# Dissolve Iron, gold, and other precious metal in AR reactor



## alb320 (Aug 20, 2008)

Hi guys...
I'm new for this forum, but I'm reading you sice some months.
I have order my first AR reactor for dissolve some Kg of Iron then contains gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rodium.
For do this, I have to:
Melt my iron and make little balls of 2 mm.
Put it in Ar reactor with AR.
Heat solution, but at what temperature?

Is correct this metod?

Thank you


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## Lino1406 (Aug 22, 2008)

gentle boiling


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 22, 2008)

May I ask what the source of this mixture is? I have rarely seen iron associated with all those metals.


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## Harold_V (Aug 22, 2008)

goldsilverpro said:


> This same procedure works with copper or any other base metal. I hope this wasn't too confusing.



That's the exact process I've spoken of when using AR to separate values from base metals when there are few or no other options. It works very well, especially if your timing is good and the bulk of base metals are eliminated before dissolving the values. 

Using this process without stannous chloride at the ready can prove to be a mistake, especially if the base metal in question is iron. 

Harold


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## alb320 (Aug 26, 2008)

Thank you guys!!
This iron is a product then a little foundry put in rubbish. This company recover preciuos metal but only by fournaces, there isn't anything of chemistry.
My Ar reactor will arrive in september... I will test this process as soon as possible.

Thank you!!!!
Alb320


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 26, 2008)

Your right, Harold. Timing is everything and stannous chloride is a must. Actually, I used an AA instead of stannous chloride. Whatever you use, you must constantly stay on top of it.

Sounds interesting, alb320. Keep us informed.

What will you use to melt this iron?

What do you mean by a AR reactor? Can you give more information? Photos?


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## Lou (Aug 26, 2008)

Chris, you used AA for analyzing your gold content? Hat's off to you! I don't have the patience for it or want to shell out on standard solutions.

Beauty thing about AA is the resolution...too bad it's (usually) element by element basis. Hence my love of ICP technologies--multiple element analysis.


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 27, 2008)

I know. The standard solutions aren't cheap, but a little lasts a long time. I never bought and sold on an AA, so homemade standards were fine. Those damned lamps are several hundred dollars each and you need one for each element. There are multielement lamps, but they don't seem to last as long. There are a lot of used AAs out there on the cheap. At least, there used to be. I've been out of touch for awhile. I just kept it setup for gold and could have a halfway decent answer in about a minute. An accurate answer took a lot more time. I mainly used AAs for process control. I've probably owned or had access to about a dozen different ones in my life. There was always one in the shop. Great for quick and dirty answers. For buying and selling, I preferred fire assaying.


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## alb320 (Aug 31, 2008)

HI Harold,
I have bought TIN for make stannouse chloride.
But my AR rector isn't arrived acutally. 
I melt this iron by a foundry's furnace (gas and 02).
I post a photo where I have copied my AR ractor...
Thank you for your interesting..


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## Harold_V (Aug 31, 2008)

I'm a little alarmed at what I see in the picture. 

If your reactor is made of metal, you'll not going to enjoy the kind of success you hope for. AR will dissolve the reactor, not just the metal you are hoping to dissolve. The fumes from this operation will be very corrosive, so metal of any kind should be avoided in the assembly. The sole exception might be titanium. I'm not sure about that, either. Of course, I may not understand what I'm seeing. It might be a good idea for you to describe what the picture is showing-----and tell us if AR will be in contact with anything but the metal you intend to process. 

Unless the percentage of precious metal is very high, if that was my project I think I'd try dissolving the iron with HCl before attempting to dissolve anything else. If you can remove the preponderance of base metal, you could probably run everything else in small beakers. It's doubtful you'd have a huge amount of anything worth money. 

Have you had an assay run on the material? That might be a very smart place to start-----it could help with determening a good process. In either case, running with AR or just HCl, you're going to end up with silver chloride, assuming there's any silver present. 

Please do not invest a lot of money on your project until you understand the potential value. A single assay could be enough to stop you from doing so. It's woth paying for. Trust only a fire assay in this case. If a fire assay will produce, so will a chemical process. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 31, 2008)

It looks all glass to me, Harold. The green things are most probably heating mantles.


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## Harold_V (Aug 31, 2008)

Heh! On my monitor, it's hard to see almost anything! 

Thanks, Chris. 

Harold


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## alb320 (Sep 1, 2008)

Hi Guys...
Yes Chris, the "ball" and all of other pieces then are in contact with AR are in glass.

Harold, I have tried to make this process without reactor, and I have extracted 60 gr of gold titled at 800 for 1.5 kg of this iron.

Is this the correct way?

Thank you so much


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## Harold_V (Sep 1, 2008)

alb320 said:


> Harold, I have tried to make this process without reactor, and I have extracted 60 gr of gold titled at 800 for 1.5 kg of this iron.
> 
> Is this the correct way?
> 
> Thank you so much



I'm not clear on what you're saying, alb320. I'll take a shot at what I think you're asking, however. 

It's clear you are working with metal that contains values----so I can assume that your question is what way would be correct. 

My opinion, not having ever experienced what you're doing, would be that either of the possibilities, (HCl, or AR) can work, depending on how you deal with the solution. If you dissolve with AR, there's going to be a point where all of the values will self precipitate, leaving behind only base metals in solution, with the values having settled out by cementing on the traces of remaining material, in essence, in this case, the ore, or feed material. As long as you can continue to recover the values in that fashion, you'll be eliminating the unwanted materials, and concentrating the values. At some point, you'll have to put everything in solution so you can precipitate the values to eliminate the last traces of base metals. 

I think what I'd do is experiment with small lots, using only HCl for one lot, and AR for the other. One may show distinct advantages over the other, so I'd go with the one that does. Bottom line here is I'm not convinced there's a right or wrong way, and I'm pretty hard headed about thinking that is usually the case. It may be here, too, but determining which one may come only after your experiments. 

The one comment I would contribute is I would NOT try to get everything in solution, then hope for the precipitation process to sort the values from the base metals. Get rid as much of the base metals as you can before finally dissolving the values, insuring that you get good quality gold from the process. 

Sounds like you have a fun and profitable project going. Please keep us advised on your progress. 

Best of luck,

Harold


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## alb320 (Sep 2, 2008)

I would mean:
I have took 1.5 kg of this iron and I have performed this process with AR without reactor, but only with a plastic case.
I have used urea, SMB for precipitate gold, and I have filtered the solution with a cotton tshirt. 
By this rudimentary process I have recovered 60 gr of gold, assaing at 800.
60 x 0,8 = 48 gr of pure gold.

48 gr of pure gold every 1.5 kg of iron.

I will follow your advice for my little project  

Thank you!!


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