# Help



## Bappa (Sep 29, 2016)

Can magnesium & copper precipitate gold from auric cloride ?


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## Topher_osAUrus (Sep 29, 2016)

Copper is commonly used to cement *GOLD and other precious metals out of solution, especially if its a dirty one (lots of base metal contaminants).

Are you talking about an alloy of the two?

I would imagine so, but, I'd probably try to find pure copper instead..

If i were you... Id spend slot more time reading and studying, taking vigilant notes. The more you know the less you mess up. And, when an err occurs, you have the practical knowledge to fix the problem instead of waiting on an answer. There is a great guided tour, and a book (refining precious metals by cm hoke) that you should read before messing with any chemicals or solutions.

Welcome to the forum. Hope you stick around.

Edit to correct copper to gold.. (you could've at least changed it Göran! :lol:


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## g_axelsson (Sep 29, 2016)

Topher_osAUrus said:


> Edit to correct copper to gold.. (you could've at least changed it Göran! :lol:


Yeah I could, but it was funnier this way. :mrgreen: 

And to add to the thread, magnesium will not only cement gold but also copper and iron, creating more work to refine the gold in the end.

Göran


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## Bappa (Sep 30, 2016)

Yahh. Thanks a ton. I already did a batch to refi e gold using smb. But as i didnt know the amount of gold would precipitate so i just found another way like auxalic acid or cpper. It precipitate a black powder. After melting it i have got gold. I was surprised.


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## Bappa (Sep 30, 2016)

Which way is better? 
Adding powder smb or smb sollution? :wink:


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 30, 2016)

Bappa said:


> Which way is better?
> Adding powder smb or smb sollution? :wink:



IMHO you should dissolve your SMB in water. But a lot of the members like to just add it in powder form.


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## Bappa (Sep 30, 2016)

Couple of time I tried to add only smb but few times I faces with problem to precipitate gold. Is it for the nitrate in the gold solution?


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## Topher_osAUrus (Sep 30, 2016)

I used to just throw in smb powder, but now i dissolve it in water, check turbidity (filter if needed) and dump it in while stirring.
Seems to help it settle faster, but maybe its all in my head.

Im not sure if I understand your question (or previous posts)...but, free nitric/nitrates will continually redissolve your precipitated powder until they are effectively exhausted.

Copper is a good "precipitation" method for dirty solutions, so is copperas. Smb can be, but will drop copper I chloride with gold if too much precipitant is used.(not good, since copper is a common contaminant)...so, most prefer it on clean solutions. Same with oxalic...the cleaner the solution, the better.


Edit to fix my ridiculously far off spelling of Turbidity
Thanks dave  :lol:


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