# Salt Electrolysis



## 608927101la (Aug 13, 2022)

I've become intent on reproducing what's show in one of Trinity Gold Recovery's videos. I believe it's appropriate for a beginner anyway. It's the one titled 'Gold recovery using Salt | Recover Gold from gold plated pins | Electrolysis Gold recovery'.

My first question is, could plate electrodes(I mean the lead piece) be better than a rod shape? Is this method seen in the C.M. Hoke book? I'm hoping this technique is legit.


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 13, 2022)

608927101la said:


> I've become intent on reproducing what's show in one of Trinity Gold Recovery's videos. I believe it's appropriate for a beginner anyway. It's the one titled 'Gold recovery using Salt | Recover Gold from gold plated pins | Electrolysis Gold recovery'.
> 
> My first question is, could plate electrodes(I mean the lead piece) be better than a rod shape? Is this method seen in the C.M. Hoke book? I'm hoping this technique is legit.


If you value your health and the environment Trinity is not someone to follow.
Better check Sreetips videos.
Regarding Hoke’s book just read it
Regarding salt and electrolysis I have not heard of such procedure being effective.
Concentrated Sulfuric stripping cell yes, but not salt.


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## nickvc (Aug 14, 2022)

Welcome to the forum.
May I ask why you want to use salt , water and electricity?
By doing this you will produce chlorine gas not something to be inhaling.
We have many threads on recovery from pins here on the forum I would suggest look at them first and understand the dangers involved in any process before you start.


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## 608927101la (Aug 14, 2022)

Yggdrasil said:


> If you value your health and the environment Trinity is not someone to follow.
> Better check Sreetips videos.
> Regarding Hoke’s book just read it
> Regarding salt and electrolysis I have not heard of such procedure being effective.
> Concentrated Sulfuric stripping cell yes, but not salt.





nickvc said:


> Welcome to the forum.
> May I ask why you want to use salt , water and electricity?
> By doing this you will produce chlorine gas not something to be inhaling.
> We have many threads on recovery from pins here on the forum I would suggest look at them first and understand the dangers involved in any process before you start.


There is a step in the process right after the HCl is added, that I wanna get to.


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 14, 2022)

Why and what do you hope to accomplish by this?
The Chlorine gas is not to be overlooked, it’s actually an accumulate poison.

Edit for typo


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## 608927101la (Aug 14, 2022)

608927101la said:


> Reminds me of that Iron Monkey movie line, superb film btw. "...poison for blood."


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## Shark (Aug 14, 2022)

It will work as the video shows. A few things that they forgot to mention are:

Working with the amount of pins he does uses a lot of electricity. Dangerous amounts! High voltage and amps.
It generates a lot of heat, potentially boiling your electrolyte. Leading to more dangerous situations.
It leaves a mixture of metals, not clean or pure gold, so you need to be really good at working with dirty gold.
And the real reason this is not for beginners.......Your electrolyte will be used up very fast. Once the salt is used up, you get an even nastier mix of salts and metals. The only way to figure it out is to waste many try's and materials to see the change occur, no warning it just starts working differently (unless you happen to own a full lab and testing facility). Once it stops working you will need to strain your material out, and begin all over with new a solution. Adding your previous material to finish it will start the process quicker of fouling and ending the solutions usability. Rinse repeat many times.
You still have a hazardous, dangerous mess to clean up.
The shear volume of waste to clean up is huge if you run any decent amount of materials. I had 5L of used electrolyte to strip .2 grams of gold from plated jewelry.
The sulfuric cell will work longer, with less electrical usage, less waste, and less time.
And for me, the number one reason is it is very, very slow. The first bits go about as quick as a sulfuric cell but every additional piece, assuming you run one piece at a time, will get slower and slower.

If you only have a small amount, try it, very carefully. Gloves and well ventilated area. Otherwise study, collect and save until you know how to safely run a sulfuric cell.

EDIT: multiply times for spelling.


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## 608927101la (Aug 14, 2022)

_Aye aye 

_


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## NobleMetalsRecovery (Aug 15, 2022)

Shark said:


> Working with the amount of pins he does uses a lot of electricity. Dangerous amounts! High voltage and amps.


Hi,

Just wondering, have you actually tried the method? He's using a 12 volt battery charger. Not exactly "high voltage".

Regards, Steve


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

NobleMetalsRecovery said:


> Hi,
> 
> Just wondering, have you actually tried the method? He's using a 12 volt battery charger. Not exactly "high voltage".
> 
> Regards, Steve


Bigger setup, I think


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

I'm aiming for 20 amps


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 15, 2022)

Are there a specific reason why you want to do this?
Watch out for the Chlorine gas it was used as a weapon during World War 1


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## NobleMetalsRecovery (Aug 15, 2022)

The reason I'm wondering if anyone has actually tried this is because I did something similar over 20 years ago.

Chlorine gas was NOT a problem as long as I controlled the rate of the reaction. If you watch the video done by Trinity you will see there are hydrogen bubbles being formed on the lead electrode, but you don't see chlorine bubbles being fromed on the copper electrode and the gold plated pins.

I expect the reason for this is that as the chlorine gas is being formed in the "nascent" condition (you can look up "nascent" on wiki), it immediately reacts with whatever metal it is being formed on, either the surface gold plating or the underlying base metal.


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## Shark (Aug 15, 2022)

Shark said:


> I had 5L of used electrolyte to strip .2 grams of gold from plated jewelry.


I spent a few days tinkering with this. My 12 volt batter charger will run continuous at a max of 50 amps. More than enough to hurt a person. Using the same size cathode to anode ratio, the salt cell uses two to three times the voltage and amperage than the sulfuric cell. I did not try using it for pins, only on jewelry. I worked in a 1L beaker as well. It took an average of 3 minutes to notice the solution getting warm. With in 10 minute’s it was approaching hot, enough to be uncomfortable. I Did not use a battery charger for it either, I used a 30volt/10amp bench lab power supply. To strip the gold reasonably quick, not over heat the cell, it ran around 7 volts at 4 amp average. Even at that it would heat up the cell enough to take time between the pieces being stripped. 

I still prefer a sulfuric cell. It is quicker. Less energy used. Less waste. And done carefully the electrolyte can be reused. 

Still, I think anyone interested should at least try it for themself. I had 20+ pounds of plated jewelry that needed gone so it was just a handy time for me to try it.


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## Shark (Aug 15, 2022)

NobleMetalsRecovery said:


> The reason I'm wondering if anyone has actually tried this is because I did something similar over 20 years ago.
> 
> Chlorine gas was NOT a problem as long as I controlled the rate of the reaction. If you watch the video done by Trinity you will see there are hydrogen bubbles being formed on the lead electrode, but you don't see chlorine bubbles being fromed on the copper electrode and the gold plated pins.
> 
> I expect the reason for this is that as the chlorine gas is being formed in the "nascent" condition (you can look up "nascent" on wiki), it immediately reacts with whatever metal it is being formed on, either the surface gold plating or the underlying base metal.


I tried it a few years ago using a cell phone charger and karat gold. Made a nice mess trying to recover the gold as I did not know enough at the time to recover it very well. This time I did notice a faint smell of chlorine at times. I would lower the amps and that seemed to help. I was also using larger pieces to strip with more base metals as well.


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 15, 2022)

Interesting guys, please report back when you have results, good or bad will still teach us something.


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## NobleMetalsRecovery (Aug 15, 2022)

I spent a few days tinkering with this. (The previous sentence was meant to be a quote from Shark)

Thank you very much for the input. I place a very high value on someone's experience vs. their views. With that said I would recommend to someone new at this not to try something yet that has not gained wide acceptance on the forum.

You're probably better off trying something that lot's of experienced users can provide help with vs. a little used method with lots of potential issues.

On the other hand I always encourage careful and controlled experimentation. It's a great learning tool. It's a choice between learning and production.


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## Shark (Aug 15, 2022)

I Agree.

If one wants to try as an experiment, try it. I would not recommend one try it with a large amount of materials until they understand more about it. I do not think this is a way for beginners to get started.


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## NobleMetalsRecovery (Aug 15, 2022)

Good advice.


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

Anyone else using a stone bowl like Trinity is?


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

I'm seeing that I can get to the same place with both methods. But now I'm more scared of H2SO4 than I was before


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## Shark (Aug 15, 2022)

608927101la said:


> Anyone else using a stone bowl like Trinity is?


In the video he explains why he uses the stone bowl. It with stands heat better.

A good quality glassware will as well. He even mentions it in the video.

The simple things in many of the videos on YouTube are not the simple things. They are the key points many beginners miss or shrug off as not being important. This is why it is not recommended to experiment but follow and learn well tested methods first. Here is a great example. Why not ask these questions of the person you are wishing to follow? Why do so many come here from YouTube asking for help?

Easy answer. They won’t help you. They are after the easy money from the videos views.


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

Shark said:


> In the video he explains why he uses the stone bowl. It with stands heat better.
> 
> A good quality glassware will as well. He even mentions it in the video.
> 
> ...


I also am watching how 999 Dusan did it in his videos.


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## Shark (Aug 15, 2022)

608927101la said:


> I'm seeing that I can get to the same place with both methods. But now I'm more scared of H2SO4 than I was before


Fear is a lack of knowledge. I use sulfuric very often and I am not afraid of it. Fear leads to mistakes. I do have a very healthy respect for it and take extra precautions with it. Each acid has it's own reactions and requires understanding individually in order to be best prepared to use it safely. Mix them and get another reaction, needing even more understanding. There are no short cuts, there is no easy way. I come here multiply times a day, not so much to help someone else, but to learn more for myself. I am sure someone can help out because I don't recall who said it, but "the more I learn the more I realize how little I know". (That is how I recall it anyway.)

I do not mean to offend anyone who works at making and posting their videos. I have a variety of videos posted on three different venues, on three very different subjects. It takes a lot of effort to make a decent video, and I have learned much from them. Even more after starting to understand how and why things were being done the way they were.


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## FrugalRefiner (Aug 15, 2022)

Well, not exactly the same, but I've posted this a few times.

I call it the "Stages of Learning".

At first, you read a little and it seems to be simple and make sense.

As you read more, you start to see other processes, and conflicting information. There's so much new information, it can get very confusing.

As you continue, you're able to sort out the conflicting information, and it starts to make sense.

After much study you'll start to feel like you're really getting a handle on it all. You can answer most questions on the forum.

Then you read a post from Lou, and you realize how much you still don't know.

Dave


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## Shark (Aug 15, 2022)

FrugalRefiner said:


> Then you read a post from Lou, and you realize how much you still don't know.
> 
> Dave


And that is the plain truth!


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

Wow, who is Lou you guys?!


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 15, 2022)

The leading member on PGMs.
He has forgotten more about PGMs than I have ever learned 
Or maybe he hasn't forgotten anything at all


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

Is he Russian?


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 15, 2022)

No he is not.


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

I found another guy on YouTube who classifies stuff with a magnet  first


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 15, 2022)

There is many ways of separating and sorting materials, the best method for one type of material may not be the best for others.
For instance magnets may be used to sort iron scrap from ground up electronics. 
Or to remove some iron/magnetite from crushed ores.
It all depends on the feed stock.


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## NobleMetalsRecovery (Aug 15, 2022)

You should be able to use the bowl from a crock pot.


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## Shark (Aug 15, 2022)

608927101la said:


> Wow, who is Lou you guys?!


Lou is one of those who, if he doesn’t know it, it most likely has nothing to do with refining. 

Years ago there was a stock market guy named E.F. Hutton. His commercial was “when E.F. Hutton speaks everyone listens”. Lou is one of the E.F. Hutton’s of GRF.


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## 608927101la (Aug 15, 2022)

Refiners could be traders as well


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## BlackLabel (Aug 17, 2022)

608927101la said:


> I found another guy on YouTube who classifies stuff with a magnet  first


Are Russians magnetic?


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## 608927101la (Aug 17, 2022)

BlackLabel said:


> Are Russians magnetic?


Ak_gold_bear is Russian, no?


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## 608927101la (Aug 19, 2022)

Guys, you know of dimethyl sulfoxide and sodium hydroxide or other combos?


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 19, 2022)

608927101la said:


> Guys, you know of dimethyl sulfoxide and sodium hydroxide or other combos?


For what?
Not enough information.


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## 608927101la (Aug 19, 2022)

'Forever chemicals' destroyed by simple new method


PFAS, a group of manufactured chemicals commonly used since the 1940s, are called "forever chemicals" for a reason. Bacteria can't eat them; fire can't incinerate them; and water can't dilute them. And, if these toxic chemicals are buried, they leach into surrounding soil, becoming a persistent...




phys.org


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## 608927101la (Aug 19, 2022)

Yggdrasil said:


> For what?
> Not enough information.


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## 608927101la (Aug 19, 2022)




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## Yggdrasil (Aug 19, 2022)

608927101la said:


> 'Forever chemicals' destroyed by simple new method
> 
> 
> PFAS, a group of manufactured chemicals commonly used since the 1940s, are called "forever chemicals" for a reason. Bacteria can't eat them; fire can't incinerate them; and water can't dilute them. And, if these toxic chemicals are buried, they leach into surrounding soil, becoming a persistent...
> ...


They don’t say much.
Why are you thinking of these specific chemicals?


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## 608927101la (Aug 19, 2022)

Yggdrasil said:


> They don’t say much.
> Why are you thinking of these specific chemicals?


I'm going to watch every video on this topic  I barely came across that minutes ago


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