# Inquartation A - Z



## samuel-a (Jan 26, 2011)

*Hi all.

The complete Inquartation tutorial is now released. Two parts article plus 40 minutes +- video tutorial.*

Refining Karat Gold and Silver Jewelry using Inquarting method - Part 1

Refining Karat Gold and Silver Jewelry using Inquarting method - Part 2


*Please post here your comments, suggestion or any other thing you would like to say about the process.

Good luck and please stay safe.*


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## sng (Jan 27, 2011)

This isn't a constructive comment, by any means, but I feel obliged to say thank you. The effort that went into this post is what makes goldrefiningforum.com the most helpful gold refining forum on the internet.


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## Claudie (Jan 27, 2011)

Excellent videos!
Thank you for taking the time to make & share them. 8)


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## stihl88 (Jan 28, 2011)

Great effort Sam, i can't comment yet as i haven't taken the time to read through your article but Ive taken a 
quick peek and it looks like you've put a lot of effort into it.


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## mlgdave (Feb 7, 2011)

from what I see this is seemingly the best way for me to go with refining jewelry scrap, I am just now looking at setting up to do my own refining of scrap karat jewelry. I was HEAVILY considering the Shor simplicity system but from comments on this site I will pass on that

thanks for the very informative posts!

mlgdave


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## seawolf (Feb 7, 2011)

Great videos, I noticed that you used no borax or boric acid when melting. Is this because of the purity of the gold before melting?
Mark


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## samuel-a (Feb 7, 2011)

mlgdave said:


> I was HEAVILY considering the Shor simplicity system but from comments on this site I will pass on that



That's a wise choice. 
I wish you good luck. follow the procedure and post here how your first attempt went along.



seawolf said:


> Great videos, I noticed that you used no borax or boric acid when melting. Is this because of the purity of the gold before melting?
> Mark



Thanks Mark.
I stated that my melting dish ware already glazed (with borax). It is barely visible since i used to melt in it only pure gold.
Although i never melt without glazing, pure gold can be melted with no problems without any glazing but pouring it to a mold will be somewhat troublesome...


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## A9johnson (Mar 18, 2011)

hello everyone. I am brand new to this forum. It seems to be an excellent forum with good people. i have read a lot and this post has helped me a lot as well so thanks for posting it. . I came across some old gold teeth and that is what sparked my interest in refining. need to get all the materials then im gonna give it a go.

Also i have some old silver 1964 quarters that i would like to melt down and refine into pure silver also. where would i find knowledge on how to that? the quarters are in bad shape so i think i would like to have a nice piece of pure silver instead. This whole refining thing looks really fun. I think i'm already hooked.

Anyway thanks for everyone's help in advance.

-Adam


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## Oz (Mar 18, 2011)

Gold teeth typically have mercury in them and you will have to use a retort to remove it before processing. I would highly suggest you process some karat gold first so you understand the process well before attempting something like teeth.

Welcome to the forum!


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## stihl88 (Mar 18, 2011)

A9johnson said:


> hello everyone. I am brand new to this forum. It seems to be an excellent forum with good people. i have read a lot and this post has helped me a lot as well so thanks for posting it. . I came across some old gold teeth and that is what sparked my interest in refining. need to get all the materials then im gonna give it a go.
> 
> Also i have some old silver 1964 quarters that i would like to melt down and refine into pure silver also. where would i find knowledge on how to that? the quarters are in bad shape so i think i would like to have a nice piece of pure silver instead. This whole refining thing looks really fun. I think i'm already hooked.
> 
> ...




Heres a good step by step thread to read up on processing silver, http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=8258#p76991


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## Harold_V (Mar 19, 2011)

The caution about mercury in gold teeth is sound. It's not uncommon for a filled tooth to be crowned at a later date. I have four of them, myself. 
You can generally remove the silver filling by hammering the gold crown on an anvil, which will also remove remnants of tooth. The silver amalgam will appear dull grey in color. It should be processed only by beginning with a retort. Do not heat, or chemically dissolve. 

Refining quarters? 

Well, here's my thoughts. 

Junk silver coins (that's what they are) are readily identifiable by almost anyone that deals with precious metals. Coins that come from modern societies were struck with tightly controlled alloy content, and are readily tradable in a crisis. That may or may not be true of some home-processed silver. If you couple the ease of a transaction with the fact that you have a small piece of silver instead of a chunk that may be several ounces, in a crisis you would be able to deal much easier, with no concern about proving the purity or that it really is silver. Think about finding yourself in need of a loaf of bread. You can get it with a large ingot, or a quarter. Which one would you prefer? The person with which you choose to barter is highly unlikely to be able to provide change for an ingot worth more than the exchange. 

That being said, if you intend to refine, and you prefer to process the quarters (I wouldn't if they were mine, but then I'm a citizen of the US), I'd do it by using them for inquartation, so the cost of processing is, for all practical purposes, free. If you understand the process of inquartation for refining karat gold, this will make sense. If you don't understand inquartation, you can read about it in Hoke's book.

Harold


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## samuel-a (Mar 28, 2011)

Oz said:


> Gold teeth typically have mercury in them and you will have to use a retort to remove it before processing. I would highly suggest you process some karat gold first so you understand the process well before attempting something like teeth.



That's a sound advice Oz.

I keep all fillings that hammered out of teeth in a sealed vial and when quantity permit, I'll send it a refinery.

A9johnson, welcome aboard.
Sam


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## wildbill_hickup (Apr 3, 2011)

Fantastic presentation Sam.


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## goldenchild (Apr 3, 2011)

Looks familiar


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## samuel-a (Apr 3, 2011)

goldenchild said:


> Looks familiar



lol

Seems that i completely failed to mention this;  
All editing and rephrasing of my improper English was done by Mario - goldenchild. Mario has been, and still is of great help to me, For that i would like to say HUGE Thank you.


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## t.c.moffat (Jul 7, 2011)

I would like to say thank you for a very good article and very good videos. This will come in very handy when I start to process my small stash of karat jewelry. Again thank you.

Thomas


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## Noxx (Jul 7, 2011)

I think that I have some influence on you 

On step 3 - Digestion with AR, you write:



> Some AR recipes calls for 4:1 or 3:1 HCL:HNO3 and then neutralize the excess nitric acid (Dnoxx).



Where it should be De-NOx


Oh, and it would be great if you could add your link in the Tutorial Section.


Thanks


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## samuel-a (Jul 7, 2011)

Noxx said:


> I think that I have some influence on you
> 
> On step 3 - Digestion with AR, you write:
> 
> ...



LOL

I'll leave it that way, just as small gesture 8) 



Noxx said:


> Oh, and it would be great if you could add your link in the Tutorial Section.



Sure thing.
Done.


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## abid7210 (Apr 19, 2012)

can any one help me


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## abid7210 (Apr 19, 2012)

i have silver chloride how i change in silver element


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## butcher (Apr 19, 2012)

Search for your answer (using terms like),
Silver chloride conversion sodium hydroxide and Karo syrup method
Or search:
Silver chloride conversion using Iron or aluminum metal and acid.

Study those search results for details of the processes.
Here are just a few details to get you started and terms to search for;
Keep silver chloride solution wet, 

I think I got this from a recipe GSP posted:

31g of AgCl (silver chloride) and 15g of NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and 100ml of H20 (water) and 10ml Karo syrup (light corn syrup)
Or
41g AgCl + 20g NaOH +133ml H2O + 13.3 ml Karo light corn syrup

1 ounce of AgCl is approximately 23.4g silver
1 troy oz silver is approximately 41g silver chloride

Other methods are replacing the silver chloride with another metals and forming salts of these metal in solution:

Like using HCl and aluminum to convert silver chloride to metal silver powder and aluminum to chloride in solution.
Or by using 
Dilute sulfuric acid and iron to convert the silver chloride to elemental silver metal powders, and changing the iron into iron chloride and iron sulfate in solution.


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## awbrew (Apr 20, 2012)

Hi Sam, I really like reading your post. You do alot on this board, with no though of a return. I'm going to be ordering your book soon, looks like you've spent a lot of time on it. Thanks for the great Videos, I have just one question? I seen black smoke when you lite the torches. Are the Acetylene and Oxygen? In Hokes Book is that not what they talk about using on PGMS during that era. Sorry for all the confussing questions... 
The main question is can I use Acetylene and Oxygen to melt PGMs as long as I keep the flame correct ? And Not compromise the purity to much ? A Hydrogen torch is out of my reach at this stage... Thanks


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## samuel-a (Apr 21, 2012)

awbrew

Thank you for you kind words.
As to the book, I think you may confuse me with someone else, as i never wrote any book.

As to your qustions, i think Hoke does address that issue and recommend using Oxy/Hydrogen torch, but i'm not sure about it.
There's actually planty of info here on the forum regarding torch melting of PGM's, so you may find the search feature real handy.

Here are some posts that may get you started and gain some idea :
http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=12956
http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=12140

I'm using Propan/Oxy and sometimes Butane/Oxy. As you initially light the torch, only the fuel knob is open and is burned in air, the incomplete combustion results in a smoky flame, or in other words, soot.
As Oxygen is introduced, combustion becomes more and more efficiant, with it, the temp' are rising.


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## awbrew (Apr 22, 2012)

Hi Sam, I had just watched the great videos you did, and I May had been thinking about chris i believe (goldsilpro) Who wrote the book. Still I read A lot of you post on here, and you do a great job, along with so others that help out folks on this board. Thanks again..


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## franky667 (May 29, 2012)

Hello Members,

I have started refining this year. I have found the inquarting procedure from Gold-n-scrap and I have to *say thanks a lot & very excellent*.
I have done scrap-gold, and jewellery in 333, 585, 750 and I reached all calculated amounts ( after melting) within a tolerance of 0,01-0,03 gramms below calculated. :mrgreen: (BTW: may I was Lucky, that the punced karat-figure was right)

Even the melting with a standard gas-burner running on camping-propane with a grafit-charcoal mold is becomming already handsome, because my charges reaching up to 5 gramms each.

This could be reached only with a precise instruction due to your manual.

Again, very excellent, thank you and best regards from Germany. :lol:


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## samuel-a (May 30, 2012)

franky667

I'm very pleased to know you have met sucsess with this process.

The kudos are to Hoke book and the fine members of this forum. All i did was to write what i have learned, in my own words... the way i understand it.

Sam.


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## friendz708 (Aug 7, 2012)

i want to know about torch by which u melted the brown powder into gold..............whats name of this torch .....................


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## Palladium (Aug 7, 2012)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-OXY-ACETYLENE-WELDING-TORCH-CUTTING-KIT-FITS-HARRIS-/160550764212?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2561923eb4


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## jimdoc (Aug 7, 2012)

friendz708 said:


> i want to know about torch by which u melted the brown powder into gold..............whats name of this torch .....................




Where is this Sialkot?
Does everybody there use texting lingo?
It is forbidden here.


Thanks.
Jim


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## samuel-a (Aug 8, 2012)

jimdoc said:


> Where is this Sialkot?



Hi Jim

Just googled it, Apparently it is in Pakistan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sialkot


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## vvanias (Sep 13, 2012)

hello i am new in your forum
my name is john and i am using nitric acid for refining gold for 5 years.
someone said to me that when i finish with the boiling of nitric acid i can let tha acid to cool and then to use some drops of methanol to be my gold more clean
and i did it and when i drop the methanol inside the nitric it start again to reaction brown fumes it start again!!!!
did any one now what that is and if anyone can tell me if is good to use that or not

p.s. i am use only the nitric acid to refine tha gold i dont care if it is not 9.95 or more

thanks in advance


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## butcher (Sep 13, 2012)

Keep any alcohol away from your nitric solution, these could be very dangerous together, those fumes can be highly explosive gases when heated.

If you are just using nitric acid on gold, you are not refining the gold, although you are removing most of the base metals and bringing up the purity of your gold, and your doing the first stages needed to refine your gold to high purity, if you are not concerned with refining to high purity just use the nitric as you have (leave out the methanol), but if you wish to do just a little more work to bring your gold to high purity, the forum is the place to learn how.

Read here of the dangers of methanol and nitric acid:
http://www.hillbrothers.com/msds/pdf/methanol.pdf


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## vvanias (Sep 15, 2012)

butcher said:


> Keep any alcohol away from your nitric solution, these could be very dangerous together, those fumes can be highly explosive gases when heated.
> 
> If you are just using nitric acid on gold, you are not refining the gold, although you are removing most of the base metals and bringing up the purity of your gold, and your doing the first stages needed to refine your gold to high purity, if you are not concerned with refining to high purity just use the nitric as you have (leave out the methanol), but if you wish to do just a little more work to bring your gold to high purity, the forum is the place to learn how.
> 
> ...




thanks!!!


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## samuel-a (Sep 28, 2013)

Hi all, just finished to upload the new videos of the process. A complete re-make fully narrated and in HD:

Part 1:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gjJNZtrUHo[/youtube]

Part 2:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7tcF_8zskg[/youtube]

Hope you guys like will it.


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## niteliteone (Sep 28, 2013)

Very good job on the Re-Make.
Thanks 8)


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## g_axelsson (Sep 28, 2013)

Great videos!

Only thing I found is that you spelled share "Sahre" in the end of the second video. :mrgreen: 

I really liked how you reuse the washing acid for dissolving dirty gold, I use to do that too.

Another interesting thing you showed is that even after washing the gold sponge it still starts to dissolve gold when you added HCl, proving what's been said for all these years on the forum, when switching acids you need to incinerate to not dissolve any gold.

I think your videos are good enough to earn a place in the tutorial section.

Göran


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## Palladium (Sep 28, 2013)

Very professional and well done Sam!


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## cvikatore (Oct 16, 2013)

samuel-a said:


> *Hi all.
> 
> The complete Inquartation tutorial is now released. Two parts article plus 40 minutes +- video tutorial.*
> 
> ...






Hello just to ask in your video there was no killing of nitric acid? My I ask why?


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## cvikatore (Oct 16, 2013)

Very nice video


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 16, 2013)

Excellent videos, Sam!!



> Hello just to ask in your video there was no killing of nitric acid? My I ask why?



In the 1st video, he made it very clear that he added the nitric in increments and only added enough to dissolve the gold, with no excess. Only when excess nitric is used will it be necessary to kill it.


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## solar_plasma (Oct 17, 2013)

Fantastic video, Sam!

I was amazed that the structure of the flakes is still intact after the silver and basemetals are dissolved. I would never have reckoned this! How long did it take to dissolve Ag and basemetals and what was the estimated temperature? Maybe you said this in the video, but I do not understand every word in fastly spoken english.


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## cvikatore (Oct 17, 2013)

yes OK, thank you


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 17, 2013)

solar_plasma said:


> Fantastic video, Sam!
> 
> I was amazed that the structure of the flakes is still intact after the silver and basemetals are dissolved. I would never have reckoned this! How long did it take to dissolve Ag and basemetals and what was the estimated temperature? Maybe you said this in the video, but I do not understand every word in fastly spoken english.



I remember being able to completely leach some supposed 10K class rings with nitric. These have lots of lettering, emblems, etc., on them. When all the silver and base metals were gone, the rings were dark brown (gold), still in ring form, and you could still read all of the lettering on them. When probed with a glass rod, they crumbled to powder.


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## Martijn (Aug 3, 2014)

Hello, excellent video! the best out there imo. 

I'm new here and about to start on some high grade plated pins and other connector parts from the 70's.... can't wait to start.
but some questions first:

Since i also have a lot of cicuit boards i want to process, i would like to know what happens to the platinum and other PGM's left in the AR solution during SMB addition and precipitation of the gold. Does it stay in solution, does the SMB push it out as well and is it washed out with the last HCL washes? i can't read about it going out in earlier steps in the text.

how do you separate the PGM's from the silver and copper nitrate?


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## 4metals (Aug 4, 2014)

Welcome to the forum, PGM's stay in solution.

Search stock pot threads, you've got some reading ahead.


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## butcher (Aug 4, 2014)

Martijn,
From your questions it looks like you have not even studied the basic principles of recovery and refining, doing so will answer these and a thousand other questions you will have. Hoke's book found in the book section is where you will need to begin; you can also find links to the book under many of the members signature lines.

The book does not cover electronic scrap, but it does cover the basic principles you will need to understand to be able to recover and refine values from most any material even electronic scrap.

You will also want to study the safety section of the forum, an important topic that is a must read and understand is the dealing with the toxic waste, the safety section can also be helpful when working with these deadly gases and the dangers of the chemistry involved with them.

Most of this probably looks fairly simple to you at this point, but there is an awful lot to it, this can be a fairly complicated science, with lots of small details you will need to learn if your going to be able to make what may look very simple work for you. 

To try and help with your question, you will most likely not have enough platinum in electronic scrap to even look for it, unless your dealing with tons at a time, depending on what you are working with some palladium is more likely.
Several of the precipitants we use are fairly selective, sodium metabisulfite is pretty much selective for gold, if you had platinum in solution, most of it would still be there, then you could precipitate it after removing the gold, with another precipitant like ammonium chloride, although in this case my personal choice would be to use ferrous sulfate instead of SMB for the gold... 

There are a couple of different methods we can use to separate silver from the platinum group metals, depending on what we are working with, and how much of these are combined with the silver, sometimes we may use chemical methods to separate the most of one metal from the other, and use electrolytic silver cell to refine the silver collecting the PGMs as slime of the cell. or if there is not much of the platinum group metals mixed with the silver we may just recover them from the silver cell later.
Sometimes it is a matter of how you wish to go about it, or what you do, or do not want to deal with in the recovery or refining of these metals.

Read Hoke's book it will help you understand the basic principles, it will explain in easy to understand ways how to recover and refine metals, it teaches you basics of the chemistry, but it does not use chemical formulas, it teaches you how metals react, and how some metals can be problems in solution, and how to deal with them, How to tell where your precious metals are when you cannot see them, it will answer these questions you have and many more, this book is like a road map, and compass for a long trip, it can be a very helpful guide into the world of recovery and refining of precious metals.


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## Martijn (Aug 5, 2014)

Thanks for the answers and advice! i will certainly read a lot more, and safety is on top of my list. 
for instance, i dont know enough about what the unpleasant gases and NOX fumes do when they come in contact with the open air. 
Should i build a water vapour air scrubber or do these gases dilute enough with the flow of the exhaust? (fume hood and exhaust setup will be all plastic, venturi fed to keep the fan clear of fumes) 

Have been reading a lot though, and good research and understanding all parts of the process is whats been keeping me busy for some time now.
The HN03 and HCL just came in today, stored safe in a plastic container, SMB also came in, still waiting for some chemical beakers and filters for a first small test outdoors. 

ton's of reading and to do's before i can start, but i'll search the forum first before bothering y'all again..


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## butcher (Aug 6, 2014)

Martijn,
I am glad you’re going to do the needed research, it is important for your safety and others around you.

This study is so very important, and your willingness to do the work is also important, Your willingness to do the study will give you a better understanding of the dangers involved and how to try and avoid many of them, it can also help you get a better understand the chemistry of recovery and refining.

This study can even help you to live long enough to enjoy some of the gold you get from doing this type of work

NOx is a term used to describe many gases of nitric acid, and its reactions, and the many different combinations of nitrogen and oxygen compounds.
We normally breath nitrogen with some oxygen, but when these two gases combine in different ways than air they can become extremely dangerous to breath, and form deadly pollutants, some are water soluble, and with moisture in the air can create acidic air or acid rains, or even form acids in your lungs.

Some can be scrubbed fairly easily in the proper scrubber, others are very hard to convert to a compound that can be trapped or neutralized in a scrubber, or be broken down to a safer form.


Some are not water-soluble until the pick up another oxygen, some we can see, some we cannot, some we may smell, and some we may not.

In recovery and refining we deal with several different acids, and many different chemical reactions that create many different gases and compounds, we also create many different very toxic compounds with our waste. 

It is hard for me to express how extremely dangerous this work can be, we are working with dangerous acids and bases, and metals which can become very toxic in compounds, the chemical reactions can be complex, there are so many different dangers involved in the chemistry and work of recovery and refining of metals.

We do so many very dangerous chemical reactions, and produce many different toxic substances, and deadly gases and compounds as byproducts, even some of the reactions performed in the work of recovery and refining is almost making some possible flammable, or even explosive reactions, which can become extremely dangerous if not done right, or responsibly, to minimize these dangers as much as possible.

Study is the only way you will learn how truly dangerous this work or chemistry really is, and how to do it as safely as possible without harming yourself or others.

The more you study about it, the more you will begin to see these dangers, some are so complex we may not even be able to learn them all with one lifetime of study, that is if we can live even one full lifetime doing this type of work, and do not shorten it when trying to get a little gold.


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## shineman (May 23, 2015)

Hi All,
I am not able to understand why water is added,if you add simple Nitric Acid of 70% and heat it will bring the gold to (wet powder form).Can anyone tell what is the significance of adding water as it is added 1:1Nitric acid ratio.Thanks


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## g_axelsson (May 23, 2015)

To dissolve silver nitrate, it would become too concentrated and start to crystallize when cooling down. Also weaker nitric actually works faster and dissolves more silver.

Göran


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## allibob96 (Mar 14, 2017)

You guys have taught me to get results that amazed my local jeweler. Thanks.
now i just started making 14k white (palladium) with silver. Now my question How should i refine the sprues and the clippings. Any advice will be greatly appreciated Thanks Robert Bowman
[email protected] hotmail.com


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## 4metals (Mar 15, 2017)

What formulation are you using for the white alloy? The ratio's of gold to silver and palladium will effect the best method of recovery. 

I have not seen a lot of white gold with silver, more with palladium. When doing chemical stone removal the palladium gold white alloy is so easy to refine because there are no chlorides to clean up.


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