# precipitant



## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 6, 2007)

if any one could conferm ive been trying to refine for a while and finally got 4 gram out of 2 lbs of pins

ive lost alot of gold trying to learn and today finally got some gold yeap wooooow i was happy.

but i realized that when you add the urea stay tune to the bubbles if you wait to long to add the participant you might not be able to retrieve your gold.

can any one confirm or can you add the precipatent when ever you what


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## lazersteve (Mar 6, 2007)

PM,

Four grams for 2 pounds is a pretty good yield. The best I've seen for pins was slightly more than 3 grams per pound and that was from pins that were in a bag labeled 'Gemini Project', posssibly aerospace grade.

Steve


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 6, 2007)

hey steve isnt true you cant ait to long to participate if not you wont get your gold


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## socorban (Mar 6, 2007)

Precious metals,

Are you using the aqua regia (subzero) methods with urea?


oh, about the pins, funny thing, i got some off a guy on ebay a while back for dirt cheap, no one bid on em and i got 2 punds for 30$ but those pins only got me about 1.75 grams of gold per pound, now i see this same guy listing those pins a 60$ to start for one pound! What a jiff! your actually losing money just buying them! I talk to him now and then and i let him know there not the greatest and what they yeild, he didnt listen and listed about 6 more at the same price, needles to say i wont be lookin at those.


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## Noxx (Mar 6, 2007)

Precious metals,
I don't think you will loose gold if you don't add the precipitant immediatly after urea...


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 6, 2007)

im getting pins for at a great price high yield but im only using acid for 3 day ,the gold comes off then i use aqua regia, works great,

but sometimes i let the acid sit after urea and i cant get the gold out

this is only on cpu with aqua regia i test the acid and theres still gold 

but cant get it out, just did 2 pounds of pins and got 3.5 grams


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 6, 2007)

hey steve i can wait to try the reverse electroplating i like it i think it will save me time 

hows the video coming along


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## NaNO3 (Mar 6, 2007)

> but sometimes i let the acid sit after urea and i cant get the gold out
> this is only on cpu with aqua regia i test the acid and theres still gold



What is the ph of you mixture?
What did you use to try and drop the gold out?
I know of a way to get your gold back


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 7, 2007)

im using sodium meta but no reaction any ideas will help


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## lazersteve (Mar 7, 2007)

PRECIOUS METALS said:


> hey steve i can wait to try the reverse electroplating i like it i think it will save me time
> 
> hows the video coming along



The next segment was posted last night. It's short and basic. The next one will detail the construction of the cell.

Here's the link:
http://goldrefining.110mb.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64

Stay Tuned,

Steve


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## VAN (Mar 10, 2007)

is reverse plating the same as a cell?


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

Van,

When refering to Reverse Plating the 'cell' is what ever container you do the reverse plating in, the anode is the positive terminal, the cathode is the negative terminal, and the electrolyte is the acid mix in the cell.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Mar 11, 2007)

Some of those folks forget that gold is 9k - 23k that directly results in lower returns when refined. They think ALL gold is worth 650 or whatever spot is an ounce. Do some multiplication 14k is .583 x weight = your payout or 10k is .416 and so on.
Midas


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

One Karat is a twenty-fourth proportion (1/24).

9 kt would be 9/24= 37.5% Gold
10kt would be 10/24=41.7% Gold
14kt would be 14/24=58.3% Gold
18kt would be 18/24=75% Gold
22kt would be 22/24=91.7% Gold
24kt would be 24/24=100% Gold


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## Harold_V (Mar 11, 2007)

MIDAS said:


> Some of those folks forget that gold is 9k - 23k that directly results in lower returns when refined. They think ALL gold is worth 650 or whatever spot is an ounce. Do some multiplication 14k is .583 x weight = your payout or 10k is .416 and so on.
> Midas



That's based on all conditions being correct, and items made after changes in the gold marking regulations, time of which escapes me now, but it was in the late 1900's. 

Prior to the change, law allowed for ± ½K for alloy variation, plus ± ½K for soldered items, accounting for solder that may be deviate from fineness for soldered items. 

Consider graduation class rings. It was suggested that over a ton of gold was used annually in their manufacturing when they were routinely made of yellow gold. High school class rings were normally 10K gold, but rings from higher learning institutions were to be found in 14K gold. 

Go back to the high school rings and consider a couple things. If a ton of gold was stretched, intentionally, by manipulating the karat fineness by substituting copper and silver for gold, considering it's alloyed by weight, not volume, the very heavy gold is replaced by much lighter elements---with a resulting stretch of volume of roughly 10%-----one hell of a lot of class rings in the scheme of things. The manufacturers short changed the buyer, but remained on the edge of legality in doing so. 

I refined class rings by the pound and found the average yield to run every so slightly greater than 9K. That, indeed, would get someone's shorts in a knot if they expected a pound yield from a pound of scrap. 

Folks like that always made me shake my head. Why would their gold need refining if it was already pure? If it isn't pure, why would they expect a return equal to the starting weight? 

Dealing with uninformed people where gold is concerned is a difficult task. 

Harold


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## VAN (Mar 11, 2007)

I just perciped my first batch yea baby BUT it is still very black the second batch has a distinct separation of h2o and goooo. Can I go back add water and try the first batch again? or what do you do?
Van


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

Which method are you using to get the gold, one that dissolves the gold into solution or the electrolytic process?


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## Noxx (Mar 11, 2007)

If the gold you precipitated is black, it is not pure. It is about 23k. You may want to reprocess it in Aqua Regia to make pure gold.


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## Anonymous (Mar 11, 2007)

I'm using a cell glycerin and sulfuric. The remaining electrolyte is black


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## sandhog (Mar 11, 2007)

Steve,

Do you precipitate your peroxide/acid mix with SM or do you dilute and filter?
If you do precipitate with SM do you neutralize your acid first?

Thanks,

Bill


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

The acid-peroxide mix ratio I use does not attack the gold rapidly, this allows me to filter the gold off before it goes into solution. Then I use several acid washes followed by distilled water rinse, then the gold flakes go into the crucible, followed lastly by cupellation and molding. 

When I use acid-peroxide the metals that I'm dissolving are the base metals, not the gold. I'll be posting on this process in the near future.

Steve


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## sandhog (Mar 11, 2007)

Steve,

Thanks for the reply. I had a lot of gold flake left but I wasn't sure if there was anything left in solution after I filtered out the flakes.

-Bill


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## lazersteve (Mar 11, 2007)

Midas,

If your electrolyte was pale yellow to clear yellow when you started (like in the tutorial video) then you still have gold in the electrolyte. If the color is more blue green then you have a mixture of other base metals (lead, nickel, copper, etc.) . If the color is definitely tinted black then let it settle overnight. Pour off the blue-green electrolyte gently so as not to pour out any of the black powder in the bottom of the dilution jug. When you get the volume down to the level of the black powder pour it thru a set of 5 or 6 coffee filters moistened with distilled water. Then follow my instruction in the Wash-n-Weigh slideshow.

Steve


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## catfish (Mar 25, 2007)

Precious Metals:

In your article you asked about the amount of time to wait until you add the precipitant. I assume you are using Sodium Metabisulfite. 

First I have found that once I add disolved urea in hot water, I wait about fifteen minutes before I add the sodium metabisulfite. This seems to work best for me. I have several questions about how much metal you are desolving and how much Nitic acid is left in your mix when all the metal is desolved. I found that once my batch is desolved, I read the PH with a ph meter and then add enough (Urea disolved in hot water) untill the ph reaches about .20 to .80., Then wait and add the sodium Metabi sulfite, and stir well. I also have a new method of seperating the gold chloride from the solution. I let the solution set for a few hours and run it through a ceterfuge for a couple of minutes. This seperates the gold very fast and gets just about all of it. If you are interested in trying this method, email me back and I shall be happy to share the info with you.

Good luck,

Catfish


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## Noxx (Mar 25, 2007)

Hello CatFish and welcome !
Thanks for this info.
It would be great if you could post your centerfuge technique in the tutorial section.
Thanks !


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## aflacglobal (May 5, 2007)

Steve,
I love the video's.

Thanks,
Ralph


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