# Sim Card - First Refining Project



## goenofx (Sep 13, 2013)

I am new member at goldrefiningforum
and I would like to refining Gold from Sim Card, follow the tutorial from senior member post in this forum,
and this post also as reference to my self 
Please correct me if I am wrong step.

*I. Materials and Tools*
- 10,000 Sim Cards
- Sodium hydroxide (Flakes)
- Water
- Nitric Acid (65%)
- Hydrochloric acid (35%)
- Sulphuric acid (98%)
- SMB
- Borax
- Stainless steel vessel
- 2 Beaker Glass Pyrex 1000 cc
- 2 Beaker Glas Pyrex 500 cc
- Test Tube
- Pipette Test
- Hot Plate
- Rubber Gloves, Masker
- Filter Paper
- dish cup melting pouring..... etcetera, I will write later.

II. Process Step
1. Separate Plastic, Gold, and micro chip using Sodium hydroxide
Reference : http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=15397
2. Dissolving Gold and Micro Chip using Aqua Regia (add Nitric acid slowly)
3. Removing Excess Nitric Acid using Sulphuric acid & Hydrochloric acid
4. Recovering the dissolving Gold using SMB

Yono


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## patnor1011 (Sep 13, 2013)

I did it this way:
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=19050


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## goenofx (Sep 13, 2013)

patnor1011 said:


> I did it this way:
> http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=19050



Thank you very much patnor1011, I would like use your post as my reference too.
I use Sim Card scrap because it is very cheap here and many scrap, so I hope my first test will be success

Please help me if I get wrong step  

Yono


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## Pantherlikher (Sep 14, 2013)

Aloha.

"3. Removing Excess Nitric Acid using Sulphuric acid & Hydrochloric acid."

Where did you get this missinformation? You will NOT remove excess Nitric by adding this.
Search again to find why you add Sulphuric acid and when. Hydrochloric (HCL) should not be added again unless the solution thickens from evaporation. Some other instances as well but not normally.

B.S.
...Telling you the why and what would not teach you enough so you must go find it as well as other information making sure you do it completely right...


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## goenofx (Sep 14, 2013)

Pantherlikher said:


> Aloha.
> 
> "3. Removing Excess Nitric Acid using Sulphuric acid & Hydrochloric acid."
> 
> ...



Thank you for your post
I got this information from this link http://id.scribd.com/doc/2815953/Refining-Precious-Metal-Wastes-C-M-Hoke

Page 44 point 5
(5) REMOVING EXCESS NITRIC ACID
You were told to use no more aqua regia than was required. Be-ginners always use too much. Experienced workers often do thesame thing, especially when in a hurry, because fresh acids work more rapidly than those that are partly exhausted.Sooner or later you must get rid of the unused nitric acid. Mostworkers think it pays to do so right away, as followsut the aqua regia solution into a big evaporating dish. It will contain some sediment, mostly silver chloride; this does no harm atthis point, so do not filter it yet. *Now add a little sulphuric acid*,stirring all the time, and working slowly, as it might spatter. Use about an ounce or less of the sulphuric acid to each quart of liquid. Now boil the solution down gently, to a syrup, being careful not tospatter. The purpose of the sulphuric acid will be explained later.This evaporation is a tiresome process. It goes rapidly at first, butsoon the liquid begins to spatter and you must lower the flame. Do not cover the dish, as that merely impedes evaporation. A sand bathor a steam bath is useful; these have already been described.When using a sand bath, start work by pushing the sand to thesides of the pan, so that the heat can quickly reach the evaporating dish; later, as evaporation has progressed, scrape the sand downunderneath the dish, to lessen the tendency to spatter.The advantage of the steam hath is that it does not cause spatter-ing, and a dish can be left on it without supervision, without dangerof overheating.Let the evaporation continue until the liquid becomes syrupy;*then slowly add a little full-strength hydrochloric acid*. Brownfumes will bubble off; this is the unused nitric acid being expelled.Usually this evaporation must be repeated at least once, maybe twiceevaporating to a syrup and adding a little hydrochloric acid inorder to get rid of all the unused nitric acid.

Correct me if I am wrong, and Please give me your suggestion about process after Dissolving Simcard In Aqua Regia than I got excess Nitric Acid in the solution


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## butcher (Sep 14, 2013)

Hoke's was right in describing the process of evaporation to remove free nitric acid from the aqua regia solution.
I think it was how you described it that brought it into question.

I wonder why you do not consider using HCl/NaClO (Hydrochloric acid/ sodium hypochlorite) method to dissolve the thin gold, it is much easier to deal with than aqua regia.

If you do use aqua regia, calculate and measure out the acid you expect to use to dissolve the gold, add the excess HCl, and only add HNO3 in small increments, to limit the amount of nitric used, use heat while dissolving the gold , this also concentrates the solution, helping to speed reaction and drive off water, helping to concentrate the solution as you dissolve the gold, carefully add tiny amounts of nitric acid, to less than the amount you need to dissolve all of the gold even with the heat and concentration, as the solution gets concentrated and no more gold goes into solution and if still have too much gold is left,add a drop of nitric the concentrated gold solution to put more gold into solution, leaving a little gold insures the nitric is consumed, the already concentrated solution helps to finish up with what Hoke describes in the procedure to insure free nitric is removed...

Also if you have not done this before, beware the nitric acid in the aqua regia solution will come to a point of concentration that the NOx gas wants to come out of solution in a boil-over, you can be heating the solution for quite some time as vapors are released from solution and the solution becomes more concentrated, you can be watching this for a time, watching some bubbles form of medium size as gas rise to the surface from the bottom of the vessel, then at a point in concentration you will notice large volumes of very small bubbles form at the edge of the solution towards the top, this happen just before the boil-over occurs, it is only a small clue just before the solution boils over, turning the heat down at this point or removing the heat will allow the gasses to escape more slowly, and prevent a boil-over and loss of your values, after this point is passed the solution can be returned to heat and the evaporation process continued without the chance of the solution boiling over.

As the solution concentrates the boiling points of these liquids change.

Nitric acid alone its boiling point changes with concentration:
water boils @ 100 deg C
20% HNO3 Boiling point 103 deg C
50% HNO3 Boiling point 116 deg C
70% HNO3 Boiling point 121 deg C
nitric azeotrope 70%

20 % HCl boiling point 110 deg C
HCl azeotrope 20%

But of coarse when we mix these two acids in our aqua regia these azeotropes and boiling points can change somewhat, I have not found data on the boiling points or charts for aqua regia.

To evaporate we do not need to reach the temperature of the boiling points, water alone will slowly evaporate at room temperature, raising the heat below the boiling point of water and the evaporation of the water is much quicker, we do not need to boil the water to evaporate it from the dish, likewise your aqua regia will evaporate below the boiling points of the acids also.

Notice as you read Hokes (even though she used the word boil to describe the process) that she also recommends not to boil the solution, as this causes gold solution to splash out in the mist as the boiling bubbles pop, carrying gold out of the dish in the mist, she used a steam bath that would not reach a temperature that would actually boil the solution, she used the word boil when she actually meant to say evaporate.


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## Pantherlikher (Sep 14, 2013)

Yes and thank you for correcting my misconception.

The evaporate down to syrup is why it did not make sense to me when I
read it.

B.S.
...Keeping everything straight can be difficult when something is missed.


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## goenofx (Sep 16, 2013)

Process
Prepare all tools and Materials
and tommorow action for II. Process Step
1. Separate Plastic, Gold, and micro chip using Sodium hydroxide
Thank you for all suggestion from senior member.


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## goenofx (Sep 17, 2013)

*1. Separate Plastic, Gold, and micro chip using Sodium hydroxide*

I have put 3 liter of water and 600 gram of NaOH for separate Gold, Plastic & Micro chip of 10,000 Sim Cards
I will boil the water & NaOH for 2 hours as my reference here http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=15397


I will update... and let me see what happen with it.


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## Geo (Sep 17, 2013)

looking good so far. good luck.


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## Palladium (Sep 17, 2013)

Don't make the mistake of using any of that glassware with naoh or it will etch it! 
It is an interesting thread so far.


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## goenofx (Sep 17, 2013)

Palladium said:


> Don't make the mistake of using any of that glassware with naoh or it will etch it!
> It is an interesting thread so far.



Thank you for your suggestion... today I just try put 100 gram NaOH + 500 cc water in beaker glass, and the temperature change to be very hot in sec.
so I will not do that again.


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## niteliteone (Sep 17, 2013)

goenofx said:


> Palladium said:
> 
> 
> > Don't make the mistake of using any of that glassware with naoh or it will etch it!
> ...


Yes the sudden heat "can" sometimes cause a thermal shock that might break the glass, but Palladium was saying the NaOH "Will" attack the glass and start dissolving it under many circumstances.
Use an old pickle jar or canning jar for this type of solution instead of good lab glass.
I have a 2L beaker that is forever damaged after using a 20% NaOH solution heated to 160*F for an hour. It looks like frosted glass now and has a texture like sandpaper inside.


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## Geo (Sep 17, 2013)

steel pans work best when heating a solution of NaOH. unlike acid, the base will not digest the iron.


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## goenofx (Sep 17, 2013)

Next Process...
Tommorow I would like start next process

*2. Dissolving Gold and Micro Chip using Aqua Regia (add Nitric acid slowly)*
I will update here if I got some problem, I hope senior would help me tommorow...


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## Palladium (Sep 17, 2013)

Do you know how to glaze that melting dish?


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## goenofx (Sep 18, 2013)

Palladium said:


> Do you know how to glaze that melting dish?



Do you mean for Cooling the melting disk?


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## Palladium (Sep 18, 2013)

goenofx said:


> Palladium said:
> 
> 
> > Do you know how to glaze that melting dish?
> ...


 
The dish has to be glazed with borax before you can melt your gold in it. Do you have borax on your list?


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## goenofx (Sep 19, 2013)

Palladium said:


> goenofx said:
> 
> 
> > Palladium said:
> ...



Thank you for the information, maybe I didnt read about it, I will add Borax on list, and looking for the chemical.


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## pattt (Sep 19, 2013)

Hi goenofx,

I like to add that heating the glass beaker on the hotplate is not a good idea,
I would use a "catchpot" something you can put the beaker in, so when it would break or crack
from heat, the solution will still be in the catchpot and not on your floor.


Pat


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## Palladium (Sep 19, 2013)

pattt said:


> Hi goenofx,
> 
> I like to add that heating the glass beaker on the hotplate is not a good idea,
> I would use a "catchpot" something you can put the beaker in, so when it would break or crack
> ...



http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=13384#p134304


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## goenofx (Sep 24, 2013)

After AR process with 250 ml Hcl : 6 ml nitric acid for 10000 card add increase start 3 ml, 1 ml, 1ml, 1ml and the solution remove from heat
and wait till the solution cool, than I add 250 ml fresh water and there are white powder come to the bottom of glass.
after 4 hours, I filter the solution to new glass and test with SnCl2(picture attach), and after add SMB the solution change colour to be yellow dark (pic attach) but no gold powder drop. I still got white powder drop...

Please your suggestion... thank you


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## Geo (Sep 24, 2013)

warm the solution to steaming and stir. if you still observe no gold drop, test again with stannous chloride. watch the test carefully to see if the stain appears and then disappears after some minutes. if the stain disappears or even lightens, you have free nitric acid in your solution.


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## bee (Jan 10, 2014)

i mm sorry but i am shocked why he did not remove base metals first ?
where is ap or 50/50 hno3 h2o2 ?
i process many pounds of sim cards if hurry use dilute hno3 and then AR or use ap wash and then 
AR.
no one seems to interested to correct him.


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## Palladium (Jan 10, 2014)

Straight ar will work on sim cards and is the only way i run them also.


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