# alternative to nitric acid



## dickydonk (Sep 7, 2016)

I've asked this question within another thread I started but most involve became side tracked. So my question is when recovering gold from incinerated ic/ flat packs is there any alternative to nitric acid as I can't buy it here in Ireland 
Thanks


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## Refining Rick (Sep 7, 2016)

Sodium nitrate.


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## Topher_osAUrus (Sep 7, 2016)

Well, your last thread got sidetracked because of the legal question that was raised.

But, if I myself couldn't get nitric, here in the US.. I would go to a local tool store, farm store, or another place that has lots of fertilizer options.

I would then look for a fertilizer called nitrate of soda (sodium nitrate, NaNO3).

If i could not find that, I would try to find a stump killer that has a composition of potassium nitrate (KNO3)

Then I would try to find sulfuric acid (battery acid [low concentration of H2SO4] or drain cleaner thats in a bottle, inside its own bag. [its 98% sulfuric]) to make my own, with lazersteves cold method. Then after much study, I may take the leap to distill my own, should I have the proper safety setup (..I, do, but.. I'm being hypothetical here..)
Or-
Research on using the metal nitrate salt directly with HCl (search "poor man ar")

This is if for some reason I could not in any way, shape, or form get good nitric, which would be terrible...


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## goldenhaha (Sep 7, 2016)

Topher_osAUrus said:


> Well, your last thread got sidetracked because of the legal question that was raised.
> 
> But, if I myself couldn't get nitric, here in the US.. I would go to a local tool store, farm store, or another place that has lots of fertilizer options.
> 
> ...



Its all outlined above. There are work arounds to get from point A to point B. The first thing is knowing what acids and such you can get in your country. Knowing that people on the forum can help you.

One thing you need to understand is the suggested way of doing things might be a slow process compared to doing the steps with the right chemicals. It may take a little longer to get it done but it will get it done.

Patience is needed in the recovery of gold and other precious metals from escrap or any precious metal scrap.
I will say it again patience is the key. Patience is the key.

Don't get in a hurry take your time. The forum needs to know what is available to you so they can give you some guidance on what to do.

What can you go buy at the store? Lets make a list.

You need some kind of nitrate. Nitrate of soda as in fertilizer that is sodium nitrate or stump remover that is potassium nitrate.

Can you buy some battery electrolyte at the auto parts place?

Drain cleaner at the hardware store? 

As you can see there are many questions that you need to answer.

Don't know why justinhcase brought up the what he did in your other post. The internet is at your finger tips. There are plenty of other sites that tell you how to make nitric acid. You can do a search on the net and find an alternative for nitric acid.


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## kernels (Sep 7, 2016)

Also worth asking whether you want the Nitric acid to dissolve away base metals, or only to refine the gold at the end. If you are wanting to dissolve away a lot of base metals, then you really need reasonably concentrated Nitric acid, if you are just wanting to refine some foils, the PMAR or even bleach will do the job.


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## dickydonk (Sep 8, 2016)

Topher_osAUrus said:


> Well, your last thread got sidetracked because of the legal question that was raised.
> 
> But, if I myself couldn't get nitric, here in the US.. I would go to a local tool store, farm store, or another place that has lots of fertilizer options.
> 
> ...


thanks for the answer this is exactly the sort of answer I was looking for. thanks to all who replied


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## goldenhaha (Sep 8, 2016)

Just wanted to add. Are you looking to remove base metals first or straight to a nitric acid substitute?
Straight to nitric acid and you could possibly run into problems. 

Just wondering in you know what a base metal is? Do you know how tin reacts to nitric acid ? Not wanting to beat up on you but you need to slow down and do some reading.

Hit the search button above and type in tin in nitric acid.
I'm not going to tell you what it produces but if you hit the search button you will learn Do a search on Reno Chris and he will give you a way to deal with it


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