# Refining Alaskan Placer Gold With Sodium Chlorate - VIDEO



## kadriver (Nov 7, 2017)

This video was a pain to make. The sodium chlorate - cold method - worked great.

There was so much free chlorine in the solution that I could not get the gold to drop:

https://youtu.be/Sz58SZx3nrs


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## Iggy-poo (Nov 7, 2017)

Nice video. All that Silver tells me the Gold should be inquarted and run through a Silver recovery cell. 
It would dissolve much faster and more completely. This would save having to carry out the subsequent recovery by inquarting the remainder. It must be passivating and really slowing down the reaction.


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## butcher (Nov 7, 2017)

I bet there is some gold with the silver button, of the metal melted 60% gold does not sound right.


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## nickvc (Nov 7, 2017)

I’m with you butcher that sounds a very low return, I’d have expected at least 90% Au and probably more.
I’d suggest a simple nitric digestion of that silver button just to check...


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## cuchugold (Nov 7, 2017)

It could be 'brazilian gold' in slang, AuTe2, gold telluride, naturally occurring as Calaverite. It fools most people easily. Its density is about half that of gold. I hope this is not the case. Very common fraud in the Brazilian north.


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## 4metals (Nov 7, 2017)

If the chlorides button is high silver, with low or no gold you would have started with an alloy that was 39% silver. Typically, gold with that high a silver content does not dissolve completely in acid. A nitric parting will tell the story. 

What is the typical composition of placer gold from the region where this was collected? It seems to be very high silver. 

Finally, the video was very nice but I especially enjoyed the segment at 12:50, it is so neat that you can see the gold drop and immediately re-dissolve before it gets to the bottom. This is usually not easily seen but because the solution was so clear from only having gold in solution it is plainly visible. And cool to see! It is the same thing that happens when there is too much nitric in solution and it is something that a lot of members don't get to see so vividly.


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## kadriver (Nov 7, 2017)

butcher said:


> I bet there is some gold with the silver button, of the metal melted 60% gold does not sound right.



Butcher, I agree. There has to be some gold in that silver. I've still got the silver button. I may do a seperate video and refine it to see how much gold it contains. It looks silver in the video, but in person it has a slight gold appearance. I tried to make 14k gold once, using no copper or zinc, just pure silver crystal and pure gold. It came out looking about like the silver button in this video. So as much as half of that button might be pure gold.


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## kadriver (Nov 7, 2017)

nickvc said:


> I’m with you butcher that sounds a very low return, I’d have expected at least 90% Au and probably more.
> I’d suggest a simple nitric digestion of that silver button just to check...



That's what I'll do, nitric digest of the silver button. I'll make a seperate video and post it soon.


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## kadriver (Nov 7, 2017)

cuchugold said:


> It could be 'brazilian gold' in slang, AuTe2, gold telluride, naturally occurring as Calaverite. It fools most people easily. Its density is about half that of gold. I hope this is not the case. Very common fraud in the Brazilian north.



I believe that there is some gold in that silver button. It may be as much as four grams. If yes, then that would make a gold yield of 13.8 + 4 = 17.8g or about 71% yield, and that's still mighty low.


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## kadriver (Nov 7, 2017)

4metals said:


> If the chlorides button is high silver, with low or no gold you would have started with an alloy that was 39% silver. Typically, gold with that high a silver content does not dissolve completely in acid. A nitric parting will tell the story.
> 
> What is the typical composition of placer gold from the region where this was collected? It seems to be very high silver.



I saved the silver button and I plan to do a nitric digest to see how much gold it contains. I'll make a video of it.

I forwarded the link for the video to Judy (the seller of the gold). She said that the fine stuff that she purchased from a prospector, and resold to me, may have come from a different spot than normal.


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## Shark (Nov 7, 2017)

Thanks for the recent videos, I enjoy them very much and learn some things along the way as well.


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