# My First Gold Refining



## Striker33 (Apr 14, 2020)

Hello everyone, I heard of this forum in one of Sreetips/Kadriver’s videos and this has been an incredible resource for learning about refining. After reading this forum in most of my free time and all of Hoke’s book for a couple months, I felt ready to attempt refining some material and ordered all the appropriate supplies to execute the process.

Thanks to everyone who points out safety concerns, because the constant reminder of the threats to our health from refining PM helped me and will help others avoid immediate injury/death and negative long-term health effects.

***The gold in the scrap/ewaste will still be there after you train yourself to handle acids and execute the process safely and correctly.

For this first refining, my starting material was 236 grains of gold/tin solder paste. This is the simplest type of scrap material that I have, which is why I chose to use it for my first attempt at the refining process using AR. The solder is the eutectic alloy with 80% Au by weight. After a double refining, my final yield is 99% of the expected value with 187 grains.

Here are some pictures throughout the process:







I used a map-pro torch from the hardware store and a broken corningware/pyroceram dish covering the melt for heat insulation. It took about 5 minutes to go from wet powder to flowing melt.




I know the shrinkage void is desirable when selling a pure button since it can help demonstrate high purity, but I want to keep it for now without getting junk caught in there so I remelted and slowly cooled the button with a propane torch to make a solid rounded surface.

Also, one thing I would like to see more of is how individuals are treating their waste solutions in line with their posts about primary refining activities. I am following the generally recommended process from 4metals and have angle iron replacing the dissolved tin in a 5-gallon bucket with a lid. Even though it’s a small volume of liquid, I want to make sure I know the full process, instead of keeping the waste indefinitely until I do enough refining to fill the bucket.

Thanks again to all the GRF contributors and good luck to all.


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## Shark (Apr 14, 2020)

Very Nice!

It is always good to see someone who takes the time to study and then execute a good plan. The results really pay off in the long term. I keep some plastic zip lock bags like some jewelry comes in. They are about an inch and half by two inches and Walmart carries some, just not as heavy of material. They make very nice pockets to keep gold and silver stored in and protect them from scratch's.


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## butcher (Apr 14, 2020)

Wow Nice gold, nice job preparing yourself and doing it right, it seems to be rare when a new member has not already jumped off a cliff before he asks how to use a parachute, and prepares himself and lands a nice gold nugget by spending the time to educate himself before he jumps in.

Nice job. 
Only problem after melting that nice gold your probably hooked it is very addicting.


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## Striker33 (Apr 15, 2020)

Thanks, Butcher and Shark! I would consider myself addicted to reading this forum and absorbing as much as I can. I have other types of scrap that will require other methods like AP and possibly smelting, so I have some research and planning ahead. Nothing beats getting the shiny button at the end.


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## butcher (Apr 15, 2020)

I like the avatar too. 
I cannot wait to see more of that pretty gold, my eyes cannot get enough, and its shine always puts a twinkle in my ole tired eyes.


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