refine the silver collecting the PGMs as slime of the cell. or if there is not much of the platinum group metals mixed with the silver we may just recover them from the silver cell later.
Sometimes it is a matter of how you wish to go about it, or what you do, or do not want to deal with in the recovery or refining of these metals.

Read Hoke's book it will help you understand the basic principles, it will explain in easy to understand ways how to recover and refine metals, it teaches you basics of the chemistry, but it does not use chemical formulas, it teaches you how metals react, and how some metals can be problems in solution, and how to deal with them, How to tell where your precious metals are when you cannot see them, it will answer these questions you have and many more, this book is like a road map, and compass for a long trip, it can be a very helpful guide into the world of recovery and refining of precious metals.
 
Thanks for the answers and advice! i will certainly read a lot more, and safety is on top of my list.
for instance, i dont know enough about what the unpleasant gases and NOX fumes do when they come in contact with the open air.
Should i build a water vapour air scrubber or do these gases dilute enough with the flow of the exhaust? (fume hood and exhaust setup will be all plastic, venturi fed to keep the fan clear of fumes)

Have been reading a lot though, and good research and understanding all parts of the process is whats been keeping me busy for some time now.
The HN03 and HCL just came in today, stored safe in a plastic container, SMB also came in, still waiting for some chemical beakers and filters for a first small test outdoors.

ton's of reading and to do's before i can start, but i'll search the forum first before bothering y'all again..
 
Martijn,
I am glad you’re going to do the needed research, it is important for your safety and others around you.

This study is so very important, and your willingness to do the work is also important, Your willingness to do the study will give you a better understanding of the dangers involved and how to try and avoid many of them, it can also help you get a better understand the chemistry of recovery and refining.

This study can even help you to live long enough to enjoy some of the gold you get from doing this type of work

NOx is a term used to describe many gases of nitric acid, and its reactions, and the many different combinations of nitrogen and oxygen compounds.
We normally breath nitrogen with some oxygen, but when these two gases combine in different ways than air they can become extremely dangerous to breath, and form deadly pollutants, some are water soluble, and with moisture in the air can create acidic air or acid rains, or even form acids in your lungs.

Some can be scrubbed fairly easily in the proper scrubber, others are very hard to convert to a compound that can be trapped or neutralized in a scrubber, or be broken down to a safer form.


Some are not water-soluble until the pick up another oxygen, some we can see, some we cannot, some we may smell, and some we may not.

In recovery and refining we deal with several different acids, and many different chemical reactions that create many different gases and compounds, we also create many different very toxic compounds with our waste.

It is hard for me to express how extremely dangerous this work can be, we are working with dangerous acids and bases, and metals which can become very toxic in compounds, the chemical reactions can be complex, there are so many different dangers involved in the chemistry and work of recovery and refining of metals.

We do so many very dangerous chemical reactions, and produce many different toxic substances, and deadly gases and compounds as byproducts, even some of the reactions performed in the work of recovery and refining is almost making some possible flammable, or even explosive reactions, which can become extremely dangerous if not done right, or responsibly, to minimize these dangers as much as possible.

Study is the only way you will learn how truly dangerous this work or chemistry really is, and how to do it as safely as possible without harming yourself or others.

The more you study about it, the more you will begin to see these dangers, some are so complex we may not even be able to learn them all with one lifetime of study, that is if we can live even one full lifetime doing this type of work, and do not shorten it when trying to get a little gold.
 
Hi All,
I am not able to understand why water is added,if you add simple Nitric Acid of 70% and heat it will bring the gold to (wet powder form).Can anyone tell what is the significance of adding water as it is added 1:1Nitric acid ratio.Thanks
 
To dissolve silver nitrate, it would become too concentrated and start to crystallize when cooling down. Also weaker nitric actually works faster and dissolves more silver.

Göran
 
You guys have taught me to get results that amazed my local jeweler. Thanks.
now i just started making 14k white (palladium) with silver. Now my question How should i refine the sprues and the clippings. Any advice will be greatly appreciated Thanks Robert Bowman
Allibob95@ hotmail.com
 
What formulation are you using for the white alloy? The ratio's of gold to silver and palladium will effect the best method of recovery.

I have not seen a lot of white gold with silver, more with palladium. When doing chemical stone removal the palladium gold white alloy is so easy to refine because there are no chlorides to clean up.
 

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