# Welcome to all Newbies



## lazersteve

All,

If you are reading this then you are likely a noob. This is the 1cent tour post for those of you that are overwhelmed with the volume of information here.

The typical posts I refer newbies to.


 Lazersteve's DVD Details

 Must Read

Forum Rules- Things to know to keep you out of trouble when posting.

 Introduce Yourself

 Forum Guide Rough Draft

 Reactions List

Common Chemicals

Basic Forum Skills

Forum Quick Search

Refining Precious Metal Wastes by C.M. Hoke 

Ceramic CPU Info and Yields

Guide to Testing Karat Jewelry

Common Reaction Equations

Identifying Metal Cations in Solutions( click any element in list for details on next page)

Tips for Using SMB and Quickly Settling Gold

Handbooks, Calculators, Keywords, and Yields

Glossary of Common Terms Used on the Forum

Some Waste Disposal Links

and last but not least visit my website (link below), watch the videos, and read the documents.

Collect scrap while you are doing this and begin with a small batch to get acquainted with the testing, colors, gases, wastes, and time required to process the scrap you choose. If you run into problems on the small scale, or in the learning stage, post a question or comment and someone will help you out.

If you choose to ignore my instructions and take short cuts, everyone will know by the questions you ask. There is no such thing as a stupid question, but there is such a thing as a question that has already been asked too many times before. This is where the forum search features come in handy.

If you find a broken link along the way be sure to let someone know as we just moved from a different hoster and some of the links have not been repaired yet. :wink: 

Enjoy!!

Steve


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## NobleMetalsRecovery

Thanks Steve, the other link works for me.

I just printed out the 20 step list for after the gold is dropped.

It's great info, very close to what I've been doing, but more precise.

I never filter dropped gold and only filter gold solutions very little.

Have you tried the plastic filter material I sent you. I used it today again, it's great stuff.

Steve


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## lazersteve

Steve,

I haven't got around to using any of it. I need to try it on some of my Platinum solutions and put it on the new DVD.

Steve


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## fajar

Yup.. thanks Steve...

I came from Indonesia.... i'm very-very newbie on computer gold refinery... 
(Failed 4 times in these 2 weeks, my firts experiment was since 2 weeks ago)
Definitely without any good chemicals knowledge base... :lol: 

It's a good advice Steve..
Maybe i must start from the zero again...
Learn so many things in here
and learn from so many seniors in here :lol: 

thanks.


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## luckypyrate

Thanks, Steve! You have been most helpful and probably saved me from blowing myself up or melting myself down through mismeasurement or something, LOL. I have spent months reading this and other forums and reading Hoke's books, etc. Just got my first batch in the bucket now, following your process for the moment. I will experiment with others but as of yet your process seems the most straight forward, inexpensive, and sensible.

Thanks to Steve and all who have made us newbie's experience the best, safest, and most fun it could be!

Ever learning the arts of Alchemy...

Lucky Pyrate


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## Remuck

Thanks for the welcome Steve. I'll most certainly check out the links that you provided --- couldn't agree more with your take on "dumb questions" vs. the frequency of inquiries. I've far too much ore to process to get into IC recovery, but the latter seems fairly compelling. 

Thanks again, Lance


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## jpdriver1

Thanks -- just found this fountain of information. I've just started looking into gold/silver salvage as an addition to the regular alum and glass recycle I do to support the family. So far I've learned so much. 

kevin


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## A Mild 29

Thank you steve, your post is very helpfull for me, since i just started to be gold miner with using source from mobile phone and computer scrap.


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## Claudie

Welcome to the forum. I think they call it Urban Gold Mining....


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## dtectr

The "Industry" (to whom we are the black sheep of the family) call it "Digger Gold", as well. i have no idea what that means, exactly.

Who cares what They think - I've got my buttons to keep me warm ... 8)


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## jpdriver1

I was curious -- so I looked it up --- wikipedia states "Digger gold is the common slang term for gold recovered from electronics components such as board fingers, CPUs, and connector pins. For the gold fingers on boards or circuits, often a stripping solution is used to remove the gold from the board material, nitric acid also works well in this regard as many gold components are soldered to boards with silver-based solders that are soluble in nitric acid (which gold is not). After dissolving all other metals in solution, the digger gold is recovered by dissolution of the gold in aqua regia and subsequent selective precipitation of the gold using copperas or another selective reducing agent such as hydrazine. Due to the cost required and the small amount recovered, digger gold is not necessarily cost effective."


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## jimdoc

jpdriver1 said:


> Due to the cost required and the small amount recovered, digger gold is not necessarily cost effective."



Thats another way of saying it can be an expensive hobby.

Jim


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## lazersteve

jpdriver1 said:


> I was curious -- so I looked it up --- wikipedia states ".... selective precipitation of the gold using copperas or another selective reducing agent such as hydrazine... ."



Hydrazine is not what I would consider a selective reducing agent. I caution all readers to do their due diligence in research prior to using information or methods gleaned from the pages of wiki. Wiki is a great source of general knowledge, but it typically lacks critical details relavent to the subjects of the articles.

Be safe.

Steve


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## jpdriver1

lazersteve said:


> jpdriver1 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I was curious -- so I looked it up --- wikipedia states ".... selective precipitation of the gold using copperas or another selective reducing agent such as hydrazine... ."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hydrazine is not what I would consider a selective reducing agent. I caution all readers to do their due diligence in research prior to using information or methods gleaned from the pages of wiki. Wiki is a great source of general knowledge, but it typically lacks critical details relavent to the subjects of the articles.
> 
> Be safe.
> 
> Steve
Click to expand...

 wiki is only for entertainment/quick info not for the proper info --- that's what this site and yours steve are for 8)


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## texan

Hydrazine is not for rookies...there are cheaper, safer procedures and compounds to use.

Texan


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## barnes8888

lazersteve said:


> All,
> 
> If you are reading this then you are likely a noob. This is the 1cent tour post for those of you that are overwhelmed with the volume of information here.
> 
> The typical posts I refer newbies to.
> 
> 
> Must Read
> 
> Forum Rules- Things to know to keep you out of trouble when posting.
> 
> Introduce Yourself
> 
> Forum Guide Rough Draft
> 
> Reactions List
> 
> Common Chemicals
> 
> Basic Forum Skills
> 
> Forum Quick Search
> 
> Refining Precious Metal Wastes by C.M. Hoke
> 
> 
> and last but not least visit my website (link below), watch the videos, and read the documents.
> 
> Collect scrap while you are doing this and begin with a small batch to get acquainted with the testing, colors, gases, wastes, and time required to process the scrap you choose. If you run into problems on the small scale, or in the learning stage, post a question or comment and someone will help you out.
> 
> If you choose to ignore my instructions and take short cuts, everyone will know by the questions you ask. There is no such thing as a stupid question, but there is such a thing as a question that has already been asked too many times before. This is where the forum search features come in handy.
> 
> If you find a broken link along the way be sure to let someone know as we just moved from a different hoster and some of the links have not been repaired yet. :wink:
> 
> Enjoy!!
> 
> Steve


the best forum ever and thanks steve and i will soon donate to you thanks again.


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## drifterguru

hey guys im so happy theres a community for this area ive been trying to manafest this idea of recycling e-wast for gold for a long time. i rushed into it thinking it was easy. if it was everybody would be doing it! lol so i started reading the book on basic lab safety and procedures and im already learing some new stuff! so thanks alot for the info.


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## butcher

Good job drifter, your on the right road.


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## lahoop

I hope is you are all right.
I have put all what I have collected scrap in Aqua Regia I did well 
but the solution is green any one help me the seconds step how can I make the sokution yellow. 
I hope to get rid of green 
see a picture
http://www.4shared.com/photo/RgSTlcEs/IMAG0185.html


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## lazersteve

Looks like you may have had a little copper, iron, and/or nickel still in the gold when you dissolved it.

It doesn't look terribly dirty to me so I would proceed to denoxxing and SMB.

Clean the gold using Harolds clean up process for the powder and give it a second refining to see the nice yellow/orange solution you are looking for.

Steve


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## zuberb

Steve, 

You, Harold, and a handful of the others in this forum are great teachers. I have been reading this forum, Hoke, and other related materials off and on for a couple of months now. Like many newbies, I have done some small scale experiments with decent results as I learn about the process. 

Edited to remove long rant [sorry about that]

Someone in town is giving me a bunch of old broken computers next week, and I'll see if I can get enough material out of those to at least make a BB.

I'm also running a small sulfuric reverse plating cell using the copper mesh I bought from your website. I've run one basket full of super low-grade pins, gold plated RCA connectors, and a few gold plated cell phone parts, and the one cheapo gold plated necklace my wife gave me for the experiment. I don't even want to mess with trying to get the powder out of that cell until I've got it saturated like you say in the tutorials. I just need to find a lot more plated material to run through it.

Anyway, I'm still reading, admiring some of the pictures in the gallery, and thinking of ways to get feed stock for the next batch (hopefully a little bigger than the last).

Bryan


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## FrugalRefiner

Steve,

You mentioned at the beginning of this thread that if we find broken links we should let someone know. What is the best way to do that? I'm spending a lot of time here and I do come across some. I don't want to clog up the forum with a bunch of posts about broken links. Examples I just found are the bottom 2 MSDS sheets (Sodium Nitrate & Potassium Nitrate).

Thanks, Dave


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## lazersteve

Simply PM me with a hyperlink to the post with the broken link, image, or document. If I have a copy I will fix it.

Steve


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## pahje

surely it will help a lot!


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## kipoty13

Good Day to all especially to sir LAZERSTEVE... I'm from the Philippines and still a newbie here. I bought last Tuesday 2 DVD's on sir Lazersteve store, Processing Fingers with Acid Peroxide and Processing Gold Filled Scrap. So excited with because I have lots of gold plated items here bought as a junk, I want to learn how to strip down these gold and refine it to a pure gold. Still a newbie, please help me familiarize with this business. Thank you...


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## rachnits

hey to all 
I am really a newbie to the whole process so please bear with me .

my question is : is there any other way not using dangerous chemicals to refine gold ? I dont have a big backyard or a lab to experiment and process it and I'm really interested in the idea of scrapping gold .
thanks in advance for the reply and learning a lot .

isaac


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## nickvc

Isaac your question is one that crops up often from newbies and I'm afraid the answer is always the same, no there is no way to refine gold without potentially dangerous chemicals, it's one of the most inert of elements so it needs strong acids or oxidisers to dissolve. However you can recover gold using slightly less toxic chemicals such as AP, acid peroxide, this removes base metals and leaves an impure gold flake or powder and can be used almost indefinitely with care, it will cause fumes and can't be done in your house. Failing that collect material and sell to someone who can recover and refine, there are many ways to profit from gold recovery its just finding your niche.

Edited for clarity.


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## Anonymous

Very glad to meet everybody here,I am just a new member of this forum,I want to make more friends here,I hope you can like me. 
____________________________________
share love,share happy,share useful information about and [url=http://YYYYYYY]Buy UUUUUUU

How very sad that you registered only to spam the board. That is not acceptable here, so you are banned from the forum.
Note that links have been disabled. 

Harold


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## timeking

Thakns to everyone on the board (old term from bbs days) this is a very good site. I would go as far as to say it is the best but I don't want to give everyone the big head (lol)
IT IS A VERY GOD SITE has more information then any one could digest in just a few days.. 
I'm new but will learn
thanks to all who has helped put this site together and a real big thanks to Steve.!


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## Phil.elmer

lazersteve said:


> All,
> 
> If you are reading this then you are likely a noob. This is the 1cent tour post for those of you that are overwhelmed with the volume of information here.
> 
> The typical posts I refer newbies to.
> 
> 
> Lazersteve's DVD Details
> 
> Must Read
> 
> Forum Rules- Things to know to keep you out of trouble when posting.
> 
> Introduce Yourself
> 
> Forum Guide Rough Draft
> 
> Reactions List
> 
> Common Chemicals
> 
> Basic Forum Skills
> 
> Forum Quick Search
> 
> Refining Precious Metal Wastes by C.M. Hoke
> 
> Ceramic CPU Info and Yields
> 
> Guide to Testing Karat Jewelry
> 
> Common Reaction Equations
> 
> Identifying Metal Cations in Solutions
> 
> Tips for Using SMB and Quickly Settling Gold
> 
> Handbooks, Calculators, Keywords, and Yields
> 
> and last but not least visit my website (link below), watch the videos, and read the documents.
> 
> Collect scrap while you are doing this and begin with a small batch to get acquainted with the testing, colors, gases, wastes, and time required to process the scrap you choose. If you run into problems on the small scale, or in the learning stage, post a question or comment and someone will help you out.
> 
> If you choose to ignore my instructions and take short cuts, everyone will know by the questions you ask. There is no such thing as a stupid question, but there is such a thing as a question that has already been asked too many times before. This is where the forum search features come in handy.
> 
> If you find a broken link along the way be sure to let someone know as we just moved from a different hoster and some of the links have not been repaired yet. :wink:
> 
> Enjoy!!
> 
> Steve


Thanks a lot lazersteve,, 
it will helps a lot like me as a newbie learner.


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## moose7802

Hi I am sorry to bother but I was just trying to find the link to access your site were the free videos could be watched? I believe the link might be broken not sure but i can not seem to access it. Thanks for all the great info!!!


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## FrugalRefiner

moose,

Welcome to the forum. I just checked Steve's links and they're working from my computer. If you follow the first link in Steve's signature line (his store), then click on the "Home" link, you should get to the free videos. Be sure to check out all of Steve's site, including the videos, the documents, and his store while you're there.

Dave


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## Geo

videos are scattered throughout the forum and theres really not a single place for them, sorry. Lazersteve has some very good videos at http://www.goldrecovery.us username :gold password : goldm1ner*

also, samuel-a has a website with good videos http://www.goldnscrap.com/

remember, a video is a good visual reference but reading and studying is best.


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## moose7802

Thanks alot guys!!! I can't seem to access the videos on Steve's site due to the fact that I have a Mac? I have been reading alot of his articles though thanks so much for the info!!


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## goldfor2

Hello to all. I have a quick question for anyone that can answer. Can i just go to abookstore (barnsnoble , Joseph Beth) and buy this hoke book. That way i have in hand.


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## jimdoc

goldfor2 said:


> Hello to all. I have a quick question for anyone that can answer. Can i just go to abookstore (barnsnoble , Joseph Beth) and buy this hoke book. That way i have in hand.



No. There are links on the forum for a place to buy it online for under $60

Jim


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## Harold_V

goldfor2 said:


> Hello to all. I have a quick question for anyone that can answer. Can i just go to abookstore (barnsnoble , Joseph Beth) and buy this hoke book. That way i have in hand.


Follow this link

Page down, looking for a book titled Refining Precious Metal Wastes ($54.75) Books are in alphabetical order.

Harold


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## Grizz72

Just like to say hi to everyone here, I am very much a newbie and am looking forward to doing allot of reading and setting up my first gold recovery program, lots of info here and a very good site very glad I found it. thanks in advanced to everyone here

Grizz72 :lol: 8)  8)


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## FrugalRefiner

Welcome to the forum Grizz! Everything you need to know to recover and refine precious metals can be found here on the forum. It takes a lot of study but it's incredibly rewarding!

First, be safe in everything you do. Before you jump into any of the processes you see discussed here, be sure you understand the potential hazards and do everything you can to minimize the risks. Read EVERYTHING in the Safety section of the forum, especially the Dealing with Waste topic. No amount of precious metal is worth jeopardizing your health or the health of those around you. 

All new members should follow the Guided Tour created by LazerSteve. It will provide an introduction to the forum and numerous valuable links including the General Reactions List. Be sure to follow the link to his web site as he has many outstanding videos, a collection of great reference documents, and he sells a lot of the supplies needed to get started including detailed instructional DVDs. Samuel-a also has a lot of videos, guides and tutorials at his web site Gold-N-Scrap.

Download C. M. Hoke's book. You'll find links to both screen readable and printer friendly versions in my signature line below. You'll see her book mentioned repeatedly here on the forum for good reason. It is probably the best book ever written for the beginner who wants to learn refining. It is written in layman's terms and will provide a solid foundation that will help you understand everything you read here on the forum. You'll also find a tremendous amount of information in the two Forum Handbooks compiled by aflacglobal, Forum Handbook Vol 1 and Forum Handbook Vol 2.

Once you understand the basics you can start to try some small scale experiments. If there's something you don't understand or you get stuck, there will be someone here to help you.

I wish you luck,
Dave


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## Sanjiu Cooling

Thanks, I'm new member here, actually I work in cooling tower manufacturer, but cooling tower normally used to cool melting furnace, so I found this forum, and found it's quite intereting and can learn a lot. I will read all the post. 

Hope it will not be treat as spam.

Thanks


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## Wyz

HI & Greetings to all.

To say that I`m a noob to these subjects would be a gross understatement, though leans in the right direction.

A little about me:

I was born in London, England, UK, where I am now. I am aged over 40.

Due to the fact that some of us were not brought up, but dragged up, I never really had a `proper` education and NEVER did any chemistry or physics at any of the learning establishments I was ever in. I do find the subject interesting though, as I do, the subject of science in general.

In the only secondary school I was in, (for more than a week), my favourite subjects were, maths, science and metalwork, alas, I was not in that school long enough to learn anything either!

I can barely remember much about our science lessons though, apart from, (upon reflection) we had quite a sexy female teacher and that I nearly passed out from attempting to blow liquid out of the top of some kind of apparatus fixed to the wall (a long tube, (around 15 - 20 feet long), filled with some kind of liquid that ran up & down about 3 or 4 times, open at both ends). The lesson was something about pressures, I cant remember exactly.

We dissected a frog once, not that I can remember much about it. I can remember that we had to write reports of our lessons/experiments, which bored the heck out of me (& many in the class!). Contrarily, for some reason I liked the format we had to write them in, something like, Order, Method & Conclusion.

That was all a long time ago and since then I have a fair interest in a little mechanics, computing and tinkering with electronic devices.

I used to collect/hoard various odd bits & pieces of weird & wonderful electrical and mechanical items, including electrical components thinking that I`d find a good use for them at some point. Unfortunately I don`t possess much of it now. It seems that it would have been quite handy to have held onto much of the electrical components! I think I still have a few pins I cut off of a few CPU`s, some old RAM sticks and CPU`s somewhere but not many and a few old computers.

I play a lot on browser/computer games now and have done for some years. I cant quite remember now what I was 1st looking for when I came across the related subject of Tantalum capacitors & components and the extraction thereof. Reading some of this led me on to gold recovering/refining from electrical devices/components and your site.

Since yesterday I have mostly been on this site, reading, learning and getting more interested in the subject. This has kept me off of my various games for around 20 hours or so, and counting, which is no small thing!

I give respect to most of you guys on here for the effort put in and the knowledge/instruction given. Whether I can understand most of it or not, it`s interesting stuff. 

I have just 1 reservation so far and I hope I can give my opinion on it, without getting into trouble and/or upsetting any of you.

Your stance on CAPITAL letters, (or more precisely, all Caps.). I understand that some may perceive it as shouting and/or rudeness or some other form of disrespect and I accept that some idiots do try to use them to be ignorant and/or put down others and such, though I haven`t seen any yet here, where this seems to be the case.

Whilst I don`t tend to do this myself, I see no reason to be upset by the use of Caps. if a person chooses to use them and it seems a shame and unbefitting that such intelligent & knowledgeable people would allow themselves to be irked by such and then, enough to berate people for doing so, further, to direct people not to do so. I have seen only 1 example of this and it was reprinted several times, which seems to defeat the purpose.

It seems to me and perhaps others not so closely involved with forums and the like, a little pedantic and off-putting. It made me think twice about reading anymore and participating and posting on forum.

Perhaps context could be considered in such as the example I saw, it appears that the person was only curious for knowledge and not trying to be rude. I don`t know what everyone else`s eyesight is like but personally, it`s actually EASIER & CLEARER to read than lower case text. I would not ask nor expect people to use more Caps. though, to make it easier for me. There are far more important things in life to worry about. 

Ok, my preamble is long, my questions are short. 

In this country I have found out that it`s virtually impossible to now get into any small scale form of gold/PM refining/recovering. (I`ve seen something on the semantics of either term, the mind boggles at the time people spend on this, suffice to say, I`m comfortable to just use the term, refining from now on).

1) Assuming 1 could get all the necessary equipment and accrued the relevant knowledge, what is the minimum amount of gold to aim to extract, to learn the process/s well?

(By well I mean, to start off with a small amount of, `base`, fingers, PCB`s or Pins or w/e and all things going well, return a clearly recognisable piece of gold. There are of course myriad variables, but in general)

2) What other book/s apart from the much celebrated, apparent, `Bible`, of Hoke would you recommend for someone with little or no prior knowledge, like myself to learn the very basics.

(I will of course DL & read Hoke as & when I can) 

Regards:

Wyz.


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## nickvc

Welcome to the forum Wyz.
For me the use of capital letters throughout is very off putting to read especially if it's a lengthy post, very similar to posts without any punctuation or proper use of sentences and paragraphs, I tend to skip over them and read more easily comprehensible and pleasurable posts.
The use of the term recovery rather than refining to cover all the processes is simple, when we recover it's a way of concentrating the values we will eventually refine, the term refine means to purify.
Refining once understood is simple the art is in recovering the values economically, safely and with decent results leaving a fairly clean easy material to refine.
Hoke is a really good introduction to both processes that is written for the non chemist, spend enough time reading to understand what she wrote,several readings are necessary for most. Although e scrap isn't covered the basics are still in there you just have to find them.
Spend your time collecting more scrap while you learn, you can rarely have too much scrap.
The forum covers virtually every type of scrap and the various processes to recover and refine them and in honesty 20 hours reading is just scratching the surface of what is here.
I wish you well and hope you are in for the long haul as it takes some time to learn just the first steps and do them safely.


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## niks neims

Wyz said:


> what is the minimum amount of gold to aim to extract, to learn the process/s well?
> 
> (By well I mean, to start off with a small amount of, `base`, fingers, PCB`s or Pins or w/e and all things going well, return a clearly recognisable piece of gold.
> Wyz.
> [/color]



Hi Wyz, welcome to the forum, still a noob my self, but to answer your question :

Fingers from about 100 RAM sticks is a nice round number, enough to yield a recognizable button (well - tiny, if i Had to guess - 1-2 grams, so enough to get the feel of the process, imho) but small enough not to get sad about if you lose it... (btw save all your solutions and precipitates, if something goes wrong, you almost always can come here and find answer how to fix it... If you saved your materials...)... 

But please please remember working with acids can be very dangerous, fumes are corrosive and deadly, you can seriously endanger yourself, people around you and enviroment by not following safety precautions or treating your waste improperly... It would be incredibly ungrateful to all of the amazing people sharing their knowledge here if you hurt yourself or anyone else by carelesly applying information you learned here... 

P. S. 20 h is not nearly enough to learn eaven the basics of simplest recovery procedure properly, not eaven talking about necessary safety process, risks or techniques involved, closer to 20 days would be my guess for minimum study time before first recovery run...


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## bengie84

Where can I find this 20 step process for after the gold is dropped


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## soutex

Thanks Steve.


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