# stannus chloride formula and use



## Anonymous (Feb 9, 2008)

I have seen severas ways to make it up, and it seems hard for some reason to get a purple reaction out of each batch of it i make. kind of frustrating. Can it be used on solutions of differing contents and ph. Where do i find out where it works and where or what i have to do to make it work.


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## lazersteve (Feb 9, 2008)

Welcome to the for Toad,

I make stannous with a small amount of pure powdered tin and HCl.

I add the tin (about 1-2 grams) to 20 mL of HCl and heat it up until the tin begins to dissolve. Once the tin starts to fizz I stop heating and let it stand for 5-10 minutes. The solution will clear up as the tin dissolves. A little extra tin doesn't hurt as it keeps the solution fresh.

I test mine with a known solution of dissolved gold before each use. If it looses it's sensitivity I add a touch more tin and reheat.

I sell 4 grams of pure powdered tin for $1 on my website 

http://www.goldrecovery.us

Steve


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## Smitty (Feb 10, 2008)

Hey toad, is your stannous chloride yellow in color or clear white?

Oh by the way thanx for the help on my own stannous chloride solution Steve. It was the iron that got me.


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## tlcarrig (Feb 12, 2008)

I have found some of the new lead free plumber's solder in my junk bin. Onlyest thing is, it has 5% antimony. Will that amount cause any problems in using it as a substitute for pure tin. It is solid solder, No flux. Thanks,


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## Anonymous (Feb 12, 2008)

There are new fangled envornmentally friendly fishing sinkers that are pure tin.


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## jimdoc (Feb 13, 2008)

Terry,
The antimony will be a black sludge on the bottom of
your container. Just pour your stannous solution off
and make sure you leave the antimony sludge out of
your solution. Jim


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## Anonymous (Feb 13, 2008)

My last test is I have an old ring i use for testing. will mix up a little AR and test the stuff. In the mean time I ordered a little test kit for gold and silver from shore. I just want to get off the ground. I am refining from oar as a hobbie here in AZ and having fun. But its time to see some gold. 
I looked at the site to buy some pure silver but did not see how to place an order. 
Opps, by the way. the marine environment dont like tin. It is a banned sustnce in boat paint. causes birth defects in marine mammels


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## Harold_V (Feb 13, 2008)

blacktoad said:


> My last test is I have an old ring i use for testing. will mix up a little AR and test the stuff.


That may well be your problem. If the AR is not well consumed, the reaction with stannous chloride won't be as it should be. You are also working with an unknown level of concentration, so the reactions you get are relatively meaningless. They certainly are NOT reliable. You may even find that a solution that is gold bearing won't display color, due to it being rapidly consumed by the excessive acid. 

Wise people read Hoke's book, and learn what is taught about testing, so they don't stumble blindly about. If you do not have a copy, I strongly recommend you get one. In it you will learn to build a proper standard gold solution so you can evaluate the quality of stannous chloride testing solution, along with more things than can be mentioned here. 

Harold


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## The Refiner49er (Feb 13, 2008)

Hey Harold-

I think everyone here who doesn't have Hokes book should get one...

per chance is it available on the internet? I thought I would ask than to research.

Thanks!

John


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## Harold_V (Feb 13, 2008)

honemaster said:


> Hey Harold-
> 
> I think everyone here who doesn't have Hokes book should get one...
> 
> ...



Here's a source with the best price:

Hoke's book 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As an alternative, thanks to GSP;
The Hoke book, "Refining Precious Metal Wastes," is still the definitive book for refining jewelry scrap, including the platinum group. When I first started in the business, it was my bible. It's been reprinted and is available here for $74. Scroll down - fifth from the bottom.
http://www.ipmi.org/publications/index_non.cfm


Harold


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## bmgold (Dec 21, 2008)

> I looked at the site to buy some pure silver but did not see how to place an order.



You probably know this but...Check with a local coin dealer and you should be able to get silver rounds that are .999 pure. If you ask, you may get a damaged one cheap. They are not "coins" so they have no real numismatic value just the value of the silver plus a little profit for the dealer. Also, you may get some scrap silver or gold from them. Don't expect to make a profit buying this way but you can probably buy some at spot price for practice. You can even find "still good" rings and other jewelry at spot price that was cashed in when the old owners either needed money or no longer wanted them (divorce?)


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## geologist (Jan 2, 2009)

I have 2.3 gr of tin sinkers dissolving in 20 ml of HCl for about an hour which seems longer than I expected. The solution is clear but slightly cloudy and hydrogen is bubbling off the sinkers which have become dark gray. Any comments? Thanks


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## butcher (Jan 2, 2009)

a little heat helps tin dissolve in HCl, but not so hot to drive off acid.


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## geologist (Jan 2, 2009)

thanks Butcher, I did not want to heat it too much since there were some vapors coming off. Should I try more heat? Is it ok to add slightly more acid?


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## Noxx (Jan 2, 2009)

Personally, I add tin then I let it dissolve overnight.
It works wonderfully afterwards


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## butcher (Jan 2, 2009)

also if made to small pieces, flatten solder then cut to small pieces, creating more surface area for acid to attack helps.


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## geologist (Jan 2, 2009)

Thanks guys. I could try flattening out one of the sinkers and see if that speeds it up. I also left it sitting out overnight.


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## wop1969 (Feb 28, 2009)

Will lead free solder work that is 99.6% tin and 0.4%Copper?


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## tlcarrig (Feb 28, 2009)

Lead free solder from Ace Hardware will work. It's almost $10 per spool. I don't remember the %s but it is tin and antimony. The antimony will precip out as a black powder. You can either leave it in or filter it out.


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## bmgold (Apr 27, 2009)

I just made my first good batch of stannous chloride. 

I didn't weigh or measure anything. I used a small test tube and put a little HCl into it. Then I dropped in a curled up piece of lead-free solder. It started reacting at once and a little (very little) heat from a propane torch really got it going. 

The next day the solder is still slowly reacting (making bubbles). There is a black coating on the remaining solder and lots of black powder at the bottom of the test tube. 

After testing the new stannous chloride on some remains of previous experiments with no real luck I decided to make a known gold containing sample to test the solution out. I quickly dissolved a little bit of precipitated ?gold? From another small scale experiment and the solution worked at last. 

I tried using a coffee filter to do the tests and found that it worked best if it is folded to give a more visible indication than using a single layer of it. 
I didn't have any Q-tips to use but I expect they work good also. 

What I finally used that I like the best is a small, white, plastic measuring spoon. 

With the spoon I could test just how dilute the gold solution can be and still show a positive result. The tests can be dumped into a container for your retirement and there is no extra paper to burn off. 

I hope this helps someone get their test solution made and in use. Make up a test solution and play around with it until you know what to look for and are sure it can detect gold in solution. 

Feel free to correct anything I did or explained wrong.


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## Lou (Apr 27, 2009)

The black powder is probably antimony.


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## markqf1 (Apr 27, 2009)

I like the plastic spoons as well.

Some times I dip a q-tip into it and let it dry.

When gold is there, it will stain the spoon if you let it evaporate.

Mark


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## Harold_V (Apr 27, 2009)

bmgold said:


> What I finally used that I like the best is a small, white, plastic measuring spoon.


A porcelain spot plate is not expensive and will last you for years, assuming you don't drop it. I used mine for more than 20 years. It went with the refining business when it was sold. I recommend the spot plate highly. I used other methods, none of which came close to measuring up. 

Harold


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## qst42know (Apr 27, 2009)

I ended up buying one. And have placed a Coors dark cobalt blue one for silver work on my wish list.


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## tlcarrig (Apr 27, 2009)

Yea, the black powder is antimony. I have heard that stannous chloride is not stable and will not be good for very long. Anybody else have anything on this? I like the idea of the plastic spoon. The porcelain plate sounds interesting too. Is this something that is specially made or will a porcelain tile work?


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## qst42know (Apr 28, 2009)

Search (spot plate) on eBay. Models with 6 or 12 wells to test in can be had. I have yet to see the cobalt blue one in the second hand market as yet. I call dibbs on the first one. :lol: 

A reference gold solution to test your Stannous is recommended


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## Harold_V (Apr 28, 2009)

tlcarrig said:


> will a porcelain tile work?


It will work, but it doesn't have cavities the way a spot plate does. The cavities keep the drops being tested where you want them. When you're finished with your tests, you rinse the contents to your stock pot, so you can recover the traces of values. It's not much, but there's no reason to discard anything that is so easily recovered----and you don't have to incinerate paper or plastic/wooden sticks that are associated with swabs. Overall, a much easier way to test, and you can perform multiple tests, such as using a bit of ferrous sulfate to eliminate gold, so a stannous test can reveal the presence of platinum or palladium. They're just very handy!

If you end up with a spot plate and find it likes to get stained a little, rinse it in hot water, then apply a drop of nitric and a few drops of HCl to the cavities that are stained. Instantly dissolved and returned to new condition. The drops of acid should then be rinsed to the stock pot. Heating the spot plate with hot water makes the acid clean faster. 

Harold


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## aflacglobal (Apr 28, 2009)

tlcarrig said:


> I have heard that stannous chloride is not stable and will not be good for very long. Anybody else have anything on this?



I had some in a stoppered bottle that i pulled out the other day that has be stored for a little over a year. 

When i put it up i left a piece of undissolved solder in the bottle. When i got it out the other day all i did was add a little Hcl to what was there and used it. Worked fine.


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## tlcarrig (Apr 28, 2009)

Thanks for the info on the plates guys. Onlinesciencemall is a seller on e-bay that has the plates. There were two or three other sellers with a couple of them having plastic plates. Aflac, is your bottle brown, green or clear. Asking because some chemicals are photo sensitive. Don't know about SnCl.


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## aflacglobal (Apr 28, 2009)

Clear. It's been in my storage building in the dark though. But not climate controlled.


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## Lou (Apr 28, 2009)

It's best to keep stannous chloride in a strong HCl solution in a dark bottle. Overtop you should put a little hexane or naptha to act as a barrier against oxygen. Doing this and you can keep the stannous for years.


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## bmgold (May 8, 2009)

Since I needed to make up some new stannous chloride test solution to fill my new dropper bottle I decided to document my procedure in pictures.

The first picture shows the materials used to make the solution. There is muriatic acid (HCl), lead-free solder which contains tin and antimony, a test tube in a small plastic jar for support (hard to see in this picture  ), the small dropper bottle with a funnel and coffee filter to catch the undisolved antimony, and an alcohol lamp to heat it up.

The next picture shows the HCl and tin solder being heated. Bubbles are forming on the rolled up piece of solder. Heating it up a little speeds the process up.

The next picture shows the dark solution. You can't tell from the picture but the darkness is from the antimony floating around in the bubbling solution. This will settle to the bottom or can be filtered out.

I don't have a picture of the solution filtering because I didn't filter it yet. I'm letting it react longer and settle out on its own.


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## bmgold (May 8, 2009)

As a test for my new batch of stannous chloride I checked a couple samples.

The first one was known to contain gold.

The second test was a batch in process and it obviously has no dissolved gold in it.

I hope someone learns something from these pictures. Maybe that someone will be me. Correct me if needed :wink:


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## OMG (May 16, 2009)

I had made some stannous chloride from tin solder and hcl, then filtered it and let evaporate until crystals started forming. They are clear slender crystals. Are these stannous chloride crystals or would they be something else (oxychloride?). If they are stannous chloride and i just put them in a bottle and cap it will they last and still be good to use to test for pms?


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## LittleJohnnyH2SO4 (May 20, 2009)

OMG said:


> I had made some stannous chloride from tin solder and hcl, then filtered it and let evaporate until crystals started forming. They are clear slender crystals. Are these stannous chloride crystals or would they be something else (oxychloride?). If they are stannous chloride and i just put them in a bottle and cap it will they last and still be good to use to test for pms?



These are probably stannous chloride dihydrate and will keep just fine in an airtight jar. You will need to make up a solution before testing for precious metals, of course.

The oxychloride would probably precipitate as a white powder and be impossible to redissolve in water. Was there extra HCl left over? If so, they are almost definetly stannous chloride.


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