# terms and questions



## andees78 (Aug 5, 2010)

goodday everyone

am new this site and i want to start recovering gold from e-srap, mainly computer boards.
i have been reading a lot in the site for the last four days and starting to learn. but am having difficulties understanding some terms. so if someone can, please help me understand.
1- what is the difference between fingers , pins, and cpus? can i process them together?
2- is leaching and dissolving the same thing?
3- if i want to dissolve gold using either AR or HCL/CLOREX method do i have to start with AP to dissolve the base metals?


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## Barren Realms 007 (Aug 5, 2010)

Pins, round or square metal that contol cable plugs into
Finger's, gold plate part of video card or sound card where the card plugs into and connects with motherboard
CPU, square device that plugs into your mother board.
It is best to seperate these item and not process them together
Take a magnet to the items and remove any steel and process it seperatley
Remove any base metals before you process and do them seperately.
Remove your bse metals with AP.
Gold should be dissolved with HCL/clorox till you are familiar with what you are doing.


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## dtectr (Aug 5, 2010)

welcome!
Barren Realms covered it. I will add a technique for harvesting pins that i copied from a post a I made couple of days ago which was concerning a good example of how NOT to do it:
I see header pins still in plastic connectors. I've come across a super easy way to remove the plastic connectors with them still on the board (supplies leverage, you'll see why in a sec). the friction of the tight fit of plastic on many pins doesn't allow them to lift off easily - if you try, you'll end up mangling your pins.

Please remember, before processing, you are going to heat all your reclaimed feed stock to cherry red (incinerate) on an outdoor burner to eliminate carbon-based contaminants, including oils. So, spray your pins with a quick shot of aerosol pan coating, like PAM. You could use industrial spray lubes like WD40, but you end up with lubricant residue designed to withstand heat & moisture, whereas pan coatings are just a vegetable oil & propellant, usually isobutane. Then using a wood chisel (mine is a 1" cheapo) simply begin to pry first at one end, then the other& you'll see & feel the plastic gliding off of the pins, leaving them intact,erect, & undamaged for your removal method of choice.

Lately, on newer boards, I'm just cutting them off flush with the board with some nippers or flush cutters. On older boards, I believe the original gold plating extended through the board, and though now alloyed with the solder mix, there are still some gold values present which should be released when the base metals are dissolved. These boards i place on a steel plate atop a hot plate which i turn on high. When you seecomponents start to wiggle, grad the board with pliers & flip it over a container & bang on the bottom with whatever you have at hand & everything will drop cleanly off. 

I seperate the individual components, & high-grade the most desirable first, for me, in this case, the pins. When you have a sufficient batch, spread evenly on a metal sheet or better yet, an old steel skillet. Heat to cherry red, approx. 700 degrees, officially & ideally for 1 hour. Make sure you leave the lid off - you want an oxidizing atmoshere ( rich in oxygen)as this hastens the combustion of carbon-based contaminants. Putting the lid on, though drawing less attention from your neighbors, creates a reducing atmoshere (one depleted of oxygen) and you wind up with beautiful electronic charcoal (this I learned the hard way). 

The pins should now be ready to process. Muriatic acid (HCl) in a crockpot on low heat for a few days will begin to dissolve your base metals, including some of the solder, and will let the very thin leaves of gold plating to float free.

everything I've written here, with the exception of removal of header pins, I've learned from this forum & the knowledgeable folks who frequent it & support it, & with their help, I downloaded "Refining Precious Metal Wastes", by C.M. Hoke (she's a gal), which explains in simple terms some seemingly complicated processes. it's worth your time to download it & print all 300+ pages so you can read it in the bathroom, before you go to bed at night, ... 

Good luck & hang in there. I'm a beginner, but thanks to these folks here, I have my first visible gold as washed gold foils, as well as a considerable amount in solution, waiting to be harvested when the solution is pregnant (where do we get these terms?)
Jordan


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## texan (Aug 5, 2010)

I spent about 6 months reading the forum and Hoke's book before I started doing any processing and I have a basic background from many years ago as a lab tech. Do your home work before you start any recovery processing.

Texan


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## Harold_V (Aug 6, 2010)

texan said:


> Do your home work before you start any recovery processing.
> 
> Texan


Excellent advice!

Harold


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## butcher (Aug 6, 2010)

Solder the (tin and lead) dissolve's the fine gold plating from the pins, (even at the soldering temperature used), and would amalgam with the solder of the circuit board.

lead is a collector of gold in a melt or smelt.


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## andees78 (Aug 8, 2010)

thank you for your answers


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## andees78 (Aug 8, 2010)

hello

i have collected some scrap and seperated them in patches, (pins+fingers), (cpus), (small boards from cell phones+ memory cards).
i think i will start with the pins. this is the procedure am going to use, please read and correct:
1-soak the pins in hydrogen peroxide.
2-check the solution for gold and add fingers or some copper to percepitate if there is any gold.
3-syphon the acid.
4-wash the foils and black powder with hcl three times to get rid of copper chloride.
5-wash with distlled water and if water discolours wash again with hcl and then water.
6-dissolve the powder and foils in (hcl+clorox) to get aucl3.
7- precipitate with iron sulphate. is that ok with the (hcl+cl) process?
8-do i have to wash the gold powder??? :mrgreen: 
9-melt the powder.

i also want an opinion on the sources of acids:
1-ap : wounds disinfictant from a pharmacy
2-stonnus chloride: am going to make it
3-hcl : a detergent liquid called FLASH
4-clorox : is that the CLOROX brand?
5-iron sulphate : either make it or buy from a garden store.

am not going to start right away as i still want to gather more scrap.
sorry  for many questions but am not good with chemistry.
i also dont know the ammounts to use.


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## butcher (Aug 8, 2010)

1-soak the pins in hydrogen peroxide.

My answer Acid-peroxide, you forgot the HCl in your solution, this will work for pins but can take along time and use alot of reagents, pins have alot of copper, and would take along time with this method,I personally would not go that route, there are much better ways to do them. I would make nitric with them (killing two birds with one rock , others use a stripping concentrated sulfuric cell or the nitric acid,


i also want an opinion on the sources of acids:
1-ap : wounds disinfictant from a pharmacy

My answer,hydrogen peroxide 3% from local wallmart, bimart, pharmacy or any local store , yes just stuff for sores or mouthwash, the concentrated Hydrogen peroxide from pool supply (spa) store, they also have many of the other chemicals I use.

2-stonnus chloride: am going to make it,

My answer, called stannous chloride lead free solder, 95% tin and HCl, to make my tin chloride test solution, also make a known gold solution, get familiar with this while you are READING HOKES BOOK.

3-hcl : a detergent liquid called FLASH

My answer
flash?I get my HCl hydrochloric acid from our building block(concrete dealer) or the local hardware store also called Muriatic acid.

4-clorox : is that the CLOROX brand?
my answer yes common bleach for washing clothes sodium hypochlorite grocery stores. (pool stores have alternatives)

5-iron sulphate : either make it or buy from a garden store.

My answerI make it, I know mine is fresh bright green crystals, if you buy make sure it is fresh and not oxidized brown, you need green.

am not going to start right away as i still want to gather more scrap.
sorry for many questions but am not good with chemistry.
i also dont know the ammounts to use.
hello

answer good job you will soon find the information you seek on the forum, more study and reading, start with general reaction list and make tests of how these metals react in these solutions and how to test for gold in solution, doing some expieriments, making Known gold solutions , making stannous chloride and testing them, do not get in a hurry, pick a material and find the best process for you, study it untill your ready to begin, you are on your way to getting your first gold button just don't rush and mess it up.

i have collected some scrap and seperated them in patches, (pins+fingers), (cpus), (small boards from cell phones+ memory cards).

answer good job


am not going to start right away as i still want to gather more scrap.
sorry  for many questions but am not good with chemistry.
i also dont know the ammounts to use. 

you will soon,be successful, you are on the right track, have you visited Laser-Steves site?


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## andees78 (Aug 9, 2010)

hello

thank you butcher for your help.
i did not visit steve website it is banned in sudan.
last night i decided to make a small test, i soaked some pins in a 2:1 flash:hp(0.06) ratio.
this morning i found the pins white in colour :?: , i was expecting that this will dissolve the base not the gold, can you explain?
the flash is white in colour, and labeled hydrogen cloride, is that ok?

thanks


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## lazersteve (Aug 9, 2010)

Andees said:


> i did not visit steve website it is banned in sudan.



Why is my site banned there?

Steve


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## andees78 (Aug 9, 2010)

hello steve

i think because its american.


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## butcher (Aug 14, 2010)

white powder can be copper I chloride, adding HCl will dissolve as dark brown liquid.
silver chloride and lead chloride is also white.


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## andees78 (Aug 19, 2010)

hello


Barren Realms 007 said:


> It is best to seperate these item and not process them together
> Take a magnet to the items and remove any steel and process it seperatley
> .



while reading through the post, its mentioned a lot that when dissolving base metals with AP, and there is some gold in the solution, one can drop this gold by adding copper in the solution because copper will replace gold.

so i guess that the reason for not dissoling magnetic pins, that contains iron, with the rest of the pins, is that iron will replace copper in the solution and it will drop with gold at the bottom of the beaker. so when am doing the washing with HCl it will not remove the copper.
am i going on the right track?
please correct if am wrong in these:
1- i cant drop gold from AP solutins using ferrus sulphate.
2-if i processed all pins together including iron plated ones, cant i disspose the first acid mix containing iron and later dissolve the copper mixed with gold in a fresh mixture. or how do i process iron plated pins?

thanks


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