# refining gold plate



## taborc (Apr 25, 2007)

Hi all,
I have 10 pounds of this stuff I want to the best way to do it, in the cell or in the AR? See attached picture.
Thanks,

Chris


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## lazersteve (Apr 25, 2007)

Chris,

I've got 20# of the same stuff. You should cut it down to size and do it in the cell. This scrap doesn't produce much gold.

Steve


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## taborc (Apr 25, 2007)

Thanks I will now to get to work lol


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## AgAuPtRh (Apr 25, 2007)

I have a pretty big pile of plated items myself Taborc. Can't wait for the summer to get here and start recovering and refining Precious Metals. 

From what I understand -- when you have run your items through the cell to de-plate the Gold -- you still wind up with impurities that need to be removed. Personally I want to have as pure a product as I can make. 

I have been letting all of my filters dry real good and plan on digesting everything in Aqua Regia before I fire in a cupel -- just to get rid of as much of the impurities as possible. I think too that this process will make it easier to drop out the silver instead of doing it later. 

It seems to me that no matter what -- if you want a good and pure product -- Just using the cell wont purify your Gold it will only drop it from whatever it is plated to. So you will only be recovering the Gold. Not purifying it. So an AR treatment needs to done if you are looking to have a better -- more pure -- product. 

I could be and am frequently wrong -- so the heavy hitters will probably stop by to straighten us both out. LOL !!!!!!! Still have a lot to learn.



AgAuPtRh


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 25, 2007)

Is that stuff in the photo made from real thin stock? It surely is but, it's hard to tell. I have seen heavy gauge, gold filled brass punchings scrap, that looks nearly the same.


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## taborc (Apr 25, 2007)

goldsilverpro said:


> Is that stuff in the photo made from real thin stock? It's hard to tell. I have seen heavy gauge, gold filled brass punchings scrap, that looks the same.


 It is pretty heavy gauge yea is is punching scraps


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 25, 2007)

Is is fairly hard to bend? Can you measure the thickness?


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 25, 2007)

I shouldn't get you excited. It's probably exactly what Steve says it is. He has some of it and recognizes it to be the same stuff. The stuff I saw was at least 1/16" (1.6 mm) and was used to stamp out some kind of round badges.


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## lazersteve (Apr 25, 2007)

Chris,

I tested mine by doing the following:

In a small plastic container pour 50 ml of muratic acid,

Add 25 ml Household Peroxide 3%,

Cut a small piece of the punchings (I broke off one of the larger corner pieces for my test),

Dip the corner of the test piece in the solution,

Within a few minutes (5-10 ) you will see the plate strip away and expose the copper underneath if it's plated,

Be sure to cut a large enough piece that you can compare the area dipped with an area on the same piece that doesn't get dipped.

Here's how mine looked after this test:







If you don't see these results it may be gold filled.

Steve


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## taborc (Apr 25, 2007)

goldsilverpro said:


> I shouldn't get you excited. It's probably exactly what Steve says it is. He has some of it and recognizes it to be the same stuff. The stuff I saw was at least 1/16" (1.6 mm) and was used to stamp out police badges.


 O no no not that thick! Not like a badge


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## taborc (Apr 25, 2007)

goldsilverpro said:


> I shouldn't get you excited. It's probably exactly what Steve says it is. He has some of it and recognizes it to be the same stuff. The stuff I saw was at least 1/16" (1.6 mm) and was used to stamp out some kind of round badges.


 It is 0.67mm and 0.026in


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 25, 2007)

The simplest test would be to take a pencil eraser and use it to try and erase the gold off in a spot. If it comes off at all, it certainly isn't gold filled. As thin as Steve says it is, it will be gone in from 1 to 5 medium pressure strokes. Erase until you can see the underlying metal. If the metal underneath is also yellow, you will have to look closely but, there will be a difference. The most likely is nickel, which is easy to see. Don't erase the nickel. Go 2 strokes and look - 2 strokes and look.

Once upon a time, I got pretty good at this and could gauge thicknesses. Play with it. I like the yellow pencil erasers.


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## lazersteve (Apr 25, 2007)

I posted a photo a few posts back, I think you guys were posting in between. Scroll up to see the photo.

Steve


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 25, 2007)

I saw it, Steve. Is that nickel at the upper left? Nickel dissolves in hot HCl. It probably does the same in HCl + H2O2.

I hadn't thought of the old eraser test in 10 years. Another way is to use a piece of scotch tape about 4" long. Make sure the part is clean and dry. Stick about 1/2" to 2" of this to the part, leaving the rest unstuck. Rub it real good to really stick it down hard. Use your fingernail but, don't tear the tape. Grab the unstuck part of the tape. Hold the part down and jerk the tape back quickly, parallel to the stuck tape. Don't jerk it up and don't jerk it in the direction that would unpeel the tape. Some of the plating should most probably come off with the tape, unless the plater was excellent at getting perfect adhesion - not too many are.


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 25, 2007)

AgAuPtRh,

I would put 100% of my energies into getting all of the gold and staying safe. The amount of impurities makes little difference, as far as the purification process goes.

Steve,

How many posts do Harold and I need to become expert gold refiners?


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## lazersteve (Apr 25, 2007)

goldsilverpro said:


> Is that nickel at the upper left?



No, it is just where the gold didn't strip all the way, I pulled it out early and scraped at it to fully expose the copper. 

Steve


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## AgAuPtRh (Apr 26, 2007)

> I would put 100% of my energies into getting all of the gold and staying safe. The amount of impurities makes little difference, as far as the purification process goes.



GSPRO-- From what I have seen from several posters here the idea is to fire the sludge from the cell to recover the Gold. From what I have read and studied the Gold would have a higher purity if the sludge were digested in AR then dropped with Sodium Metabisulfite then fired.

If I get your post correctly -- you are saying that any silver left would not be worth recovering? Is that right? Or are you saying that firing the sludge from the cell without having to do an AR process is OK because there are so few impurities it won't matter?

Steve K


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 26, 2007)

Where is the silver coming from? I ask this because silver is not used in circuitry as much as people think. Silver has a nasty habit of migrating through circuit board material and causing partial shorts. It's main use is in brazes.

When I ran this stripper, for many years, I never melted the black gold sludge. I just rinsed it well and put it right into aqua regia, filter paper and all. It dissolves almost immediately, with much foaming. I first covered with HCl and heated it slightly. I then fed in the nitric in very small increments to prevent it from foaming over. If any silver is present, you'll collect it in the aqua regia filter. Nothing is lost.


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