# My first batch (fingers)



## MGH (Dec 23, 2012)

Just got some refined gold powder from my first batch of fingers. I know this is a small batch - it was just to get acquainted with the processes. I’ll wait to collect more material next time.

232.94 grams of fingers cut from RAM sticks and a variety of different cards yielded 0.85 grams of gold powder. The yield is on the low side, hopefully not due to my technique, but rather because some of the fingers weren't completely covered with gold plating and just because of the fact that this is a small batch. I recovered the foils using AP, dissolved in HCl+Clorox, precipitated with SMB, then washed with water, hot HCl, and then deionized water before final drying.

One picture below shows what I think are some small metallic gold pieces floating on the surface of the solution after precipitating. I knocked them down with a spray bottle, and now in the powder you can see the same little flecks of reflective yellow metal.

Hopefully later this week I’ll be able to get together with a friend who has a torch and get this melted. I’ll add a picture later. Thanks to everyone on the forum for making this a great place to learn.


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## tek4g63 (Dec 23, 2012)

Yeah that is gold powders floating on top. Almost always happens to me. You handled it perfectly.

Great work!


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## maynman1751 (Dec 23, 2012)

Well done!


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## sebass (Dec 30, 2012)

Very good pictures , i hope to see your gold meting in to nice botton , i have 260 gr of fingers but the weather is very cold to procesate .
In to pdf is specificate for fingers this :
fingers gold : 0,006 X gr = total gold 
in your case 0,006 X 235 gr =1,41 gr of gold !?


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## MGH (Dec 30, 2012)

sebass said:


> In to pdf is specificate for fingers this :
> fingers gold : 0,006 X gr = total gold
> in your case 0,006 X 235 gr =1,41 gr of gold !?



... well, I would say that's on the high end of estimates. If using a more conservative estimate of 2g per pound of cut fingers (0.0044g of gold per gram of fingers), then I'd be hoping for 1.03g of gold from this batch. So coupled with the fact that some of these fingers were more bare than others, and that this is a small batch (I do have some small fines of powder on the final filter which I used to pour all my final washes through - saving that for future batches), then I'm still happy with this button. Hopefully you'll get a better yield from your 260g of fingers, but make sure to stay realistic.

I was able to melt my powder earlier today. Pictures attached 8)


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## vyper (Dec 31, 2012)

Wow where's my sunglasses.... 8) 
Ah now i can see. Nice button.


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## Anonymous (Dec 31, 2012)

That's amongst the best buttons I've seen yet. Nice work. Keep it up.

Kevin


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## ovidiuanghel (Dec 31, 2012)

this is the shiny gold button i ever seen.
how do you get this shine


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## MGH (Dec 31, 2012)

ovidiuanghel said:


> this is the shiny gold button i ever seen.
> how do you get this shine


I was't necessarily trying to get a high shine, but I just did what Lazersteve has shown on one of his videos. Melt the gold in a properly fluxed dish, move it around some to mix and make sure all gold is in one mass, then let it cool just enough to become solid but still hot enough to be released from the still-liquid flux, then pick up the button with needle nose pliers and drop it in water. This is what I got. I didn't polish anything.

Thanks for the compliments. I just wish it were bigger


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## resabed01 (Dec 31, 2012)

MGH said:


> Thanks for the compliments. I just wish it were bigger



I wish I had a nickel everytime I've said those words.... :lol: 

Seriously, the button looks awesome, nice work!


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## ovidiuanghel (Dec 31, 2012)

the button is awesome i never had this shine. 
i think i go whit my gold to a specialist to melt it!


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## lazersteve (Dec 31, 2012)

Shiny gold is a direct result of clean gold. You did excellent in your processing, clean up, and melting. Good hygiene in the lab processes shows in the end result. 

Following proper fluxing, washing, beaker cleaning, and filtering practices will yield shiny gold every time. 

Great job!!

Steve


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## glorycloud (Dec 31, 2012)

Nicely done!!


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