# Need Urgent Advice...



## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

Dear followers :
I'd recently bought a two ton of sim card rolls and i'd recoved all the gold in( that what i thought it is ) and when i use a magnet it attracted to it, so i took a sample to a jeweler and he test it then he told me that it is not a gold , but i did not convinced , i thought all electronic conductor are gold plated "especially sim cards" :?: !!!
What would you advice me guys...took a sample to another jeweler or should i start to consider it not a gold plated  .


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## nickvc (Jan 29, 2016)

We need more information to give proper advice, what exactly have you done, with which chemicals and what precipitant?
I'd guess that you used ferrous but it's only just that, a guess.
More and full information please.


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## MarcoP (Jan 29, 2016)

Hi malikjob07, as nickvc said a lot of important details are missing. Anyhow I'm surprised how come you didn't use Stannous Chloride from the beginning.

Marco


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## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

well actually i didn't use any chemical i just used a heat then the gold plated took off :arrow:


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## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

And when the gold plated took off from the ribbon ...i took the foils to a jeweler and you know the rest of the story..................


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## MarcoP (Jan 29, 2016)

Seriously malikjob07, post what you did from A to Z please.

Marco


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## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

Seriously i didn't do that much....i bought a sim card ribbons around two ton then i used a heat gun to took all the gold foils on the ribbon .....then i took a sample of foils to a jeweler and he told me that there is no sign of gold in the foils but i didn't convinced " like i said before" , so i asked for advice, should i see another jeweler or stop right here ?
Thanks


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## Barren Realms 007 (Jan 29, 2016)

malikjob07 said:


> Seriously i didn't do that much....i bought a sim card ribbons around two ton then i used a heat gun to took all the gold foils on the ribbon .....then i took a sample of foils to a jeweler and he told me that there is no sign of gold in the foils but i didn't convinced " like i said before" , so i asked for advice, should i see another jeweler or stop right here ?
> Thanks



Hopefully you didn't throw away the balance of the plastics because there is the possibility of a small amount of gold under the plastics.


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## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

well i don't think so Barren Realms 007 the gold plated is just on the surface side


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## Barren Realms 007 (Jan 29, 2016)

Not in that part of the plastic rolls but possibly under the plastic where the gold plating was removed.


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## Grelko (Jan 29, 2016)

malikjob07 said:


> well actually i didn't use any chemical i just used a heat then the gold plated took off :arrow:



Since you did not use chemicals, the gold foils are possibly gold, nickel "magnetic", and copper.

I took gold fingers "foils" that I cut off with a blade, to the jewelry store, and they used an XRF. It said no gold, but I know that it is on there, because I recovered it. Sometimes the machine does not show gold properly, because the plating is very thin.

How did the jeweler check the foils?

You should dissolve a small sample, then test it with stannous chloride, to make sure.

Edit - I knew I saw that picture before http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=13051&start=30


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## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

I would like to thank you Grelko for sharing your information with me....and to answer your question the jeweler tested the sample by the acid , and i have a doubt he use 18k acid. that's why i didn't get convinced with his result


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## Grelko (Jan 29, 2016)

malikjob07 said:


> I would like to thank you Grelko for sharing your information with me....and to answer your question the jeweler tested the sample by the acid , and i have a doubt he use 18k acid. that's why i didn't get convinced with his result



18K gold is 75%, the foil is probably .002%. The plating on the foil is too thin to test with acid. If I take a gold "plated" necklace to my jewelry store and they use the acid test, they would tell me, there is no gold. (but there is a little gold for plating)

Do you have a picture of the foils?


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## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

no, but i will take a pic tomorrow for the foils....what would you advise me to do Grelko ?


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## Grelko (Jan 29, 2016)

malikjob07 said:


> no, but i will take a pic tomorrow for the foils....what would you advise me to do Grelko ?



If you dissolve a small sample of foils, then test it with stannous chloride, it will tell you if there is gold.

If you do this, please read and learn how to do it in a safe way, before you use chemicals to dissolve the foils.

If you use the "search" button, there are links for sim cards. The info in those threads should help you also.


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## malikjob07 (Jan 29, 2016)

thank you Grelko , i really appreciate your advice


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## Pantherlikher (Jan 29, 2016)

malikjob07

What are you hoping to do with what you have? Collect/refine the gold or try to resell it?
You might have most of the gold plating off but unless you can get an accurate guess as to how much gold there is, might be tough to resell...

B.S.


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## malikjob07 (Feb 3, 2016)

Actually i have a huge electronic e-waste " sim card skeleton" and i want to extract the gold from it, so i'd tried the AP solution ( hydrochloric acid + hydrogen peroxide 10 volume) and nothing was happen, then i'd used another AP solution but with high density hydrochloric acid+hydrogen peroxide 30 volume and what happen is the gold was dissolved , the question is can i use a sodium metabisulfite to precipitate the gold from the solution or not ?
- Also i 'd tried a nitric acid 40% but nothing was dissolved,as well as the aqua regia method ...nothing was happen...
Is there anyway to extract gold from this huge electronic waste ?
Please i need help and if anyone found a solution for my problem , i am ready to pay


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 3, 2016)

It works better to boil the sim cards in sodium hydroxide. Most of the gold plated squares will come off of the sim cards but possibly not all of them. Be careful using the sodium hydroxide it is very dangerous when it is hot and you deffinitly need to wear eye protection. After you have run them through the sodium hydroxide and removed as many of the gold squares as possible run the ones that didn't seperate in AR, poor mans AR or HCl/Cl. Strain the plastics(wash off the plastic) and contimue to use the solution to finish processing the plated squares that separated. Heat the solution to remove excess Cl or use Sulfamic acid to remove the excess nitric (depending on which process you used). Filter your solution and then drop your first round or gold chloride with copperas. Then re-refine your gold and drop it out of solution with SMB.


Make sure you do some searches on each of these processes so you are familiar with what you are doing and what problems you can run into.


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## malikjob07 (Feb 4, 2016)

Thank you Barren Realms 007 i'll give it try, i hope it work and if it is...i will reward you


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## malikjob07 (Feb 4, 2016)

Well like i said in the previous thread , i have a huge amount of sim card skeleton and i wanna recover the gold from it, so i tried many thing the aqua regia and the hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide 3 % so nothing was happen until i used a hydrogen peroxide 9 % and finally it eat all the gold but the solution was kind of green.
so my question is can i use copperas or sodium metabisulfite to precipitate the gold from the solution?


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## Geo (Feb 4, 2016)

Yes. As long as gold is in solution. Buy or make some stannous chloride and test the solution to make sure gold is in the solution before you start or you could wind up chasing your tail.


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 4, 2016)

malikjob07, I've combined your three different threads into the first one since they are all about the same material. Creating three different threads just scatters the information around and adds to the clutter on the forum. Please post any future questions about this material in this thread.

Dave


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## malikjob07 (Feb 4, 2016)

ok sorry newbie fault


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 4, 2016)

No problem.

Dave


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## malikjob07 (Feb 5, 2016)

well dear friends , i still stuck in recovering gold from my waste :x ....so my last experiment was a mixture of hydrochloric acid + hydrogen peroxide 9% = dissolve all the gold ( a green clear solution ) then i add pinch of bicarbonate sodium to neutralize the acid till the boiling stop( can't get access to urea) then i used the copperas as acid and nothing goes down(Gold precipitation).
what i did wrong :| ? i am sure that my waste contain gold ( sim card skeleton) .
Please any advice...... :idea:


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## nickvc (Feb 5, 2016)

malikjob07 said:


> well dear friends , i still stuck in recovering gold from my waste :x ....so my last experiment was a mixture of hydrochloric acid + hydrogen peroxide 9% = dissolve all the gold ( a green clear solution ) then i add pinch of bicarbonate sodium to neutralize the acid till the boiling stop( can't get access to urea) then i used the copperas as acid and nothing goes down(Gold precipitation).
> what i did wrong :| ? i am sure that my waste contain gold ( sim card skeleton) .
> Please any advice...... :idea:



Have you tested the solution with stannous chloride to check your gold is actually in solution and hasn't cemented back out?
Also depending on the volume of solution to the ratio of gold,if it's only got small amounts of gold in it,it may take time for precipitation to occur.
First though check your solution!


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## Grelko (Feb 5, 2016)

Just incase ---- How to make stannous chloride http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=22011

Also, what color was the Copperas? Green or Brown? Brown means that it has gone bad and will not work.


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## malikjob07 (Feb 5, 2016)

thank you guys for reply i really appreciate your help and concern  ....
Actually the copperas was totally green and i started with drops then i add 10 ml for 1 L then more with little heat but nothing happened  , and unfortunately i haven't access to stannous chloride neither for the necessary ingredient to make one.So what can you advice me guys ? :idea:


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## nickvc (Feb 5, 2016)

To make stannous find some tin as pure as possible and dissolve in hydrochloric leave a little tin in the solution and seal. To test take a small sample of your solution on a white plastic spoon and add a drop of your stannous and watch the reaction, report back exactly what you see happen over say 5 minutes.


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## malikjob07 (Feb 5, 2016)

where to find a pure tin ?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 5, 2016)

You can find tin in 95/5 rolled plumbing solder or from tin fishing weights. You can also look on Lazersteves web site and he sells it. Or Fleabay.


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## rickbb (Feb 5, 2016)

Pure? Why pure, what purpose will it be doing? How pure does it need to be?


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## 4metals (Feb 5, 2016)

Action Mining sells tin metal (high purity) for about $1.25 a gram for 10 grams. http://www.actionmining.com/Catalog.pdf

10 grams will last a long time for a hobbiest. And I would guess it is cheaper than buying a pound of solder.


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## FrugalRefiner (Feb 5, 2016)

You can also find stannous chloride crystal on FeePay. I bought a quarter pound for $9.99. Using Lou's most recent recommendation of using 1 gram of crystals, 5 ml HCl, 20 ml. of water, and a bit of tin, It will last a lifetime. I bought my tin in the form of tin fishing sinkers from Walmart. They have packages of tin split shot for $1.56 per package.

Dave


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## 4metals (Feb 5, 2016)

I use the stannous chloride, DI water and HCl with a few pieces of metallic tin as well. And it is long lived.

The problem with solder or split shot fishing weights is you really don't know the actual tin content (with solder you do but it's not 100%). The weight guys may call it tin because of the color and it may have a high percentage of something else in there. For me, time spent is much more costly than saving a few pennies so I go with the sure thing and buy the tin. 

An example of what I am saying about color happened to me this past Christmas. I bought my wife an Italian cookie press because the aluminum one she had wasn't so good. The one I bought was listed as stainless steel. When it came it was made of aluminum! The manufacturer said the color was stainless steel, not the alloy of construction. What a difference a word makes.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 5, 2016)

I use only the 95/5 solder with HCl only. I heat the solution to get a very concentrated mix and then filter the solution. I put some extra pieces in the container that has a flip up top so air does not get into the mixture. It lasts me for months on end with no problems. And even when I mix up a new batch my old stuff is still working i just make some new every so often so I have no doubts about it. 

I think the biggest problem people run into is they let air get into their containers.

6 of one half a dozen of another. There are many ways to do it.


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## Geo (Feb 5, 2016)

This short video shows how to make stannous chloride using plumbers lead-free solder.

https://youtu.be/659G75Kc3F0


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## Grelko (Feb 5, 2016)

FrugalRefiner said:


> I bought my tin in the form of tin fishing sinkers from Walmart. They have packages of tin split shot for $1.56 per package.
> 
> Dave



This is the same thing I buy to make stannous with. Geo's video is a good way to make it. Even with the fishing weights instead of solder, it has always worked for me.


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## alloy2 (Feb 5, 2016)

OP said the skeletons came from plastics recycler, 

I do not see any SIM cards just scrap plastic.


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## Geo (Feb 5, 2016)

That is a template reel. The SIM's were punched out of the reel and the gold traces carry over onto the reel. Alone, it wouldn't be enough to process but the entire reel is worth it, maybe.


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## alloy2 (Feb 5, 2016)

Geo said:


> That is a template reel. The SIM's were punched out of the reel and the gold traces carry over onto the reel. Alone, it wouldn't be enough to process but the entire reel is worth it, maybe.



Yes Geo the SIM's were already punched out when the OP obtained this material. There was no gold to recover.


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## Geo (Feb 5, 2016)

The gold traces carry over onto the reel.


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## Grelko (Feb 5, 2016)

alloy2 said:


> OP said the skeletons came from plastics recycler,
> 
> I do not see any SIM cards just scrap plastic.



I don't think this would be a picture of OP's material, seeing that this picture was posted back in 2012 by a member named jake_66 "halfway down the page, it's from an E-Bay listing" http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=13051&start=30 This is the same link I posted on the first page (seems to be where the picture came from originally)

If the OP posted a picture of the actual material, as it looks right now, we can get a better look at what he's working on.


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## malikjob07 (Feb 6, 2016)

Actually i just copy the picture in order to get the idea clear :shock: ....my stuff looks the same so why i bother to take a pic....
Well i still get nothing from dissolving my waste for gold recovering using HCL+H2O2 9% to dissolve gold.....precipitate with iron sulfate.
So what i did wrong guys , please help ? i know there is gold in there ...........


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## g_axelsson (Feb 6, 2016)

malikjob07 said:


> Actually i just copy the picture in order to get the idea clear :shock: ....my stuff looks the same so why i bother to take a pic....
> Well i still get nothing from dissolving my waste for gold recovering using HCL+H2O2 9% to dissolve gold.....precipitate with iron sulfate.
> So what i did wrong guys , please help ? i know there is gold in there ...........


How do you know? Have you tested with stannous?

Göran


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## malikjob07 (Feb 6, 2016)

i know that all yellow electronic conductor contain gold thus the company told me that there is a small gold and copper amount in the product. But till now i get nothing so i start to re-consider my information . 
What would you advice me ?


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## malikjob07 (Feb 6, 2016)

some told me that i have cemented problem ? do i ? :idea:


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## g_axelsson (Feb 6, 2016)

malikjob07 said:


> some told me that i have cemented problem ? do i ? :idea:


I don't know, what did stannous testing say? How does your scrap look? Before and after.

Göran


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## patnor1011 (Feb 6, 2016)

Mind boggling. 
OP will not have any success if he will keep jumping up and down instead of sticking to one method and doing it correctly. 

Please, take your time this cant be accomplished in a day or week. It will take much more time. Use HCl with just a little squirt of H2O2 and give it a few days to work. Then be prepared to spend countless hours properly washing foils from reels as they will stuck everywhere on that reel. I processed one reel, 700g and it took me about a week to do. Good luck with 2 tons. 
The more you want to speed this up the more you will loose.


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## Grelko (Feb 6, 2016)

Please do not be offended malikjob07, I am putting all of this into one post, so it will be easier to understand. (Scroll down for a condensed version, below the ------- )

1. You bought two tons of sim card rolls.
2. You used a heat gun to recover the gold plating. (No chemicals)

3. You "actually" have a huge sim card skeleton, that you want to extract the gold from.

4. You tried using A/P (HCl+H2O2, the H2O2 was 3%) (Hydrochloric acid + Hydrogen peroxide 10 volume), but nothing dissolved.
*5. You tried using A/P (Hcl+H2O2, the H2O2 was 9%) (Hydrochloric acid + Hydrogen peroxide 30 volume), and yes the gold did dissolve.*
6. You tried Nitric acid 40%, but nothing dissolved.
7. You tried Aqua Regia, but nothing dissolved.
8. You are looking for a way to extract the gold, from the sim card skeleton.
*9. When you used A/P (HCl+H2O2 9%) (Hydrochloric acid + Hydrogen peroxide 30 volume), yes the gold dissolved, but the solution is slightly green.*
10. You want to know, if you can use Copperas, or SMB (Sodium Metabisulfite) to precipitate the gold, from the solution.
*11. You added Sodium Bicarbonate, to neutralize the solution, until it stopped bubbling "boiling". *
*12. You used a few drops of Copperas, then added another 10 ml to a 1L "1000ml" solution, to precipitate the gold, but it did not work.*

----------------------------------

Material is a Sim card skeleton. Added Hcl+H2O2 (9%), gold plating dissolved, solution is slightly green. Added NaCHO3 until the bubbling stopped. Added a few drops of FeSO4, then added another 10ml of FeSO4 to the 1 L (1000ml) green solution. The gold did not precipitate.

If he added NaCHO3 until the bubbling stopped, wouldn't that put his solution around PH 8.4?

Edit - I'm not 100% sure if he neutralized the solution, or went beyond.


malikjob07 said:


> then i add pinch of bicarbonate sodium to neutralize the acid till the boiling stop



malikjob07, you really need to make "stannous chloride", then mix a couple drops, with a couple drops of the green solution. Take a picture of the result and post it on here. We may be able to help better, by looking at it.


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## upcyclist (Feb 9, 2016)

Grelko said:


> malikjob07, you really need to make "stannous chloride", then mix a couple drops, with a couple drops of the green solution. Take a picture of the result and post it on here. We may be able to help better, by looking at it.



And make sure your solution is acidic--otherwise the stannous chloride may not work properly.


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