# Separating Gold for Lead



## MathewW83 (Aug 24, 2010)

Ok so here is the deal I have a bar of gold well I thought it was gold but it is a gold plated LEAD. How can I separate the two from each other? I would like to make a solid gold bar and make some bullets out of the LEAD. I would appreciate any comments and suggestions. I am new here but from what I read there are alot of smart guys here. Thanks again for all the help.


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## Harold_V (Aug 24, 2010)

You didn't make mention of the size of the bar---but unless it's huge, you may be wasting your time trying to recover the values. It's entirely possible the gold layer is so thin it isn't worth much. 

It could be stripped in a sulfuric cell, for lead doesn't dissolve in sulfuric. Beyond that, recovering the gold would likely cost you more than it's worth. Dealing with lead when refining gold, unless you cupel, isn't a fun or easy process. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 24, 2010)

Just some ideas.

Most of those replica gold bar paperweights are plated with about 7 millionths of an inch of gold, more or less. If that's the case and the bar is 4" x 2" x 1/2" (just a guess) , there would be about 0.05 grams of gold total - about $2 worth - not worth recovering.

Take a pencil eraser and erase the gold in a small area until you see (use good lighting) the white or gray colored metal underneath the gold. If it erases off easily with a few strokes (say, 10 strokes, or less) using medium hard pressure, you might be able to just melt the bar, gold and all, and cast the bullets. If the bar is lead with the above dimensions, and if the gold is 7 millionths thick, the gold content would only be 6 parts per 100,000 (if my math is right), not enough to cause problems in the castings, I wouldn't think.

However, there could be some antimony alloyed with the lead to harden and stiffen it. Also, there could be white nickel plating between the lead and gold. I don't know how either of these metals will affect the casting. Most of the gold and nickel could be sanded off before melting. If you do sand the bar, wear a good particle mask.

Are you sure it is lead? I have seen them made of lead, but most I've seen are brass. 

If it takes more than 10 strokes with the eraser, count the strokes and report back.


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## MathewW83 (Aug 24, 2010)

Thanks guys there is real good advise thank you very much and I am looking forward to bugging you guys will plenty more complete NOOB questions as I am very new to this whole gold scraping thing. Thank you again for your help.


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 24, 2010)

MathewW83 said:


> Thanks guys there is real good advise thank you very much and I am looking forward to bugging you guys will plenty more complete NOOB questions as I am very new to this whole gold scraping thing. Thank you again for your help.


That's what we're here for. We do ask that you first search and do a lot of reading on the forum. If you do that, your questions will be more specific. We tend to avoid all-encompassing, general questions like, "How do I refine computer scrap". The answer to most any question you can think of is already somewhere on the forum.


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## Shecker (Sep 9, 2010)

One method of separation would to electro-plate the lead onto a pure sheet using a bath of sulfamic acid. I've done this many times and it makes for interesting results. I use to grow lead crystals this way. One of my groups of crystals use to be on display at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines mineral museum, but the last time I was there is had been removed from the display.

You can increase the gold to lead ratio by sweating some of the lead out by holding it the melting point of lead. Only none alloyed lead with sweat out because the alloyed material has a higher melting point, then cupel the remaining Dore.

In a melt the gold can be removed from the lead by using either zinc or aluminum (Park's Process), then a bath of HCL will leave a black mass of gold.

There are other methods but I hope this helps.

Randy


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