# new refiner, wondering how to proceed



## Austwar (Jun 5, 2011)

Ok so i did research(not too extensivly im afraid) and i have already put my cbs, fingers, pins and mother boards in to AR here is what i have so far...

1 i placed everything into a pyrex jar and placed it on a heating plate and slowly poured the AR solution over the material

2 i let it sit until there was no more visible reactions occuring and then filtered the solution into another beaker...the solution was a pure black but i proceeded anyway

3 i poured an equal amount of water into the soluion and finally so uniodized table salt in order to pull any silver out of soluion, i decanted, filtered and baged the white substance in the filters and at the bottom of the jar which i believe to be silver cloride

4 next i poured into my leftover soluion some sodium sulfate, decanted and filtered the soluion and now im left with what looks like sand with some pepper in it, i believe this is gold sulfide , i dont know what is left in the solution and i dont know if what i have is actually gold or not but i havent throw away anything i just dont want my efforts of have been a waste

i got my information from various sources and from http://www.49ermike.com/aqua_regia_clean.shtml


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## butcher (Jun 5, 2011)

STOP.

You will endanger yourself and others if you continue.

you are taking parts and pieces of processes and mixing them up, with the chemicals and metals we use this can get very dangerous.

what is your plan for the waste acids and products you are forming?

what is your next question where is my gold? or How do I get my gold back?


Please do not play with this untill you have spent time studying, and are sure what steps are needed, and what to do even if things do not work out as planned.

Take Harold's advice READ HOKE'S BOOK. or find a safe hobby.


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## element47 (Jun 5, 2011)

Respectfully, I am not going to tell you what you did right or what you did wrong, because I am still in the learning phase of this process. Nevertheless, I will predict what others with infinitely more experience than I have are probably going to tell you: 

Such learning includes 1: having a very strong idea of exactly what you are going to do, each step, every step, and what you should expect at every step and what you need to see (or test for) before you go to the next step. 2: Understanding that pins and plated items are treated differently than fingers, for example. At least they are on this forum according to everything I've read so far. 

I have never seen on this forum (though it may be a perfectly valid means of processing) a step involving adding sodium sulfATE. The site you linked shows to add sodium sulFITE. Perhaps it does not matter. 

My guess (and it's only a guess) would be that if indeed you have gold sulfide, the next step would be roasting; to heat the solid and to drive off the sulfur in the form of fumes, a gas, leaving you with metallic gold. I just don't understand what happened to the tin and lead and other crud your ore almost certainly contained. 

The process you linked to is for ore. I don't understand why such ore would not be treated with at least hydrochloric acid in an effort to wash out and dissolve base metals that you certainly don't want in your end product. (But me not understanding it, again, means very little) I am saying that I do not understand why you would treat your raw material with the STRONGEST acid(s) [Nitric, AR] which will dissolve essentially EVERYTHING without trying to get rid of stuff you don't want with hydrochloric acid which can dissolve out the base metals (or at least some of them) without touching your gold.


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## Claudie (Jun 5, 2011)

Would you also jump from a plane at 20,000 feet and worry about learning how to use a parachute on the way down? :|

I really like the guys disclaimer _"Tom Ashworth (the author) shall not be liable for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the furnishing or use of this material. I have no control over how you do these procedures. This procedure works for me and if something gets messed up it is *your problem, not mine!*"_

I think you should follow the advice already given and stop before someone gets hurt.


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## Austwar (Jun 5, 2011)

I assure you i took every precation when conducting this expiriment and wore full chemical protective gear in the open not in a building.

once i was finished with the chemicals my plan was to mix it with water and concrete but i am not ready to do that just yet

would i use the stannous test to make sure there is not more gold left in my solution?


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## jimdoc (Jun 5, 2011)

How much stuff is it exactly that you put in the Pyrex jar?

Jim


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## qst42know (Jun 5, 2011)

> would i use the stannous test to make sure there is not more gold left in my solution?



Yes you can do a stannous test, you should have been testing all along, but you aren't yet ready to proceed. 

Have you saved all solids and solutions? If you have your gold isn't gone.


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## goldsilverpro (Jun 5, 2011)

Austwar,

For many years, I've heard of Tom Ashworth but that's the first time I've read anything written by him. He's sort of a famous guy among amateur prospectors. Very disappointing, though. His safety instructions are actually the best part his process, with some exceptions - nitric acid poisoning (what does that mean?), HCl burning to the bone, etc. They can both burn you (and your shoes) bad, but this is a bit exaggerated.

The process, itself, is full of ignorance. 

For example, in step #6, he says to neutralize an acidic residue in the filter with an acid (lime juice) and then discard it (very questionable). In step #26, he said to neutralize the waste acid with lime juice. Anyone that's been on the forum for a week knows this is BS. It takes a base to neutralize an acid. Acids don't neutralize acids. 

In step #18, he adds sodium sulfITE to the gold bearing aqua regia solution and then says that the gold that drops is in the form of gold sulfIDE. More BS. Any gold that drops from aqua regia (actually, an acidic chloride solution, sort of) with sodium sulfite is metallic gold powder, as far as I know. Maybe he meant to say to add sodium sulfIDE instead of sodium sulfITE. In any case, Austwar, it's not sodium sulfATE, as you said in your post. 

Step#8 (adding salt) is ridiculous because the silver chloride has already been precipitated by the chloride in the aqua regia and is now in the filter (Step #6), which he tells you to discard (throwing the baby out with the bath water).

His writeup is so amateurish that it's hard to follow. I didn't spend that much time on it and I may have misunderstood what he said. If so, I apologize to him for my comments. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's discovered some new chemistry that I'm not aware of.

You've wandered into the only place on the internet where you will find the truth about these things. The more stuff I read, like that coming from Mr. Answorth, the more I'm convinced of that. Forget everything you think you know and start over. Search, Read, and Study.


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## butcher (Jun 5, 2011)

Austwar, 
stannous chloride will tell you if you still have gold in solution, but only if you have eliminated the nitric acid(read up on evaporating nitric from aqua regia), you can test just a small portion of acid in test tube, it sounds as if you dissolved base metals along with values in solution, was there any elemental metal un-dissolved (even if they are not exposed like under solder mask or inner copper traces of circuit boards), it also sounds as though you dissolved solder in your mix, the tin and lead will give you much trouble, not much silver will be dissolved in aqua regia most of it would just form a white powder silver chloride, I doubt you have much silver from what you processed, some silver will go into solution but not much.

We can go on with what is wrong here, but you will learn all that by reading here on the forum and studying Hoke's book, you will probably need to cement any values on copper buss bar if they are still in solution, save any un-dissolved metals they would hold your values.

Read the posts on dealing with wastes, much safer than just mixing with cement.

sorry for being so abrupt on the first response, but reading one thing on the web and jumping into it is just dangerous, You have found the very best place to learn to refine valuable metals, it will take some time patients and a lot of fun studying, you can not imagine what you will learn by doing so,
Refine you can do it and very well, first study, then ask questions, we want to see you produce some fine gold.


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## dtectr (Jun 6, 2011)

This thread is a JOKE, right??? :shock: :shock: :shock:


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## Harold_V (Jun 6, 2011)

Austwar said:


> I assure you i took every precation when conducting this expiriment and wore full chemical protective gear in the open not in a building.
> 
> once i was finished with the chemicals my plan was to mix it with water and concrete but i am not ready to do that just yet
> 
> would i use the stannous test to make sure there is not more gold left in my solution?


<<<<<<<<<<sigh>>>>>>>>>>>
Did you not say your solution is black?

Wonder why? (Had this worked, it would be dark green in color)

Let me give you a bit of advice. 

Lose the notion that you're going to achieve the desired results by following ANYONE'S advice to process boards and pins with AR. Lose it, and lose it now. 

Read Hoke. 

Read Hoke again.

Read Hoke until you understand how to process gold bearing materials, regardless of their nature. When you understand the basics, you'll be able to see what you're doing wrong. 

Please read Hoke. Read Hoke again. Study Hoke until you understand. Mean time, put everything away for future recovery of the value you've screwed up. 

Harold


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## jeneje (Jun 6, 2011)

Austwar said:


> Ok so i did research(not too extensivly im afraid) http://www.49ermike.com/aqua_regia_clean.shtml



:roll: interesting, forget the 49ermike before his bs kills you. Oh yeah this is why people die doing refining reading sites like the great 49ermike. 

Just to 8)


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## butcher (Jun 9, 2011)

Dumping that cement with metals like lead, and others from circuit boards, many of us may die refiners or not.

Good thing he found the forum Now if he studies we will have another safe refiner, making shining buttons of gold.


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