# Hammering gold foil



## DarkspARCS (Sep 16, 2012)

Hi folks. I read within the iGoli processing tutorial that once the gold powder was recovered it could then be placed into a mold, where a heavy metallic bar then was set onto and then struck by hammer to create a gold button. Does anyone here know if the same would be true for using this technique on gold foils stripped from electronics?

I'm going to try finding a suitable system to test this theory out, however, if some one knows any info on this it would be appreciated.


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## MMFJ (Sep 16, 2012)

Gold foils from electronics are not pure gold. They are gold plating over other layers of plating (typically nickel and copper). 

Therefore, if you were to 'hammer' them (extreme pressure), you might get something of a foil, but it would be of no value as it would still need refining with chemicals to make it pure. 

Once you do that refining for purity, you would have the gold power, which could then be processed into bars or buttons. 

This forum describes this process over and over, step-by-step, in time-tested fashions. 

I have not seen anyone using only pressure to make a mold - how would the powder turn liquid, which is what then dries into the button? 

Special high-pressure molds and rigs? Sounds expensive, as well as potentially dangerous to set up yourself. 

Seems simpler to just follow the existing system of the forum, heat with a torch!


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## Irons2 (Sep 16, 2012)

Idle hands do the Devil's work. Beat some Gold instead:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbeating


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## goldsilverpro (Sep 16, 2012)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CCYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2F200.20.105.7%2Fcyted-xiii%2FDownloads%2FMINTEK_Ponencias_GreenTech%2Figoli.pdf&ei=7-dVUOD7J6fB2QX_2oHwDA&usg=AFQjCNFUPmqBM--UgQRIMCFbmKkDHJgoOQ

According to this, they're treating the concentrates with HCl/bleach and dropping the gold with SMB. Nothing new there. Then they're using pressure to compact the gold powder into a pill shape. Nothing new there. Back in the 60's, I had a bright idea of making convenient 1 gram pure gold pellets from powder using a pill press. These were to be melted in tantalum boats in a bell jar (under vacuum) for gold evaporation onto parts. The problem was that the compaction trapped air in the pellets and when they melted, they tended to explode. The vacuum most probably contributed to this, however.

To me, they should be simply melting the gold with a torch (or, whatever) and casting ingots. Making those compacted pills seems sort of dumb. I just don't see any merits of doing it. Also, unless extreme pressure was used, I would think some of the powder on the surface could tend to come loose with handling.


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## DarkspARCS (Sep 16, 2012)

MMFJ said:


> Gold foils from electronics are not pure gold. They are gold plating over other layers of plating (typically nickel and copper).
> 
> Therefore, if you were to 'hammer' them (extreme pressure), you might get something of a foil, but it would be of no value as it would still need refining with chemicals to make it pure.
> 
> ...



I tend to believe that using the AP method to acquire the gold foils from electronics would eliminate those base metal issues, once these foils were washed afterwards in hcl to eliminate any CuCl2... and correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't the gold used in these foils 24k?

I merely was suggesting an alternative method, as described by the iGoli methods in creating a marketable gold button, for those of us who are too poor to own an ace oxy torch. The setup isn't 'special', it's merely a metal container you place the gold into that you then place a fitted metal rod into and beat with a hammer, compressing the foils into a solid state.


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## NobleMetalWorks (Sep 16, 2012)

Gold plating in electronics, specially anything after 2002, is most often 22k and not 24k. I have been keeping records of what I process and yields. When I collect gold foils from the AP process, they are almost, if not totally, devoid of all other metals they were plated over. Yet I still see a weight difference after I refine that would suggest the gold foil was 22k, not 24.

Scott


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