# White gold



## banjags (Feb 29, 2008)

I couldn't locate any posts regarding white gold. Can the "white" be refined out of the gold, weather it be by inquartation or separated cell?

What do you other jewellery refiners do with white gold?


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## Harold_V (Feb 29, 2008)

White gold is typically alloyed with nickel. It is one of the rare gold alloys that can be processed without inquartation (it contains no silver), although to recover gold of better quality, I inquarted it. The whole idea is to eliminate the base metals before dissolving the values, which avoids the garbage in garbage out credo. By dissolving directly with AR that isn't possible. 

On rare occasion you encounter white gold that is alloyed with palladium instead of nickel. The cost of palladium makes that a bit unusual, although I encountered it on at least one occasion, a custom made tennis bracelet. 

Harold


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## banjags (Feb 29, 2008)

Very interesting Harold.

If a person was buying scrap white gold would you pay the same per gram as yellow gold?

would a separate cell work on white gold like it does with yellow?


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## Harold_V (Mar 1, 2008)

banjags said:


> If a person was buying scrap white gold would you pay the same per gram as yellow gold?


Yes, assuming they are alloyed properly. In any case, regardless of the color of the alloy, it should contain the exact same ratio of gold, which is alloyed by weight. Said another way, 14K yellow or white should contain the same percentage as rose, blue, green or violet gold (58.3%). 

The requirements for alloys have been narrowed, although not recently. There was a time when an object marked 14K could border on 13K and be legal. It had a ± ½K tolerance for alloy error, and an additional ± ½K tolerance if it was a soldered object. That is no longer true, but don't short change the chance that dishonest benchmen underkarat. It is and has been an ongoing problem as long as I recall. One of my customers, in a weak moment, bragged to me that he routinely underkarated. Some people are morons and proud of it, it appears. 

Regards the tolerance on gold objects. Keep in mind that when gold is substituted by base metals, lowering the karat fineness, the replacement elements are far lighter in weight. The near 4% substitution (previous to the change in marking standards) equated to a gold object that contained 10% less gold than it would had it been alloyed properly. That was profit that would end up directly in the pockets of the makers. The lighter elements were of greater volume, so they stretched the gold by more than the percentage of shrinkage by weight. 

The class ring industry used to consume roughly a ton of gold annually. For a moment, think of the value of a ton of gold, then adjust your profits higher by 10%. The industry had a huge incentive to cheat, and they did, legally. I ran class rings by the pound, and found they ran just above 9K, which was perfectly legal. 

Harold



> would a separate cell work on white gold like it does with yellow?


Sorry----all of my experience revolves around acid processing, so I am unable to answer that. I don't have a clue. I would assume that white gold would respond if yellow does, but I hesitate to say with certainty. 

Talk about inquartation, nitric acid and AR and I'm up to speed. I didn't do much experiementing, for my objective was to refine gold by a reliable and well known process-----and I would be happy. I'd have to look at things totally differently today if I was involved----much of what I used to buy without trouble borders on the impossible to obtain, and costs an arm and leg if you can find it. It's one of the reasons I sold out when I did. Cost and problems were rising faster than they could be addressed. I made the right decision from all appearances. 

Harold


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## markqf1 (Mar 1, 2008)

Harold,
I've been studying about inquarting gold with rhodium, so that the gold would capture the rhodium. I have also read this is true for nickel. I believe I have also read that on very rare occasions, gold has been alloyed with rhodium to make jewelery as well.
Now I'm a little confused.
Not to sound stupid here(probably to late for that), but , as it pertains to gold and rhodium, just what is the difference between inquarting and alloying?

Mark


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 1, 2008)

What is your source. Why are you people so obsessed with rhodium? There is only 25 tons mined per year. A miniscule amount. Focus on something that would make you some money. Silver!!!!!


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## Harold_V (Mar 1, 2008)

markqf1 said:


> Harold,
> I've been studying about inquarting gold with rhodium, so that the gold would capture the rhodium. I have also read this is true for nickel. I believe I have also read that on very rare occasions, gold has been alloyed with rhodium to make jewelery as well.
> Now I'm a little confused.


To my knowledge, rhodium has not been used to make white gold. I certainly never encountered it, and it would have been obvious by its lack of cooperation when dissolving the gold. You may wish to verify the veracity of the information you received in that regard, and I stand to be corrected if I am misinformed. 



> Not to sound stupid here(probably to late for that), but , as it pertains to gold and rhodium, just what is the difference between inquarting and alloying?


Actually, nothing, not in the scheme of things. When you inquart, you are making (or altering) an alloy. The difference is that the connotation "inquart" signifies 25% (quartering) of a specific element (when refining gold, it would pertain to gold content of the alloy, although in assaying terms, it would apply to the button that was in need of parting) a term well used in assaying. Alloying is not specific, it simply implies a mixture of two or more elements in unspecified proportions. 

Harold


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## markqf1 (Mar 2, 2008)

GSP,
I am not infactuated with RH , but at the prices it's bringing these days, it's worth a good look.
I do look at silver, gold(what got me here), copper , aluminum, and the pgms. If the pgms can be recovered and can be recycled here, then theres got to be an economically feasable way for the little guy to do it.
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here, but it's worth a good scientific look.

Whats up with the gold test kits?

Mark


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## markqf1 (Mar 2, 2008)

Thx Harold,
If I understood you correctly, inquarting involves a specific percentage (25%) whereas alloying does not.

Thx,

Mark


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## markqf1 (Mar 8, 2008)

Harold,
You are correct.
The rhodium jewelry was plated, not alloyed.

Mark


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