# Methods Recovering Gold from Aqua Regia



## jkevink (Jan 19, 2011)

So I've dissolved my sample *which is from the crushed ore sample that contains gold*, removed the Nitric Acid, etc. And I was just wondering, whether I'm going to use copperas to do it or using Sodium sulfite to create gold sulfide. 

Uh, these are my questions

1. I was reading through the internet, is it true this gold sulfide thing needed to be heated like over 1000 degrees C?
2. How do I wash the gold out of the copperas? I was reading the Hoke book, and still didn't get it 
3. And finally, if I want to refine the gold from the "washed copperas", does it also need to be heated over 1000 degree C?

Sry for the noobs questions xD


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## nickvc (Jan 19, 2011)

Whoa slow down.... The gold sample your have dissolved in AR where did it come from, how did you concentrate it, what other metals are in the mix? 
It's generally agreed that AR is rarely the best method to use when dealing with ores, the reasoning behind some of it is well over my head but I understand that many gold bearing ores have sulphides and all sorts of chemical bonds that will not be broken by AR alone, roasting and other chemical processes are usually needed to free the gold from it's host material. The other problem is that AR isn't specific in what it will dissolve virtually all metals will be put into solution creating one very large mess.
I think that we need a lot more information about your material before we can really help you and what little help we might be able to give will need a lot of working with to get your gold out.
You can try to precipitate your gold with copperas and see if you have anything drop out of your solution, that might be an indication that you do indeed have gold there in the first place but I fear you have a lot more work ahead of you yet.


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## jkevink (Jan 19, 2011)

lol, umm the gold sample is from ore sample, from the a mine, it was crushed and milled till its soft like a flour, other metals in the mix are Copper, Silver (well that's what I test it),

Oh I believe its not sulphide ores, I checked already wotj a machine xD

I haven't been able to extract the composition of the ores, but will do soon 

ty Nick


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## Richard36 (Jan 20, 2011)

Hello jkevink,

Welcome to the forum.

Unless you are working with an ore with an abundance of free milling gold, going straight to acid digestion and precipitation will be an expensive and disappointing experience.

A machine for testing to see if a mineral is a sulfide? What???
Post a photo of your material, and I'll do what I can to help you out.
I'd like to see a photo of your ore as well.

As for your questions,

1. Yes. At least 1900 F with Borax to produce the familiar yellow metal.

2. Use Hydrochloric Acid or the weaker more common form called Muriatic Acid to wash out the Iron and other metals. What remains should be a precipitate of gold. You might also be able to use a mix of 4 parts water to 1 part sulfuric acid in order to remove the iron and other metals within the precipitate produced.

3. Same answer as # 1 in order to produce the yellow metal, though further steps are needed to actually refine it. This precipitate should be further processed with the Acid-Clorox Method found on this forum in order to produce a precipitate that can be melted with borax to produce a reasonably high purity bullion.

I hope that this helps.

Sincerely, Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## abnasc (Mar 4, 2011)

Rick,

This is my first post and as a noob as I am , please could you give more details on your response to item 2?

"2. Use Hydrochloric Acid or the weaker more common form called Muriatic Acid to wash out the Iron and other metals. What remains should be a precipitate of gold. You might also be able to use a mix of 4 parts water to 1 part sulfuric acid in order to remove the iron and other metals within the precipitate produced."

I started getting some quartz from a vein and here we don't have proper fire assayers, so, I will try to recover what's possible, always following what I've learned, mostly, from this site.

Here are some photos from the first ore sample (or test) - 245,4 g :

















At first, I've used HCl + Clorox... And some questions:

a) Besides gold, is any other metal oxided? If yes, will small amounts of SMB drop gold first?

b) If I want to get silver, should I follow your guindance (response n.2) to remove iron and after that AR?

Thanks!

Alexandre


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## shaftsinkerawc (Mar 4, 2011)

Do you have any micro shots of your rock. It looks like mica in these photo's with iron staining.


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## abnasc (Mar 5, 2011)

Ok, more photos.













Iron staining? Certainly. Here you find iron (hematite, magnetite) spreaded on surface. But a lot of quartz too...


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## abnasc (Mar 5, 2011)

Rick,

I'm sorry for that stupid questions. Noob...  

Reading Hokes again and combining with your response, is it right think that sulphuric acid will dissolve all metals (silver too) leaving gold?

And I recover silver with NaCl (producing silver chlorate)? And zinc to get metallic silver?

Thanks!

Alexandre


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## djui5 (Mar 5, 2011)

Alexandre,
I've been using a combination of methods to recover Gold from ore. You have some good looking ore though I see no free Gold in the pictures. That does not mean there isn't any in there though. 

Try roasting your ore to remove any Sulfers. Then clean out un wanted metals with a HCL or Nitric "bath". Rinse well. If you are using Nitric, and you know for a fact there is Silver in there, then set aside and process to remove Silver.

I then use AR to remove the Gold, and SB to precipitate the Gold. 

This process has worked well for me with ores that are relatively clean, IE mostly Gold and Quartz with some Silver present. Lately I've been processing some ore from Canada and am having problems getting the process right. This Canadian ore is really "dirty" in that is has Tellurides/other crap in the mix and is making the process difficult. 

The drawback to working with ore's versus computer parts/scrap is that you don't really know what all is in there. Things can get messy fast.


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## abnasc (Mar 7, 2011)

Djui,

Thanks for your tips. I'll do that.

And with this sample, even being a test, no traces of gold...  

But silver chlorate... :lol: 

Thanks again!

Alexandre


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