# HOW RECOVER GOLD FROM A CARPET



## Murua (Mar 26, 2013)

Hi everybody, I received a carpet from a jewelry shop, how, can I recover the gold?


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## jimdoc (Mar 26, 2013)

Pleas edit out the "all caps"

Jim


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## butcher (Mar 26, 2013)

Yes, edit the all capital letters.

After reading Hokes book, studying the safety section, and dealing with waste, you can do a search for the topic, Harold has discussed How to process the carpet.


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## Murua (Mar 26, 2013)

Thank You very much, for the information Butcher, could you let me know where can I get the book?


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## nickvc (Mar 26, 2013)

It's available as a free download off several members signature lines, I believe there is a new copy that's more printer friendly available of Frugalrefiners signature line.


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 26, 2013)

Thanks Nick!

Follow the link below for the printer friendly copy and printing instructions.

Dave


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## Harold_V (Apr 1, 2013)

Murua said:


> Hi everybody, I received a carpet from a jewelry shop, how, can I recover the gold?


That it came from a jewelry shop may not matter. Where it was in the shop and how it related to the bench does. If the carpet was in the fabrication area, that's a positive sign. If it was in the retail end of the store, with the benchman rarely, if ever, walking on the carpet--that's not so good. 

Before you get too deeply involved in trying to recover values that may not be there, I strongly recommend that you cut a sample piece, or more than one, taken from various portions of the entire carpet. It need not be a large sample--- a few square inches from each area you choose to sample. 

Place the pieces in a pan, in a fume hood, one that can withstand heating. Heat the pan from below, with the objective of burning the carpet completely. That's critical to achieving the desired results. The carpet will most likely turn to oil, then burn rapidly. if it's wool, it won't burn worth a damn, however, but wool carpet isn't exactly common today. 

When the carpet has burned to ash, it must be roasted, to eliminate traces of carbon. The resulting ash, when it is ready for processing, will be anywhere from a pale gray to a pale purple color. If it shows purple, that's a positive sign there is gold present. If it does not, good chance there is little gold, but don't jump to conclusions. The pale purple color is an indicator that there is a lot of polishing dust included---the gray color could still contain filings, and not much in the way of very fine particles. 

Screen the resulting ash, removing any large pieces of gold or junk. The screened ash should then be subjected to a magnet, to remove metal filings. Send them to your stock pot, where any traces of values will be recovered, and the scrap steel (iron) will serve to cement values sent to the stock pot. 

After screening, place the ash in a large beaker---the larger, the better. Pay strict attention to what I'm going to say next. 

The ash will not respond to most acids, but it readily is dissolved by HCl. In the process, it will liberate a considerable amount of heat. For that reason, it was my policy to use about equal parts HCl and water (tap water is acceptable). Add the acid and water in small amounts and allow the material time to work. When it slows down, add more, but small amounts, always. At first, the reaction is fast and foams very little. However, as you continue adding acid, the dissolution process takes more and more time, and the slurry foams a lot more. Keep some cold water near, so if it attempts to foam over, you can cool and dilute the solution, preventing an overflow. At this point, you should consider that the solution should be removed, so after it subsides, and the acid has done its work, add water, stir well, and allow to settle. When it has, siphon off the solution, sending it to another vessel where it can settle yet again. There may be fine particles of gold that may be discarded otherwise. 

Return to the slurry, which is now well dissolved, and start with the HCl and water treatment again. When the addition of more acid does nothing, you can safely assume that you have eliminated the vast majority of the ash. Upon careful rinsing, you'll find that all you have left is sand, and, with luck, fine gold particles mixed within. You can now dissolve the values, using your preferred solvent. I used AR--but the choice is yours. If this test yields no visible signs of gold, and your test proves to be negative, don't waste your time on the carpet. You have no idea of the amount of work involved in processing a typical room size piece--it will take days. 

Remember to evaporate your solution before testing with stannous chloride. If you have too much acid present, it may not respond to the test, so you'd conclude there is no value present. 

A room full of carpet will incinerate and roast down to about five gallons of ash. After dissolution with HCl, you might expect to have a quart of sand, maybe even less.

Do not attempt to process this carpet until you have a firm understanding of what you've been told. To do so will most likely result in your losing the values. 

Harold


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## Geo (Apr 1, 2013)

Harold, you amaze me all the time with your patience and generosity. do you think you can remember all the times you have typed that response out? i for one certainly appreciates all your time and effort to educate us in refining.i may be doing some carpet for a jeweler here in my town in a few months.this post may be right on time, thank you.


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## Harold_V (Apr 2, 2013)

Heh! Yeah, I've likely done that a few times---but it appears that few, here at least, have experienced carpets. I ran a lot of them---getting baptized by fire, if you will. 

I'm happy to share the information. It does me no good, as I do not refine any longer, and I don't see any refining in my future. I'm too old (and busy) to mess with that stuff anymore. What I do hope to achieve is to have a few remember that I was instrumental in their learning curve. There is no finer tribute than to have others say you helped them. 

Ok, I'm a bit selfish, but I like that!

I'd have given most anything to have had someone to have taught me the things I learned the hard way (carpet being one of them). That's one of the reasons I'm not one damned bit sympathetic towards those who come to this forum and make demands to be spoon fed. They are given, at the outset, all the information needed to successfully recover and refine precious metals, with the only caveat being that they have to do their part, yet they expect their hands to be held. 

Show me a man who's willing to dig in and make his own discoveries and I'll show you a man who I'm willing to help. Pretty simple, eh?

Harold


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## Palladium (Apr 2, 2013)

You are one of the corner stones of my success Harold! You will always have my respect and humble thanks.
Thank you!


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## butcher (Apr 2, 2013)

Harold, I have learned so many things from you over the years, And I am still learning, refining only being a part of the things, I am very grateful for being able to learn from you.

You should be a very Happy man, having helped so many, not only helping to guide them in refining but also to a better life.

THANK YOU.


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## gurudatta (Apr 2, 2013)

burn the caret in muffle furnace,treat this ash for aquaregia filter the solution use hydrazine hydrate for gold precipitation.


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## Harold_V (Apr 2, 2013)

gurudatta said:


> burn the caret in muffle furnace,treat this ash for aquaregia filter the solution use hydrazine hydrate for gold precipitation.


It's apparent, at least to me, that you have never processed a carpet. 
What you propose doesn't work.

Harold


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## kkmonte (Apr 2, 2013)

Damn that sounds like alot of fun Harold! I wish I had a carpet from a jewelry store! LOL.


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## Anonymous (Apr 2, 2013)

kkmonte said:


> Damn that sounds like alot of fun Harold! I wish I had a carpet from a jewelry store! LOL.


Reread the first paragraph that *Harold_V* replied to in his post.

Kevin


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## Harold_V (Apr 3, 2013)

testerman said:


> kkmonte said:
> 
> 
> > Damn that sounds like alot of fun Harold! I wish I had a carpet from a jewelry store! LOL.
> ...


Correct! And pay close attention. You have no idea what you may be asking for. I learned the hard way. You maybe able to avoid that exercise. 

A carpet can not be judged just because it came from a jewelry store. The worst one I ever tackled yielded a whopping 12 grains (about 3/4 gram) of gold. By sharp contrast, a small runner, about 30" x 60", yielded just under six ounces of gold. 

The runner was the only carpet I ever processed for less than 35%. They're a dreadful amount of work, and quite demanding of acid. 

Note that gurudatta hoped to share his opinion with the readers. He's the very kind of person to avoid when you're seeking information. With rare exception, when anyone suggests to you that you can begin your recovery of values using aqua regia---pretty safe bet he knows exactly nothing about what he's trying to tell you, and doesn't have enough sense to listen instead of talk. Carpets are one of the most challenging of items you can encounter. You can work yourself to a frenzy and not achieve the results you hope for. 

gurudatta----I mean no harm, and didn't really want to sort you from the others, but you must come to terms with how much you know, and how much you think you know. Please accept my comments in the spirit in which they are offered. 

I try to not allow misinformation to stand on this forum---which you clearly provided. There's a time to talk----and a time to listen. Listening, in this case, is what you should be doing. 

Harold


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## nickvc (Apr 3, 2013)

Like Harold most of my refining career was based around processing jewellery wastes of various types.
Listen to what he advises, all floor sweeps and polishings are a trial, to be polite, but of all the wastes to process carpets are by far the most difficult and personally I'd put handwash tank waste second mainly due to the smell of rotting flesh and god knows what else.
Do exactly what he advises or your going to be processing that carpet for weeks if not months and without testing wasting money to boot.


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## kkmonte (Apr 3, 2013)

testerman said:


> kkmonte said:
> 
> 
> > Damn that sounds like alot of fun Harold! I wish I had a carpet from a jewelry store! LOL.
> ...



Thanks Kevin, I read it again and nothing changed. My point was the entire process sounds like a lot of fun. Not saying its not a lot of work, and not saying you will be able to retire on the gold you recover from a carpet "from a jewelry store". My reading comprehension is still pretty high. I just thought the process that Harold described sounded like fun (to someone who has time and money to kill). And if I had such a carpet, I could try it out. Of course I could just get an old carpet from any old store and have the same amount of "fun" but at least with the jewelry store carpet you could "hope" for some gold at the end.


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## Harold_V (Apr 4, 2013)

kkmonte said:


> I just thought the process that Harold described sounded like fun (to someone who has time and money to kill). And if I had such a carpet, I could try it out. Of course I could just get an old carpet from any old store and have the same amount of "fun" but at least with the jewelry store carpet you could "hope" for some gold at the end.


I didn't find it fun so much as achieving a feeling of conquering a challenge---the wonderful feeling of an accomplishment. It's very satisfying to start with a carpet and end up with gold. Not so exciting when a week's worth of work yields a few grains, though. 

In life, one pays for an education. Some folks pay tuition and attend the university of their choosing. My fees came at the hands of the school of hard knocks. All are lessons that must be learned, however, so I had no regrets. Still, had I known more, I could have saved myself a lot of unnecessary work, simply by sampling, which became my routine. You can't hang your hat on a yield from one, but if the yield is negligible, it at least allows you to make a decision about handling something with the potential to be a losing proposition. 

Harold


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## cejohnsonsr (Apr 5, 2013)

Well I, for one, learned a little something today by accident. I don't have a carpet, but I do have a small amount of "ash" from my 1st attempt at incineration. I don't think there's much gold in it, but at least now I have a better idea of how to proceed. Thank you, Harold. And to everyone else who has been so generous with their experience & expertise. Maybe some day, if I keep trying REALLY hard & studying, I might learn enough to get this done.

Ed


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## meatheadmerlin (May 3, 2015)

That seems like a lot of acid to use to process the ash.
I was wondering if you could start with plain water
to dissolve some of what can be carried away cheaper.

I would assume that the solution would be basic
and may still need neutralizing for proper disposal,
but that might be done cheaper with white vinegar.


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## heliman4141 (May 3, 2015)

Harold_V said:


> Murua said:
> 
> 
> > Hi everybody, I received a carpet from a jewelry shop, how, can I recover the gold?
> ...




Harold,
Your posts never cease to simply amaze me..............Helpful is a gross understatement. This view goes to a handful of others also who too are quite amazing.

Thanks to your washing & cleaning procedures that I am following to to tee I just again ran a perfectly clear refinement ready to be dropped for the 2nd time from some of the nastiest stuff ive yet to have recovered. Its gonna be a sweet button.
Don't know how id have done any of all this without the guidance on this site. Its just a hobby but my friends are in awe & a bit jealouse of my Gold buttons & they want to do the same UNTIL they get explained the procedures involved then they freak over the time & work involved. Its truly a labor of love im making no money but the Gold is a beautiful sight to hold & touch.......

This IS my favorite site to read comments on on the WWW.

Dave


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