# Where to start?



## Anonymous (Mar 5, 2007)

I see many guides offered on ebay regarding the electrolytic recovery cell but the more I read in this forum it seems that method takes a very long time.

I also read that there is chemical solutions that may work considerably faster, but only on certain gold items, for someone new to this as me what would be recommended?

Thank you in advance for helping a newbie like me out


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## Noxx (Mar 5, 2007)

There are many techniques available. They are all good but it depends on what you want to refine.

If you want to refine scrap jewelry, I recomand soaking gold in nitric acid then using the aqua regia technique.

If you want to recover gold from plated item, you should consider using the renverse electroplating technique.

Good luck !


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## Anonymous (Mar 5, 2007)

I'm thinking the acid peroxide mix discussed by lazersteve sounds like a very effecient and simple method, im not too into waiting for weeks for the electrolytic method, mostly because of the lack of room and free time I have available.

Hopefully he will post another great slide show or pictures about this method soon, then it I just need to learn more about dissolving the base metals, washing and how to melt with the borax flux 

Also I just found out my grandpa has a smaller kind of furnace with molds he used to melt lead with to make his own fishing weights, I hoping I may be able to use this to possibly melt gold and use the molds as well, I will post a picture and more info when I a get a chance to see it again.


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## lazersteve (Mar 5, 2007)

Chris,

Your grandfathers melter sounds pretty neat. You should make sure it gets hot enough to melt gold before you put any in it though. It should also be cleaned of all lead before you use it for gold. If it has a replaceable crucible, you should invest in a new one exclusively for gold. The melting point of lead is roughly 327 C while gold melts at 1064 C so it may not cut the mustard for gold. To test it out you could try it at melting copper since it melts at a higher temperature than gold does, around 1083 C. If it will melt copper without a hitch it should do gold as well.

Keep us posted!

Steve


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## socorban (Mar 5, 2007)

Hey steve, what do you use to melt your gold to pour into the mold???


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## lazersteve (Mar 5, 2007)

Socorban,

If I understand your question correctly, you want to know how I get the gold into the mold. I use a OCY/ACT rig to melt the gold and I pour it with this device I made myself:








It pivots up once the gold is molten for easy pouring preventing spills (molten gold spills really suck!):






I made it with a spring like action to secure the cupel above the mold. 
Here it is without the cupel.






You will get to see this in action when I complete my post on Smelting.

That's how I do it how do you do it?

Steve


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## socorban (Mar 5, 2007)

I dont do it yet, i just have about 2 1/2 ounces of small nuggets that i had to crush out of the borate (which i mentioned before im workin on makin it easier, including your advice)

I was debating buying one of those little gold melter bits but they are costly, however that is easier than i thought i just might have to rig something up like that, i prefer a nice bar over little nuggets beads anyday considerin with your help i now have a cool mold like that woo hoo.


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## lazersteve (Mar 5, 2007)

If you look closely, the mold in the photo is acutally reversible to make flat bars. Unfortunately the cupel I built my rig around doesn't hold enough gold to fill the mold so the bars come out uneven on one edge. Plus the bars are easily bent, whereas the rods hold their shape well.

I got this one from the ebay FindingKing:

See this post for the snapshot of the mold:

http://goldrefining.110mb.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=184&highlight=#184


Steve


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## Noxx (Mar 5, 2007)

Wow this pouring system is ingenious 
I like it.
I should consider into building one.


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## socorban (Mar 6, 2007)

yea steve, i went and got that exact mold! I cant wait to fill some up! it just came today, however, now i need new assay cupels (melting dishes) my last one is about spent. Anyone know where i can get them cheap????


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## Noxx (Mar 6, 2007)

I got mine on ebay


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## socorban (Mar 6, 2007)

Well then that makes 3 forum members who will be pumpin out gold rods then huh. Yea i hadda grab one to the first time steve and i spoke of the mold i went and snagged one of them too.

Now that i saw steves simple yet ingenious set up, this will be cake.

thanks again to steve!


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## Lucia (Mar 25, 2007)

Hello everybody. Great job with this site.CONGRATULATIONS. I'm new in this business (my business is related somehow- I'm working with semiprecious stones) and what I would like to know if any of you knows about equipement to recover all the base metals. As you all know base metals are also valuable, and is always good to earn EXTRA MONEY. All of us are doing this from passion and also to earn money. Our tummies want food too, isn't it?


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## Noxx (Mar 25, 2007)

Lucia be careful not to do Duplicates post (3 in this case )
Just click on «post» once. The message error you get means its ok


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## Noxx (Mar 25, 2007)

But to reply to your post,
Thanks ! I'm happy you like the forum.
What do you mean by equipment ? You can recover base metals with acids and precious metals as well.
Yes I think everyone here likes to have a little money from precious metals recovery ! :lol:


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## lazersteve (Mar 25, 2007)

Lucia,

Thanks for the question and welcome to the forum. I plan on covering the topic of base metals reclaiming when I get some free time. More or less you get all the good stuff out and then drop the base metals with Al scrap. The leftover solutions aren't safe to dispose of until you get the base metals like copper and nickel out. I've been working towards reusing some of the by products to get to the gold quicker.

Steve


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## Lucia (Mar 26, 2007)

Sorry Noxx  about that, I didn't know what's happening but I'm ok now and I won't do that. As I sayd I'm a newbie and I still have to learn more and more and more....... *As long as we're living we're learning. *Thank you Steve, Noxx and to all guys who share their experience. I thought that it might be a small scale recycling unit, but can anyone indicate me more about recovering base metals with acids or where I can find more about this procedure.


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## Harold_V (Mar 27, 2007)

Noxx said:


> But to reply to your post,
> Thanks ! I'm happy you like the forum.
> What do you mean by equipment ? You can recover base metals with acids and precious metals as well.
> Yes I think everyone here likes to have a little money from precious metals recovery ! :lol:



I think you'll come to discover that the recovered base metals (copper) will be next to impossible to liquidate for gain. It comes off as a dark, often fairly highly contaminated powder that must be melted and poured before you will attract any attention. At that state it could be sold as scrap copper, but the cost of melting, if you consider the damage to your crucible from fluxing, the cost of fuel to fire the furnace, and your time, you're far better off to discard the copper. When I closed the doors on my refinery, I had two 55 gallon barrels full of the stuff and ended up taking it to the dump, that with one of the world's largest copper refiners just miles from my location. 

For the record, the most economical way to precipitate the heavy metals from solutions is to introduce scrap steel, which will displace the metals in solution. 

It can also be pulled out electrolytically----but once again, economics would likely make that a bad choice. 

Harold


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