# Tried to recover gold and siver with nitric acid



## Davomaiden (Jun 12, 2022)

* so I used concentrated nitric acid on several pieces of gold plated, and I thought to be gold filled pieces of jewelry, added water and more Nitric as I went along and the solution turned a bright slimer colored green. I tried adding more nitric acid or more water, it didn't react much when adding nitric and it turns blue but then It kind of just turns back to green with water, how do I get the Silver and Gold out of this solution, and what is the solution.I have lye coming in the mail but I don't know if it that's the right chemical or how to do it properly *


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## Gwar (Jun 12, 2022)

Silver, precipitate with copper (cement out)..


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

But how would he do that? And with what chemicals would work best


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## Gwar (Jun 12, 2022)

Hard to say at this point, was the metal all gold or silver or a mix ?


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

It was 


Gwar said:


> Hard to say at this point, was the metal all gold or silver or a mix ?


It was silver, but mostly copper base plated metals


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## Gwar (Jun 12, 2022)

I suppose that a projected weight or recoverable amount wasn't in the equation when starting the project, (use of HNO3 and Distilled water) ?


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

What if he used hydrochloric acid and ammonia? What would that do


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## Gwar (Jun 12, 2022)

Unknown, just trying to be helpful and understand the situation..


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## galenrog (Jun 12, 2022)

If he used only nitric acid on gold plated and gold filled, no gold was dissolved.

Time for more coffee.


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## Shark (Jun 12, 2022)

If gold filled is involved AND silver, and just nitric and water, filter out the gold then cement the silver on copper.

It is also possible to decant the solution and leave the gold in the original container. Then cement the silver from the solution.

If there was gold filled their should be “shells” left of gold in the shape
of the item.


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

But what about the lime green color he has? We have filtered the solution with water and when we add nitric it goes blue and when we add/filter with water it goes green


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

Lexiecurl23 said:


> But what about the lime green color he has? We have filtered the solution with water and when we add nitric it goes blue and when we add/filter with water it goes green


It doesn't react to the nitric anymore it just stays green


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## Shark (Jun 12, 2022)

Color is from the base metals most likely. Adding water dilutes it aiding the color change. It is possible to have some lead involved that will cause the change as well.


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

So what would help him now? What process would work is There is lead in it?


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## FrugalRefiner (Jun 12, 2022)

See When In Doubt, Cement It Out.

Dave


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## Shark (Jun 12, 2022)

Shark said:


> If gold filled is involved AND silver, and just nitric and water, filter out the gold then cement the silver on copper.
> 
> Would be my first choice.


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

How does he get the silver out


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

But what do you mean by cement?


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## Shark (Jun 12, 2022)

FrugalRefiner said:


> See When In Doubt, Cement It Out.
> 
> Dave


Follow the link in that post. It explains it better than I can.


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

Shark said:


> Follow the link in that post. It explains it better than I so what its saying is if he puts silver In the solution it will cement out gold and if he puts copper in the solution it will pull out the silver?


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## Shark (Jun 12, 2022)

No. Filter the gold out. Cement the silver on copper. It is a bit more complicated than just adding copper to it so you need to study the information in the link.


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

How does he cement the silver out of the solution he has right now? The green solution he has he put a silver plated copper ring in it and it's eating the silver off of it if he leaves the now exposed copper in it would it cement the silver out of the solution


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## Shark (Jun 12, 2022)

Yes, but it depends on how much silver and copper. It trades the copper into solution while taking the silver out of solution. Not enough copper you don’t get all the silver. Another piece of copper will let you know if all your silver is out of solution. Or a hydrochloric test can tell as well.

There is a lot more to this and it takes a lot of study to get it right. Start with throughly understanding the post Dave gave you. Then study on cleaning up your left over waste solution. You can’t just pour it out on the ground or down the drain.


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 12, 2022)

Is it safe to be breathing it in while it is in this process?


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## Shark (Jun 12, 2022)

I wouldn’t do it inside, or even near anything metal of value. A fume hood would be good, even a basic hood to keep fumes away from you is better than none at all. If no hood, work outside where the average breeze will blow from one side to another. You don’t want to do it from front to back or back to front, this will cause it to blow in your face or linger longer in your face.


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## cejohnsonsr1 (Jun 13, 2022)

You should never have started until you understood what you were doing and why you were doing it.


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## BlackLabel (Jun 13, 2022)

Davomaiden, Lexiecurl23,

You both have to understand what you did and learn what to do now.
Are you friends? Did you work together on this project?

The silver and the gold are still in the solution as long you don't toss it.

The nitric acid dissolved the silver.
This will make a colorless solution.

The nitric acid dissolved the copper.
This will make a blue solution.

If you dilute the nitric acid with tab water, you bring in a little bit of chlorine.
This chlorine and the nitric acid forms a little bit of aqua regia and dissolve the little amount of gold.
The dissolved gold makes a yellow solution.

Blue + yellow = green.

Read and understand the given link about cementing out.
Your not in hurry, be careful about the fumes.
Good luck!


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## manorman (Jun 13, 2022)

Shark said:


> I wouldn’t do it inside, or even near anything metal of value. A fume hood would be good, even a basic hood to keep fumes away from you is better than none at all. If no hood, work outside where the average breeze will blow from one side to another. You don’t want to do it from front to back or back to front, this will cause it to blow in your face or linger longer in your face.


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 13, 2022)

cejohnsonsr1 said:


> You should never have started until you understood what you were doing and why you were doing it.


We have been doing this for about a few months now


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## Lexiecurl23 (Jun 13, 2022)

BlackLabel said:


> Davomaiden, Lexiecurl23,
> 
> You both have to understand what you did and learn what to do now.
> Are you friends? Did you work together on this project?
> ...


We are dating. And that makes more sense to me thank you do you know what chemicals we could use to remove the chlorine and get the silver and the gold out?


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## FrugalRefiner (Jun 13, 2022)

I already answered your question. Look back at post #15 on the first page of this thread.

Dave


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## cejohnsonsr1 (Jun 16, 2022)

Lexiecurl23 said:


> We have been doing this for about a few months now


But apparently without the necessary understanding of of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. That’s not meant to be an insult. Rather, constructive criticism. I would suggest that you read Hoke at least twice and watch Sreetips for a couple of hours a day for the next couple of months. If you do that, you’ll probably never need to ask these questions again.


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## Martijn (Jun 16, 2022)

cejohnsonsr1 said:


> But apparently without the necessary understanding of of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. That’s not meant to be an insult. Rather, constructive criticism. I would suggest that you read Hoke at least twice and watch Sreetips for a couple of hours a day for the next couple of months. If you do that, you’ll probably never need to ask these questions again.


I blame You tube. looks way too easy, no warnings or proper and safe methods displayed, processes half explained and the most important stuff left out. I have recently started to comment on You tube video's and refer to this forum. Overuse of nitric in AR and trying to neutralize with urea e.g. 

There are many things to consider when performing a chemical reaction: e.g.:


Shark said:


> Or a hydrochloric test can tell as well


Now most of us understand how to perform this test, but some 'test' by throwing half a liter of HCl in the entire solution, most of us take a drop or a couple of ml in a separate beaker and add a dash of HCl. 
Until you have learned or experienced it's not the right way, you don't know. you can't know. So it's a path of trail and error alongside learning and investigating.
It depends on the person who does it how deep they take this.
Some work out a complete plan with risk assessment of the tiniest task, some start testing small scale after reading a bit, some dive in head first and don't think at all.
You can't save them all. We should keep trying though. 

Martijn.


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