# correcting gold precipitation mistake



## Tino (Jun 4, 2014)

Hello , I am new to this forum and I hope I am using this correctly , I apologize if I'm not, Ive never posted in anything other than facebook before. My question - I used sodium bisulfate rather than bisulfite in an attempt to precipitate my gold in auric chloride. Not only is my solution contaminated with the sodium bisulfate , It is supersaturated with it since I kept adding more when no reaction occurred. I understand now the importance of the one letter and I'm positive I will not be making that mistake again. But how do I correct it now. Do I just add the right ingredient sodium metabisulfite.? What needs to be done now in order to still recover my gold from the solution? What I have done so far is added copper to start the process of the gold precipitating as the solution becomes saturated with copper, however the solution does not seem to be digesting the copper . Can anyone help?


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## Palladium (Jun 4, 2014)

How much gold was in solution? What is the solution volume? Was this the first refine.....2...3?
Do you even know their is gold in there? What was the source? What other metals are present? Did you test it with stannous chloride in any of the steps?
How did you make the auric chloride? Was it nitric and hcl? Was it hcl and H2O2? Was it hcl and electricity? Hcl and bleach?


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## Tino (Jun 4, 2014)

the solution is made up from dissolving gold foils that I collected from several a/p batches . I used muriatic acid and bleach to dissolve them . They were not 100% free from other metals but at least 95% to 98% only gold foils was dissolved into the solution. If I were to guess I'd say approx. 2 grams worth of gold is in this solution. I began with a quarter of a coffee pot of solution. But during my incorrect procedure I added water and probably 10% of the volume is actually the sodium bisulfate I added so much and I have a 100% full coffee pot of solution now.


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## Tino (Jun 4, 2014)

I did test with stannous chloride and received a positive test and there is no doubt the gold is in there as I watched it dissolve . This was the primary disillusion of the gold foils and the solution had been filtered once thru a coffee filter and was a brilliant goldish yellow.


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## Tino (Jun 4, 2014)

upon further exploring of this forum I've decided to read the hoke book sorry if I was out of line by by being over anxious to post without thoroughly browsing and understanding this forum. Thank you for your interest in my question and I will be studying a little more starting immediately.


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## Geo (Jun 4, 2014)

Tino said:


> the solution is made up from dissolving gold foils that I collected from several a/p batches . I used muriatic acid and bleach to dissolve them . They were not 100% free from other metals but at least 95% to 98% only gold foils was dissolved into the solution. If I were to guess I'd say approx. 2 grams worth of gold is in this solution. I began with a quarter of a coffee pot of solution. But during my incorrect procedure I added water and probably 10% of the volume is actually the sodium bisulfate I added so much and I have a 100% full coffee pot of solution now.



check the name of your chemical well. sodium bisulfate will not precipitate gold.


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## Tino (Jun 4, 2014)

Geo said:


> Tino said:
> 
> 
> > the solution is made up from dissolving gold foils that I collected from several a/p batches . I used muriatic acid and bleach to dissolve them . They were not 100% free from other metals but at least 95% to 98% only gold foils was dissolved into the solution. If I were to guess I'd say approx. 2 grams worth of gold is in this solution. I began with a quarter of a coffee pot of solution. But during my incorrect procedure I added water and probably 10% of the volume is actually the sodium bisulfate I added so much and I have a 100% full coffee pot of solution now.
> ...



Yes I did discover that I used the wrong stuff. And I will not make that mistake again. my question is how do I recover my gold now? do I use the sodium bisulfite as normal as if I used it from the beginning? Or is there something else , another step now because I contaminated the auric chloride? I put a lot of time and energy into collecting the foils and am not about to abandoned the batch. I want to do whatever it takes within reason to correct the problem. I just am concerned about making the solution worse by adding more chemicals since I already changed the auric chloride to now auric chloride saturated with sodium bisulfate.


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## solar_plasma (Jun 4, 2014)

If I had this, I would drive off all chlorine (heat and sunlight are your friends), cool down, filter perfectly clear and proceed with 2g SMB, settle, decant/syphon off, test solution and if still positive, add 1g more SMB and so on. Give each step a lot of time, some hours or a night. It can't be too long, but too short can cause problems. Too much SMB will give a false postive stannous test, which should be avoided. To determine a false positive test you can use the stannous test on a spot plate. Gold will make a purple stain (search topics for "purple stain", best if you try this with a standard gold solution first to know, what it looks like), false positive will not.

The Na+, H3O+ and SO4-- ions from the mistakenly used sodium bisulfate do not hurt the process. Using the correct chemicals will add the same ions in the end.


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## solar_plasma (Jun 5, 2014)

Also read Butcher`s post in: http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=15385

Though I believe my simple solution would work in your case (always test in a little sample first), Butcher goes much more into the details and shows other solutions.


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## Geo (Jun 5, 2014)

Be sure you filtered any solids from the solution before doing anything else.


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## Tino (Jun 5, 2014)

solar_plasma said:


> If I had this, I would drive off all chlorine (heat and sunlight are your friends), cool down, filter perfectly clear and proceed with 2g SMB, settle, decant/syphon off, test solution and if still positive, add 1g more SMB and so on. Give each step a lot of time, some hours or a night. It can't be too long, but too short can cause problems. Too much SMB will give a false postive stannous test, which should be avoided. To determine a false positive test you can use the stannous test on a spot plate. Gold will make a purple stain (search topics for "purple stain", best if you try this with a standard gold solution first to know, what it looks like), false positive will not.
> 
> The Na+, H3O+ and SO4-- ions from the mistakenly used sodium bisulfate do not hurt the process. Using the correct chemicals will add the same ions in the end.



Initially I did boil my solution to drive out all of the chlorine. And yes my stannous test does leave a purple stain and I'm confident working with the stannous. My main concern was if I altered the solution bad enough that it required an additional step to counteract the improper chemical I used . Now that I was on uncharted waters I was hesitant to do anything before consulting with an expert. So, I found your answer very helpful and I thank you immensely for your input. As I now feel confident to move forward with my project. I will post what happened thanks again


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## solar_plasma (Jun 5, 2014)

But try with a little amount first to see, if it works like expected. If not, Butcher's methods are the way of choice.


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## g_axelsson (Jun 5, 2014)

Tino said:


> upon further exploring of this forum I've decided to read the hoke book sorry if I was out of line by by being over anxious to post without thoroughly browsing and understanding this forum. Thank you for your interest in my question and I will be studying a little more starting immediately.


Don't worry, a little bit of eagerness isn't a problem, you seem to actively search for the answers yourself and that is all that we ask for. We are here whenever you get stuck. The forum helps those who help themselves. 8) 

Welcome to the forum!

Göran


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## Pruitt68 (May 17, 2021)

SMB boiled but solution is bright yellow and thick but as well to liquidy can I separate in different containers to evaporate the liquid idk


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