# Problem with acid bleach precipitation



## ybotptl (Aug 2, 2017)

Hey fellas, Newb here having some trouble precipitating gold from my acid/bleach experiment.
I had done a number of attempts earlier and had good results. All of these were less than a gram 
each though, because I didn't want to screw up and lose a good amount of gold. 
This time I had about a 1 lb. of fingers recovered and figured I would do 1/2 of them and everything would be OK. Not. 
Did the same as the smaller amounts, dissolved in acid/bleach, filtered, dilute with distilled water,
then add SMB. Now.... A small amount of gold on the bottom of my beaker and still have gold in solution.
I figure there should be about 2 grams or so left. How do I get it out of there? Did some searching and lots of reading to no avail. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. :?


----------



## butcher (Aug 2, 2017)

Try mild heat or copper.


----------



## anachronism (Aug 2, 2017)

Hi there. 

If I read this correctly then you are expecting over 2g of gold from half a pound of fingers. Thats not realistic. You're looking at around a gramme total on a fair day with good Base product. 

Jon


----------



## nickvc (Aug 2, 2017)

You say you have gold still in solution, did you stannous test to prove that?
If you haven't you are just guessing or assuming you have gold still in solution.


----------



## jason_recliner (Aug 2, 2017)

You get credit from me for your first post being four months after you joined, and for trying small batches before jumping in the deep end. You've obviously done at least some study to achieve the success you've enjoyed so far.

To expand slightly on an above post, it's unclear how long you left between acid/bleach and your precipitation. This is where a little heat may first come in; it helps accelerate the chlorine gas releasing from solution. You want all the Cl gone before adding SMB, or your gold powder will just dissolve again. A warm solution also drops better.


----------



## ybotptl (Aug 2, 2017)

Thanks for the quick response guys. I did consider the Cl still being in there. Have tried with nitric before and 
have read that the gold will dissolve again if it's not neutralized. Figured that the bleach would be faster and I wouldn't have to neutralize it like with nitric. I'll try a little heat when I get home from work. 
Some more did drop over night
but I want to make sure. I did several stannous tests and all were positive. I go to the bait shop and get the tin split shot to use for that. I know they are kinda spendy but easily acquired. As far as the yield goes maybe 2 g out of the whole pound? If I can get to the point where I can melt some and have a button in my hand
I would be happy. I have a bunch of ram sticks and chips to process some day too, should be fun.
Thanks again,
Toby


----------



## upcyclist (Aug 2, 2017)

So now you know--you have to get rid of the excess oxidizer, whether it's nitric (evaporation or sulfamic acid) or bleach/chlorine (heating).


----------



## jason_recliner (Aug 3, 2017)

Your yield is the only yield that matters. A wise man wouldn't rely on a straight answer out of anyone else.
Once your waste solutions test barren, you can be reasonably confident you've recovered all you can.


----------



## anachronism (Aug 3, 2017)

jason_recliner said:


> Your yield is the only yield that matters. A wise man wouldn't rely on a straight answer out of anyone else.
> Once your waste solutions test barren, you can be reasonably confident you've recovered all you can.



Yeah this is true- to an extent. You can get good guidance from people who have actually done it and are willing to share figures, as opposed to people theorycrafting or reading figures from t'interweb. 8) 

I've seen fingers that yield 9g per Kg however that wouldn't be a good expectation to give someone as those fingers are very specialised and rare.


----------



## jason_recliner (Aug 3, 2017)

That wasn't intended to take anything from your earlier post Jon; I apologise if it read that way. Indeed if an expectation is unrealistic, one will obviously never realise it as one's own yields.


----------



## anachronism (Aug 3, 2017)

jason_recliner said:


> That wasn't intended to take anything from your earlier post Jon; I apologise if it read that way. Indeed if an expectation is unrealistic, one will obviously never realise it as one's own yields.




Heck no mate I'm good 8) 

I was just expanding on what you said.


----------

