# Nitric Acid Substitute.



## AceWithBass (Jul 25, 2012)

Hello GRF, I've ran into problems scrapping gold.

Nitric Acid is illegal in my country (Denmark) to buy/posses if its in a concentration of more than 50%.

Will 50% be enough for refining, or do i have to find a substitute?

Please help.


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## gold4mike (Jul 25, 2012)

50% will work very well for our processes. For most purposes I dilute 69% to +/- 35%.


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## goldsilverpro (Jul 25, 2012)

Standard 67-70% Nitric is usually used in 2 ways: (1) full strength when making up aqua regia with HCl and (2) diluted 50/50 with distilled water to dissolve silver (or, certain base metals).

(1) For aqua regia, the 50% could be used with little sacrifice in speed.

(2) For the equivalent of 50/50, 70% nitric, use the 50% acid and add 27%, by volume, extra water. For example, you could add 270ml of water to 1000ml of 50% nitric. To make up exactly 1 liter of 50/50, combine 787ml of 50% nitric with 213ml of distilled water.

By the way, gold4mike, when you dilute 70% nitric 50/50, you end up with 41% nitric. I know this doesn't seem to make sense but it is true. This was discussed on this thread:
http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=13858&p=139162&hilit=splash+nitric#p139162


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## gold4mike (Jul 25, 2012)

GSP,

Thank you for the correction - I do remember that thread now that you mention it. 

Chemistry wasn't my strong suit in college!


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## AceWithBass (Jul 25, 2012)

Thats great, time to get on with the adventure!


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## jimdoc (Jul 25, 2012)

AceWithBass said:


> Thats great, time to get on with the adventure!



I hope you did your studying first, especially all the safety aspects.

Jim


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## peter og peter (Jul 26, 2012)

Hi AceWithBass.
I am also a Dane.
Just want to welcome you here.
Have you found a place to buy nitric acid?
Have been looking for it for 6 months now.
Peter


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