# Help! New to forum! Have media from plating operation



## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

Hello,

Must be Gods will! I wandered upon this forum!
I recently had a friend call me and ask if I wanted to buy some more silver and along with the silver purchase came 90+ pounds of plating media(little balls and rice shaped steel) used in the plating tumblers that gets plated along with the connectors - well I ended up with about half the media being steel balls plated copper - nickle - gold the other half being silver plated . I had a friend send samples out for assay and there should be between 10 to 15 ounces of gold according to assay and 2 to 3 pounds of silver- a refiner tried to process some of the gold balls and had problems with the steel balls in the middle. I took the mess he handed back and it seems like I may have gotten a few ounces out of what he messed up using a AR prcess - in the AR I get a white or greenish white floaty layer that messes everything up and I spend a lot of time filtering - I am kinda new to AR refining and need some pointers - I have 30 - 40 pounds on little steel balls plated copper nickle gold and ther should be about 5 or 10 ounces of gold on them and I dont want to waste it away doing stuff wrong! And I havent even attempted processing the steel balls plated in silver yet for fear I will do something wrong!!!!!!!!
any help would be appreciated!

Glynn


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## NuggetHuntingFool (Jan 4, 2008)

Perhaps they'd respond if you put up some photographs of your material.

Good Luck


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

Do I just add attachment from my pictures?

Glynn


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

I think I had to many pixels or something! This is the media - I have the box full of silver balls and the bags full of gold balls plated copper nickle gold with stainless or steel balls inside!

Glynn


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

That I could use a rock tumbler to abrasively tumble the copper nickle gold off the balls and then use mercury to amalgum off the copper and gold and the AR the copper gold amalgum instead of messing with the steel balls in an AR reaction - ant help would be appreciated!

Glynn


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## lazersteve (Jan 4, 2008)

Absolute,

Welcome to the forum.

I'd be happy to pay you for a few samples of the scrap and do some tests to determine the best route for recovery.

PM me and I'll send you my info.

Do you know if the steel is stainless and if so what grade?

I'll post the results to the forum.

Steve


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

I dont know the type of steel - I was told it was stainless but it is magnetic!

Send me your address and I will get an ounce of each type sent out to you!
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glynn


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## lazersteve (Jan 4, 2008)

Glynn,

PM sent. Check your PM box.

Steve


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## jimdoc (Jan 4, 2008)

There are forms of stainless that are magnetic,
I think the steel used in catalytic converter cases 
is one of them (304?)


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 4, 2008)

THE NICKEL PLATING IS ALSO MAGNETIC!!

The balls are used as conductive media, in barrel (a tumbler) plating of small parts that are not 100% metallic. They assure that all metallic portions of the parts will eventually make electrical contact and all will plate evenly.

Based on the assay, the balls started out much smaller than they are now. They are used over and over until they get too fat to work properly. Therefore, there are, most probably, 100's of cycle layers, each with Cu/Ni/Au layers. The same with the silver ones.

Each refining deal is different, depending on the metals involved, their thicknesses, variation in the sub-layers, and the ball material, itself. I have run many 100's of batches of barrel ball media, barrel danglers, and plating rack nodules, all of which have these same multiple layers of various metals. When dissolving, certain metal combinations require a lot of ingenuity. The big refiners would simply melt them with extra copper (to lower the melting point) and ship the bars. We little guys often have to think harder than the big guys.

You will be much better off if you can work a way to just dissolve the plating, and not the steel. It would keep things much simpler, create much less waste, and use much less acid. It will take 45 gallons of AR to dissolve everything. You might be able to use only 1 to 5 gallons of acid, if you could use nitric to dissolve only the plating, but not the steel.

On the silver balls, you almost have to use nitric. Aqua regia would gum up the works with silver chloride. 

I would first experiment with using just nitric on the balls, a few balls at a time. If the gold is of typical thickness, it will be porous and will allow the nitric to penetrate the gold pores and dissolve the Cu/Ni. On the silver balls, the silver will also be dissolved. 

*Stainless Steel Balls.* This will work fine if the balls are of stainless steel, which is not attacked by nitric. Just make up a 50/50, nitric/water mixture and put it the hot plate. This is the first thing you should try, on a few balls. Assume they're stainless. You will soon know. 

If of mild steel, nitric is touchy. If too weak, it will attack the steel. If too strong, the attack on the plated metals will be slow. Also, temperature plays a big part in this.

*Here's what I would try first, with mild steel balls:*

*(1)* Add a few clean balls to a small beaker. Cover with full strength technical or reagent grade nitric acid. Watch for a reaction. The best thing that could happen is that the nitric would eat all of the plating, leaving the gold flakes and steel untouched. A little heat can be applied to speed things up. If it's going too slow or, if nothing dissolves, go to step (2).

*(2)* Add 1%, by volume, of water to the nitric, stir, and repeat step (1). If that doesn't work, add another 1% of water. Repeat until you can dissolve all the plating layers. 

*Notes:* 
1 - Mild Steel - If it goes fast, especially in production, it may overheat and attack the steel. You may have to cool it a little. 
2 - Mild Steel - I would guess that the mild steel will be attacked with about 5% to 8% water added. 
3 - Mild Steel - There are 3 crucial variables - nitric, water, and temperature. Odds are good that a certain combination of these will dissolve the Cu and Ni and leave the Au and Fe behind. 
4 - All Types of Balls - The gold flakes are separated from the steel by washing. 
5 - Silver - In the case of silver, dilute the solution about 50/50 and drop out the silver with copper.
6 - All Types of Balls - Nitric may not work, but it's very much worth a try. If it doesn't work, use AR.
7 - All Types of Balls - If nitric does work, in production I would probably drill a lot of small holes in a small bucket and dunk the balls into a larger bucket that contains a few inches of acid.
8 - All Types of Balls - You might be able to whack a ball with a hammer or squeeze it with a vise, to see the layers. Nickel is fairly brittle. 

*Notes on Aqua Regia:* In the total dissolving of everything, Fe, when finally exposed, will tend to go first and Au will go last. I have found that, if about 10% of the steel is still left undissolved but exposed, none of the gold will be dissolved. *Test the solution for gold, anyway!* This is partially predictable by the electromotive series. 


After all this is said and done, the best way, in this particular combination of metals, would be to dissolve all the plating with a cyanide mixture or electrolytic cyanide, leaving all of the steel behind. The nickel might be a small problem, but could be solved with additives. The gold is then dropped with zinc dust. I'm not even suggesting the use of cyanide. That great privilege was pretty much taken away from us a long time ago.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

Thanks for the input!

I weighed out 200 g of gold plated rice sized/shaped tumbling/plating media and placed it in 100ml of con nitric acid in a 500ml flat bottom boiling flask. I have left it outside on my workbench at about 50 F - I will leave it there untill tonight and see what happens. Should I put it on my hotplate and bring it to a boil later? and if nothing happens then add 1ml of distilled at a time to see if that works?

Glynn


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 4, 2008)

I would first use about *2 grams* of media, covered with 50/50 nitric and strongly heated. You may have to boil it to dissolve the plating, but, probably not - avoid boiling, if you can. This is only an experiment - don't forget that you have 90# of the stuff to deal with. The first thing to find out is whether the core is stainless or mild steel. The hot 50/50 nitric won't attack stainless. It will very likely attack mild steel, unless it's some weird alloy that I haven't run up against.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

Im sorry   - I didnt fully read your post and went ahead and did a big experiment :shock: as ussual instead of a small controlled one - Well I have 200 g's of rice shaped and likely sized media in 100 ml of 80-90% nitric the acid is starting to turn green and I saw some small bubbles - should I leave it alone or heat - add water???????

G


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 4, 2008)

Is it stainless or is it mild steel? The answer will determine how you finish the 200 grams. Take 1 gram of media, cover with 50/50 nitric, and boil until the action stops. Add a little more acid to see if more action occurs. When no more will dissolve, look at the media. If all you see is non-corroded metal, you have stainless. Once you've done this, rinse and let it dry, and post a photo of the stripped media.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 4, 2008)

Got it on the hot plate doing a sane as instructed amount to see whats inside - its bubling away!

THANK YOU!!!!

G


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 5, 2008)

really doing much  :? - how many hours and I just unplugged the hotplate and set it aside to rest - no real noticable change - I think due to the fact that this came from a mil-spec plating operation that the plate might be to thick. The batch in lab grade nitric acid isnt doing much but looking like boiling chips. I tried another batch with hybrid nitric via soidium nitrate and sulfuric acid and that one acted like an AR reaction with red fumes and has foil floating around but seems to have peatered out - so I added some nitric lab grade to see if it would keep going and that was a mistake - now there is with curdy stuff in the mix 

Man I gotta stop playing mad scientist! :twisted: :twisted: LOL!

G


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## Harold_V (Jan 5, 2008)

jimdoc said:


> There are forms of stainless that are magnetic,
> I think the steel used in catalytic converter cases
> is one of them (304?)



None of the 300 series stainless materials are magnetic unless they are work hardened, and then only mildly. The 400 series is magnetic, as are the precipitation hardening varieties---17-4 PH, 17-7 PH, 15-8 PH. There are others that are also magnetic, such as A 286.

None of the 300 series can be heat treated, although heating to redness will relieve a work hardened condition. 

If the balls have but one layer of plating, not repetitive layers, stripping in a sulfuric cell would be in your best interest. If they have precious metals covered by base metals (copper and nickel), that, of course, won't work. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 5, 2008)

I'm guilty of making this thing more confusing than it really is. This type stuff you have is one of the most difficult things to refine (or, at least, dissolve) on the planet. It is made up of, most likely, 100's of multiple layers of multiple metals. You really don't know if only Cu, Ni, And Au are involved. Maybe, the guy used them for other metals that you can't see. Maybe, the Ag ones are the same as the others, except silver was the last thing they were used for. 

Knowing the huge metals variations and numbers of layers found on this stuff, I tried you get you to experiment on small amounts. I first picked 50/50 nitric, because, if it worked, you would be better off. Also, the info made it sound feasible. However, it doesn't seem to have worked. The gold could be too thick. There could be other metals involved. Before eliminating nitric altogether, I would try boiling 80/20, nitric/water on a couple of pieces.

If this doesn't work, you have to try other things

Have you tried aqua regia yet, on a couple of pieces? You may have to heat it. Let me know what happened. 

Send Steve some samples and let him play with them. I wish I had a lab.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 6, 2008)

So I checked the rice grains in nitric and nothing happened  - then I check the rice in hybrid nitric and it ate away at some and I had foil floating around in green acid with white percipitate that occoured after I added a little distilled water (AS POSTED IN MY DISTILLED WATER POST THIS HELP SECTION) 

I decided to pour off all the fluids into seperate beakers untill I can get answers and figure stuff out!

I still had the itch :twisted: so I noticed a batch of the silver balls I did in hybrid and it was a yellow white mess of gunk with grey and copper balls - SOOOO I poured off the mess rinsed the balls and added con nitric to see what the base material of the balls might be as GSP requested - the balls took off red fumes (good nitric!) AND NOW I HAVE A BUNCH OF GOLD BALLS! LOL! LOL!

DAM THESE GOLD BALLS!!!!!! JUST LIKE YOU SAID GSP , DONT KNOW WHAT OR HOW MUCH THEY ARE PLATED!!

But I do know that this aerospace mil-spec connector manufacturer - BIG NAME - closed the plating operation and moved out of town - they only plated MIL-SPEC and only plated copper nickle gold and silver! So those are the four metals on the balls I WILL GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THESE BALLS to find out what they are stainless or mild steel! (I was told they are stainless)

Some foil was floating in the green blue acid above so I am going to see what happens overnight!

I NEED HELP!!

WHAT DO I DROP FIRST OUT OF ACID AND HOW?

90 + pounds of balls and more gold than I thought ( DAM SILVER BALLS ARE TURNING GOLD :evil: ) and IM LOST  !!!!!!!!!

Glynn


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## Harold_V (Jan 6, 2008)

From your description, I think you'd have reasonable success by processing with hot nitric acid and water. The only thing that wouldn't go in to solution would be gold (and, hopefully, the core piece), and with a bit of luck, the gold won't be too thick to prevent penetration of the nitric. By prolonged boiling, you should be able to penetrate to the core, assuming the gold is porous enough. 

For starters, you're making a mistake working with a large volume of these things. Start with just a few pieces and test various methods. That way you won't find yourself in a position that you would have been better off to avoid. Once you've determined a good process, you can go for it with confidence. 

The nitric boil is a good place to start. If, by chance, the core is stainless, you're home free. Stainless (300 series) is not dissolved by nitric. It is also non-magnetic, so if the items you have are not magnetic, that's likely what they are. 

If the above doesn't work, your choice might be to boil them until a gold layer is exposed, then strip the gold with a sulfuric cell. Return the pieces to nitric and water, and repeat until you're down to the core piece. 

I strongly advise against the use of AR to strip the gold, if for no other reason, it will react with the core piece, as well as the base metals. Keep a good thought that the core isn't iron (steel), which would not be in your best interest. Another negative with AR is that it will form an impervious layer of silver chloride on the items, possibly stopping the process. 

Regards recovering the values, don't worry about that right now. Until you have a process that's viable, you'll not have anything to recover. 

The spent nitric and water solution will contain silver, at least it should. It can be recovered either on copper, or with salt. I recommend the copper process.

When (if) you process as I suggested, don't use any more nitric than is necessary. Start with a small amount, with water, and allow it to work. If action ceases, pour off the solution and start with more. The whole idea is to not have excessive nitric when the operation is complete. If you recover the silver with copper and there's excessive nitric, it will dissolve the copper until it's well used up, creating lots of fumes and wasting your copper. 

Regards the nitric process-----if you dissolve silver in the presence of copper, you can expect the copper to precipitate the silver unless you keep the acid level up. If you notice a gray substance forming on the items, that's likely silver cementing out of solution. 

Hope some of this helps!

Harold


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 6, 2008)

I had some soaking in hybrid nitric and it was a white yellow gunky mess as I stated before - I poured of the mess to wait to figure it out later and washed the balls and added straight lab grade nitric (my last stock) and it reacted well with red fumes - I ended up with a flask full of gold balls and dark blue/green acid solution with salt crystal looking percipitate (SILVER?) (as shown in pics) so I removed the balls with a maganet and left the percipitate and blue/green acid for a later date when I know what to do with it.
Some of the sliver balls totally stripped and are shiney silver/white metal (as shown in pics)

All the balls are magnetic - some are a little blackened and silver and the little cup contains all of them the black pan has the gold balls that look like with some new acid will go the same as the sivler ones! 

HUMMMMM! They used these balls in all the plating - gold - silve - nickel and copper - SOOOO I am dealing with 5 metals here! HMMMM!

G


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 6, 2008)

You'll never know whether the balls are non-magnetic 300 SS until you get all the nickel off one of them. Pure nickel plating is very strongly attracted to a magnet. Try vise grips and strongly squeeze one of the balls. Maybe, you can get enough pressure on a ball to break the plating enough to expose all layers. Then, use the hot nitric. I know that you can't do this in production, but, at least, you may find out what the core is.

Most of the common 400 series SS's aren't attacked with nitric that is at least 50%, by volume. Some, like 409, are more likely to be attacked.



I Just thought of a possibility. Mix up a small batch of the following recipe and run a couple of fresh balls in it. You may, or may not, need heat. Try it without heat first. Without heat, I think it will dissolve the gold, Cu, and Ni, without eating any type of stainless. It may take a day or two at room temp, but that's alright. Silver may prevent the dissolving, especially if it's layers are too thick. 

All parts are by volume:

50 parts nitric acid 
5 parts hydrochloric or muriatic acid
45 parts tap water

I have processed 1000's of ozs of gold with this solution. The problem with this is the large amount of nitric to get rid of before you can drop the gold. However, I have discovered that elimination of the nitric is totally unnecessary if you use mono hydrazine sulfate (lets call it MHS) to drop the gold. You just sprinkle the powder in, then stir, and the gold drops. Doesn't take much. The reaction is very stoichiometric (100% efficient) when reacting with the gold.

MHS is somewhat carcinogenic and a mask should be worn. However, it is shipped slightly moist to prevent dusting. The moisture causes clumps which must be broken up. I used to break them up by mashing them with the bottom of a 100ml beaker, in a flat-bottomed dish. I think a blender would work great. We need a MSDS for this chemical. Lots of things are carcinogenic. I had a good feeling that, if common sense and basic safety precautions are used, this chemical is pretty safe to work with. I would use gloves, a mask, and a fume hood or good exhaust.

Some of the pro refiners use MHS for the Pt Gp, also. I haven't tried this, but I seem to remember that it requires some pH control. I think I also remember seeing patents on it.

It seems you have quite a bit of money there. We'll eventually get you going, if you keep detailing, to us, what you've done and what the results are.


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## Lou (Jan 6, 2008)

Hydrazine sulfate works terribly well for reducing almost anything, cleanly as well. Sulfate and nitrogen are the products. Much, much safer than straight up hydrazine.

I use it for the PGMs.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 6, 2008)

AS GSP asked 

I took some hybrid nitric I had sitting in a flask and added water and a few droppers full of HCL and the nickel balls - it took off like crazy - I got my teflon stirrer extractor and pulled the balls out and took this picture - they are down to the base ball metal and are rusty and still magnetic.

What does this tell us??

Im screwed because they arent hi grade stainless RIGHT! 

This isnt gonna be easy huh!!?????

G


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## Lou (Jan 6, 2008)

Well as long as you can get all the gold off without wasting too much nitric acid, you should be just fine. You'll have to re-refine the gold another time through. First time you'll get gold, but other stuff will co precipitate. Harold posted an excellent washing procedure to get rid of most base metals.


After I had the crude gold powder, I'd rinse water, then boil with nitric, remove from that, rinse again, give it rinse of HCl, then finally ammonia, and the another rinse with water. After that, dissolve it all over again in aqua regia or AP, and precipitate with whatever you like. 



You have any sort of yield on these guys yet?


Edited.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 6, 2008)

No yield yet - just did a small batch of the silver coated balls to see what thaey are before any plating was done. I have noted that I disolved 400g's of silver balls and I will see what come out of that and post it - I also have 200g's of gold rice shaped media sitting in nitric right now and the gold plating is slowly coming off them. When I can get back outside I will fire up the hotplate and see if some heat helps out again!

Glynn


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## Harold_V (Jan 7, 2008)

Lou said:


> After I had the crude gold powder, I'd rinse water, then boil with nitric, remove from that, rinse again, give it a nitric HCl, then finally ammonia, and the another rinse with water. After that,, dissolve it all over again in aqua regia or AP, and precipitate with whatever you like.



That's a bit confusing, or perhaps I didn't quite grasp your point. As I interpret the comment, you suggest a wash with nitric/HCl, which would simply dissolve the gold. 

I never washed with nitric, and don't recommend anyone do so. It's fine before gold has been dissolved, but once you've precipitated the gold, even if the intention is to process it a second time, I always suggest one avoid using nitric until such time that you actually re-dissolve the gold. 

My rationale, for what it's worth, is that it's almost impossible to remove all traces of chlorides from the precipitated gold, so you end up re-dissolving some of the gold when your intention is simply to wash it. 

I suggest a wash in HCl and water, a rinse in water, a wash in ammonium hydroxide, a rinse in water, a wash in more HCl, and a final rinse in water. That way you don't risk re-dissolving any of the gold until you're ready to do so. 

All of my washes and rinses are taken to the state of boiling, and allowed to work until I see no changes in the solution. I found that each batch had different requirements, depending on the nature of the precipitated gold, and the level of contaminants that were present. 

Harold


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## aflacglobal (Jan 7, 2008)

They look like Civil War musket balls now.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 7, 2008)

I wasnt even trying to recover values - I was just trying to get to the center of the tootsie pop!!!!! LOL!!!!!

If you look at my distilled post you can see the gold flakes that I filter off to work later when I have more as well as the silver that I cemented out!

This was just a batch of silver balls (I have 50+ more #'s ) I have the gold balls (40 + #'s) to work but everyone wanted to know whats in the center -0 so thats what I was trying to do!

I want to thank everyone for helping me! I am keeping track of what you guys say - and its working! :wink: 

THANK YOU!
    
Glynn


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## Harold_V (Jan 7, 2008)

Absolutsecurity said:


> What does this tell us??



One thing it tells me is that you may not be seeing rust, but cemented gold. If the balls came out as they appear, that's probably not rust. If, on the other hand, they were not rusted until after they were washed, I'm wrong. 

Here's the problem with base metals. As you dissolve the values, acid is consumed. When the acid level isn't high enough to continue dissolving the values, the base metal starts precipitating the values. In the process, the base metal(s) go in to solution, and the values are converted to a solid. Although gold appears to your eye as a shiny yellow metal, that isn't necessarily true of precipitated gold. It commonly precipitates as finely divided particles, which do not reflect light in the same way that a solid piece does. The result can be anything from a light tan to an almost black precipitate. The color on the balls very much reminds me of such a precipitate. You might test a few by vigorously rubbing to see if it wipes off, or shifts to the more familiar color of gold. 

Assuming they are iron (steel), and assuming they are doing what I suggest, all is not lost. They can still be processed by acid, but you'd have to be smart in how you'd handle them. One way would be to dissolve the entire mess, then selectively precipitate the values, with the idea in mind that you'd have to re-process the gold due to heavy contamination from drag down. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 7, 2008)

AS,

What do you mean by "hybrid" nitric? Nitric made with a nitrate and sulfuric? If so, we've been talking apples and oranges.

If you are using "real" nitric, repeat the 50/5/45, HNO3/HCl/H2O experiment again. But, *MEASURE!!* the chemicals this time. I would also try 2% HCl, instead of 5%.

I'd still like to see what happens, on one ball, with aqua regia made with "real" nitric. Except for silver, it should dissolve everything. You may have to ultimately do this, if all else fails. If you do, I'm thinking you can drop out the gold with a copper buss bar. Copper not only works on silver, it also works on gold and the PGM's. 

Most every brain on the forum is trying to help you do this. Like I said, this type stuff is extremely complicated to dissolve. 

I hope every member reads this thread and I hope more join in. It's terribly instructive because it gets to the core of what experimentation, practical dissolving, and the chemistry, are all about.


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## lazersteve (Jan 7, 2008)

Glynn,

I just home from work and your samples have arrived (WOW that was fast!).

I started off by melting a single gold BB with my torch (about 10 seconds to melt; it produced lots of sparks) and then tossed it in some plain Jane muriatic acid (31.45%). After a little heat was applied the reaction kicked in (3 minutes heat time) and the iron core is now dissolving rapidly. 

Once the core is gone I'll take the residue up with some HCl-Cl and see what comes out.

This is my first idea , despite the fact that it may be impractical with the quantitiy of these BB's that you have. It definitely seems to be working with HCl.

I'll try a few more experiments with some other ideas to see which is best. I really like GSPs approach.

Steve


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 7, 2008)

Hey Steve,

I sent them priority mail! LOL!!

Did you get my post and PM on the other post? Im worried - I watch your video and I thought if I used nitric on the silver balls and used copper to cement I wouldnt have and chlorides just silver metal - PLEASE TELL ME IM NOT WRONG PLEASE!!



Hey GSP,

I just got some more nitric 70% - so I will try again with one ball with the measured way you say - whats wrong with the hybrid nitric? I used con sulfuric drain cleaner and sodium nitrate dry and had it sitting soaking for a week before I poured off to use it. ( its not real nitric huh?) 

Glynn


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## lazersteve (Jan 7, 2008)

Glynn,

I posted a reply to both your PM and the other post. If you used copper to drop the silver you are good to go, it just looks very white in the photo (like silver chloride).

The 'hybrid' nitric is real, if you kept it below 0 C for over a week you definitely have some quality nitric. The reason GSP has concerns is due to salts which may not fully convert in the 'hybrid' method if you rushed the reaction. If you follow my directions to the letter you will have next to no salts dissolved in the 'hybrid' nitric. Another source of impurities in the 'hybrid' nitric are buffers and junk from drain openers (dark black colored) if they are used instead of the concentrated battery acid (clear).

Steve


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 7, 2008)

MAKIN MEATBALLS I'LL BE BACK! LOL!

G


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## Platdigger (Jan 7, 2008)

Steve, about the 'hybrid' nitric, what about any chlorides or iodines that may be in the sodium nitrate?
Randy


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## Lou (Jan 8, 2008)

If there are halides present, you will see a precipitate if there is silver or lead in solution. A good analytical test for lead and silver is the formation of their highly insoluble iodides. Even very dilute lead solutions will produce a yellow iodide precipitate.

So if your nitric is contaminated, you will have a hazy solution, and it will work less effectively. The only ways around this problem are to a.) distill the nitric acid, b.) use a reagent grade nitrate salt that is halide free. Remember to use distilled water.


Edit: I was thinking, if he can get ahold of some KCN, that would be a very good method to strip off the gold cleanly and quickly.


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 9, 2008)

Hey GSP I did that 50 45 2 deal and the ball started fizzing and then got coated with white fuzz and I broke some off and it keep getting fuzzed up again - I pulled the ball out and there was a gold coating under the white fuzz - I chipped some of the white fuzz off and have a half rusty ball and gold - see pics..

G


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 9, 2008)

Your gonna like the rice grain gold pieces I sent you - had som soaking in nitric for 4 -5 days and put it on the hotplate tonight - gold flakes galore!!

G


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## aflacglobal (Jan 11, 2010)

This is a good thread.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Jan 14, 2010)

I agree. 

What kind of results were obtained with the process and how was this finally produced effectively?


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## Palladium (Mar 25, 2010)

8)


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## Richard NL (Apr 25, 2016)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> What kind of results were obtained with the process and how was this finally produced effectively?


http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1572&p=36699#p13291
After that, it goes further http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=1613#p13530

Edit, added second link!

Best regard,
Richard.


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