# Storing Semi-Processed Gold; Powder vs Shot



## sng (Jan 18, 2011)

After the parting part of inquartation and parting, I will be left with gold and silver powder. Can this powder be stored without the risk of having it blown away by a wayward sneeze, or should I turn it into shot before storage. 

I feel ready to inquart my scrap, dissolve it in nitric acid, and precipitate the silver but do not want to attempt further purification at this moment. I have never worked with powdered metal before and while I doubt the powder will be as susceptible to the wind as talc, my gut tells me that storing valuable items in the form of dust is a rather foolish thing to do.


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## philddreamer (Jan 18, 2011)

You must inquart properly. I used to have gold dust when I ran my inquarted material. I learned from Harold that molten inquart MUST be stirred with a graphite or quartz rod. What a difference! 
Since then, I don't have gold dust after nitric run, but firm gold clumbs. When run thru AR, an orange colored
solution, instead of a green one. 

Phil


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## nickvc (Jan 18, 2011)

To be accurate after inquarting your gold scrap and dissolving your base metals and silver in nitric you will have contaminated gold powder and copper, silver and other base metal nitrate. To remove your silver you need to cement it out with copper which will leave you with silver and trace amounts of gold, copper and any PGMs in the solution. The silver after rinsing to remove as much copper nitrate as possible can be dried and re used to inquart your next batch. The gold powder is really easy to refine from the inquartation, again rinse to remove as much nitrate as possible and dissolve with either AR or Chlorox been careful not to add too much nitric or bleach as this will cause problems when your ready to precipitate your gold.
If your not going to finish the refining of your gold I'd be tempted to leave it in the beaker covered in water until your ready to refine it as this will minimize your potential losses and in water it's not going to blow away anywhere.


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## sng (Jan 18, 2011)

So as long as my inquartation alloy is made with proper proportions and it is fully melted the gold should not form a powder when dissolved in nitric acid? 
Will it be in pieces large enough to safely store in pill bottles or would I need to remelt and form shot to ensure nothing escapes from such a container? 
Refining won't be effected, aside from slightly longer dissolution time, by making shot will it?

The silver, I know, will be in powder form but should be pure enough to cast into bullion without further processing, yes?


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## samuel-a (Jan 18, 2011)

sng,

A properly alloyed shot will retain most of their shape and size after nitric leach.
looks like that:




I can't see how something will happen to your powder when stored in pill bottles.


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## lazersteve (Jan 18, 2011)

Here's a shot of some gold from one of my inquartations after the silver has been removed:







The amount of silver you use will determine how well the gold stays together or 'honeycombs'.

Steve


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## patnor1011 (Jan 18, 2011)

Now that is thing every burglar will never bother to look at twice. They will go after your plasma or playstation. :mrgreen:


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## sng (Jan 18, 2011)

Thank you for the pictures. I was under the impression that the gold would crumble when the silver was removed. Having it hold its shape should prove to be tremendously useful. Depending on how much material I use, I might have to crush/melt it anyway as 3/4 volume reduction is a rather large volume reduction.

I can recite/visualize the steps of inquartation from memory and will not attempt further refining until I have a similar familiarity with (theoretical) acid refining. Silver, i doubt I will refine past inquarting and parting because the silver nitrate solution should yield material of far greater purity than Sterling's paltry 92.5%.
For gold, I have a very basic understanding of processing past inquartation. Dissolve in aqua regia (or bleach?? <--boggles my mind), use drops of sulfuric acid to precipitate lead, filter out the lead sulfate, and finally drop the gold with sodium metabisulfate. I don't really want to spend money on sulfuric acid for the sole purpose of putting a few drops in my aqua regia. Nitric+hydrochloric are expensive, but at least they are readily used. I'm sure I'm missing a few steps and have no idea of the proper amounts to use. This means more research is needed .


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## nickvc (Jan 19, 2011)

SNG if you want to store your metals keep them as they are and don't even start to refine until you have all the materials needed and your fully ready to carefully proceed through all the processes from scrap to fine gold. Transferring metals and swapping containers is rarely without losses and most experienced members will tell you to keep your material in the same container from beginning to end for good reason.
Keep harvesting and keep reading it's pointless to only go so far and stop, be patient...I know you want to start but learn it all and get it straight in your head and then start, even post your first refining on the forum with photos as one member did and help will be forthcoming if you really need it.


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