# Removing gold from gold chloride



## Stevious (Oct 24, 2010)

I have an ampule (sealed glass container) labeled Mallinkrot Gold Chloride. The label says 1g (then the rest of the label is scratched). I assume that it is 1 grain or 0.06grams so it's worth about $70. 

How do I extract the gold? I'm thinking that I can crush the ampule under water and probably knock the gold out with zinc or iron, filter the precipitate and burn the filter to recover the tiny button. 

Anyone know the best way?

Note: Yes, I know that gold chloride is both a deadly poison, and if a spot of solution gets on your skin, you will wear a "pink" spot for years (or forever) where the proteins in the skin reduce the gold within the living tissue.


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## goldenchild (Oct 24, 2010)

Can we see a picture of your ampule? And just out of curiosity where did you read this? 



Stevious said:


> Note: Yes, I know that gold chloride is both a deadly poison, and if a spot of solution gets on your skin, you will wear a "pink" spot for years (or forever) where the proteins in the skin reduce the gold within the living tissue.


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## lazersteve (Oct 24, 2010)

Should be 1 gram of Gold (III) Chloride which is only about 0.65 g of gold (~$27 worth at $1327 spot) if the label is correct.

Dissolve it in a few mL of HCl and precipitate with SMB.

Steve


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## Stevious (Oct 24, 2010)

Thank you, but what's SMB?

Sure I'll take a photo the next time I'm at my workshop (1-3 weeks)


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## Stevious (Oct 24, 2010)

goldenchild said:


> Can we see a picture of your ampule? And just out of curiosity where did you read this?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Gee, I thought everyone knew that...

*lol* I bet my Clinical Director once a million dollars that he could not name the medical condition that I showed him on my index finger. To his credit, he immediately identified it as argyria so I had to buy a Zimbabwe $1 billion dollar note to pay him off (I didn't say "which dollars.)" I developed a spot of Argyria when, as a young lad, I was using a 12/ought jeweler's sawblade to cut Sterling. The blade broke and a portion of the blade punctured my index finger to a depth of about 1/4". I pulled the blade out immediately, but silver particles remained, reacting with my skin and making a bluish-gray line that is there today, over 25 years later. I have half a mind to contaminate a small spot with the gold chloride so I can be a double disorder specimen!

I'm an Occ-Med RN--what can I say... *lol* I have no idea where I read that. I know a lot of otherwise useless stuff. But here is a reference that I just looked up: 

http://www.saltlakemetals.com/MSDS_Gold_Chloride.htm

Look under skin contact. They say purple, I say pink... semantics.... purple or pink, who cares? Maybe blondes turn purple and redheads like me turn pink--who cares?


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## butcher (Oct 24, 2010)

I have had many stains of these metals on my hands they usually wear off, with a wound and the silver you have it becomes more like a tattoo, carbon would also stay under the skin in the tatoo, with skin stains on surface our hide wears out and is replaced, silver does make some stains to skin, but silver and some of these metals can also have some antibacterial effects also,deeper the metals can stain and remain like tatoo's . just don't drink your gold chloride, or splash it all over yourself, take caution with all chemicals and metals, gold and silver, I worry less about than some of the metals we use.

sodium metabisulfite SMB

ferrous sulfate will also precipitate gold from a chloride solution

pay attention to the ending of the chemical names, these are important, it can mean the difference in a chicken and an egg, 

ic, ous, ate, ide, ite, 
all these are different


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 25, 2010)

Stevious said:


> Note: Yes, I know that gold chloride is both a deadly poison, and if a spot of solution gets on your skin, you will wear a "pink" spot for years (or forever) where the proteins in the skin reduce the gold within the living tissue.



That is a totally untrue statement as far as the "pink spots" on the skin are concerned - actually, the spots are purple/red = colloidal gold, and they certainly aren't present for years. If I had a nickel for every time I had these purple colloidal gold stains on my hands, I would be a rich man - quite a few times, my hands were totally purple. The purple discoloration rarely takes more than 3 or 4 days to completely disappear and I can't remember it ever taking much more than a week. If I wanted it removed quickly, I soaked my hands in a warm dilute bleach solution. I didn't like doing this because it was slow, it took a lot of scrubbing, it could sting if there were any cuts, and my hands smelled like bleach for at least the rest of the day. Some people soak their hand in a dilute cyanide solution (very fast), although I wouldn't recommend that, for obvious reasons. If you don't have to go to some social gathering, just let it wear off on its own. It will be gone in a few days.

Dark brown silver stains, from silver nitrate solutions, take longer to wear off - as long as 10 days. The literature suggests to remove them with tincture of iodine and then remove the iodine stains with sodium thiosulfate solution. I never liked doing that, so I usually had brown stains for 7-10 days.


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## goldenchild (Oct 25, 2010)

goldsilverpro said:


> Stevious said:
> 
> 
> > Note: Yes, I know that gold chloride is both a deadly poison, and if a spot of solution gets on your skin, you will wear a "pink" spot for years (or forever) where the proteins in the skin reduce the gold within the living tissue.
> ...



I've only had the purple stains on my hands from Au chloride once or twice. I think it has to stay on your skin a bit longer than silver chloride. It must have been on my skin and I was unaware of it.

If you get silver chloride on your skin and are in the right type of light it stains right away. Bad news especially if the solutions is really concentrated. I remember somehow getting a bunch on my hands and they were black for 2 weeks. I'm just glad I haven't gotten any on my face knock on wood.


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## Stevious (Oct 29, 2010)

Thanks, goes to show that what one reads in books is not the same as what one who has experience says...


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