# My first experiance with cats..



## Mattysta00 (May 9, 2012)

Hello everyone,

I joined this site about 6-7 months ago and after learning the hard way by getting sucked into the shor kit like many others,I came across this site. I spent all of my time researching this site and reading alot along with reading alot of hokes and many other articles i have found.I also bought lazersteves processing dvd with ap and recently just ordered some zinc turnings. His videos and goldsilverpros videos have been a great help in learning and enjoyable to watch. (i have been around muratic for years being i used to work in the concrete industry) Needless to say after learning from my mistakes and cementing the pgm's out of my mess from the shor kit(still have a bit left to reclaim i believe), I have since made an ounce of silver, and 2.5 grams of 22k gold. from e-scrap. Unfortunately i dont have alot of access to free or cheap scrap except for the local recyling yard which i dont get to often. i realized the hard way that buying anything off ebay is at or above a premium so for now im slowly collecting escrap for processing later. Ok i know that was off topic from my subject but i figured i would give some background since this is my first post. Ok on to the cats... I have been sitting on the internals of two gm cats off my 2000 trans am for a few years. i was unable to find someone to refine them for me so i figured after i learn the gold/silver process and built up my experience i was now ready to finally process my cat material. I broke down the material the best i could and used poormans ar to leach it on a hot plate in a coffee pot at low/meduim heat careful not to boil it. I leached it twice with fresh ar and i think i may need to do it a third time but right now im out of supplies so i will put the material aside for now until i can buy more. I have just finished filtering the solution twice and am waiting for the ammonium chloride and zinc turnings to arrive. I know it may be hard but i took some pictures for everyone to take a look and give me their opinions on my solution. I have not yet denoxxed the solution to make sure the nitrate is used up but i did take a small sample and added a few pellets of urea(i know most dont use it and i dont ether anymore) to see if i got a reaction at all which i did not. I'm guessing during the leaching on the hotplate(total of about 8-10 hrs) that i may have driven off the rest of it by the end. Thanks to everyone and this forum for all of the knowledge i have gained from reading and learning and for any opinions anyone will share with me in advance.

Matt


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## butcher (May 9, 2012)

Nice job on your first post, sounds like you are on the right track, and have been working to learn,
How about a stannous chloride test, it will also let you see if excess HNO3 is exhausted, and give you a base line for the testing of solution later.


If your using zinc to replace values from solution, all the nitric would do is use up more of your zinc, concentrating not only can help eliminate free nitric acid but can also help with the volume of waste later.

If using ammonium chloride for Platinum the solution should be concentrated well, but it seems you have already been doing your homework here, so actually I really do not have anything to add to help, Just wanted to say keep up the good work.


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## Mattysta00 (May 10, 2012)

butcher said:


> Nice job on your first post, sounds like you are on the right track, and have been working to learn,
> How about a stannous chloride test, it will also let you see if excess HNO3 is exhausted, and give you a base line for the testing of solution later.
> 
> 
> ...




Thank you for the compliment Butcher, The stannous i have may be too old. I have one that i made about 2-3 months back and it has turned yellow. The other testing solution i have is the precious metal detecion liquid(which i'm assuming is stannous and it has worked on my gold) that came from shor. Well since i don't have anymore hcl to make fresh stannous just yet i decided to try using what i do have. I put a few drops of the solution on a paper towel and it has a deep yellow/slight orange tint coloring. I then added a drop of water to one sample to dilute it a bit and leave the other as taken from the solution. I try the stannous i have and the color lightens a bit but is still yellow. Since i'm new at pgm's i'm a bit unsure of what to make of the results. going by other threads i have read and pictures i've seen i'm guessing it is a positive test for pt. Does that sound correct to you? I do plan to evaporate the solution down this afternoon so if need be i can take a picture of a stannous test and post it.
I already have ammonium chloride that came in yesterday and i'm waiting for the zinc to come in still. I'm thinking of just using the ammonium chloride and then calcining. You said that if there is excess hno3 present it will eat up more zinc. But what happens if there is excess hno3 and you try to drop the pt with the ammonium? I'm assuming nothing would happen at all if there is a strong presence of hno3 left or without evaporating down to a sryup the adding more hcl?


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## butcher (May 10, 2012)

I would want the stannous solution and know it is working before moving too far down the road.
Stannous chloride can go bad, and normally does not have a very long shelf life.
Platinum should give an orange color.

If you had free nitric in solution the platinum would try to re-dissolve as you were trying to precipitate it with ammonium chloride, so basically it most likely would not precipitate from solution (or if concentrating drove off most of the free nitric a portion might try to precipitate, but without your testing solution You would not have any idea what was in solution and what was not), the platinum salts are water soluble so concentrating the solution, and heat also helps.

I really am not the person to be giving that much advice in this area, as I have very limited experience with the platinum group metals. It is a rare metal, and it is very rare that I can get my hands on it.


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## Mattysta00 (May 12, 2012)

Thanks again for the replies butcher, I decided to wait until i get more acid to make stannous before evaporating the solution to concentrate, Then test it. I will update this thread with my results once i do.


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