# Fist Gold process w/ pics



## barka1 (Feb 22, 2011)

Hello everyone,

This is my first issue and problem, but I hope to learn a lot from you guys.

In the process for gold, let some processors and PCI slots in nitric acid (70% pure - now I know I should dilute 50/50), the solution was blue as in most cases, filtered and diluted, and placing this container pet, but what is this layer on botton? is this possible recover it?




In a Becker put the same parts and added AR, everything was going well, but to 'seize' the AR (which was too few to spare), I added other small pieces of foil and pieces of RAM that contained gold and other as in photo. that was when things changed,

I filtered the first time with two filter papers and see how it looks.





So I filtered a second time with filter paper three improved somewhat, but the color should be yellow-green as the edge?






What should I do now?


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## lazersteve (Feb 22, 2011)

Nothing in your photos looks normal.

Please let us know some more details about the scrap you processed. 

Pictures of the actual scrap would be great. 

Include weights of the various types of scrap if you have them.

Steve


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## barka1 (Feb 22, 2011)

Steve I'll take better pics of the scraps...

Scraps: 386 - 486 - maybe Celeron and PIII 



and some ...



Tks


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## barka1 (Feb 22, 2011)

The First Picture is just to know, 'the botton layer' !!


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 22, 2011)

It's a hard lesson to learn to seperate your scrap into different materials so when you run into a problem you can identify what is causing the problem so that you can adjust for it.


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## samuel-a (Feb 22, 2011)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> It's a hard lesson to learn to seperate your scrap into different materials so when you run into a problem you can identify what is causing the problem so that you can adjust for it.




I'll second that Barren.
It is virtually impossible to locate the source or the problems with mixed scrap.

barka1, DO YOU HAVE STANNOUS CHLORIDE?

p.s. - by the way it looks in the picture, it seems you there nice mix of Lead nitrate + Tin nitrate (is it gelatinous like?)


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## lazersteve (Feb 22, 2011)

The photo above appears to be a copper nitrate solution with a mix of salts, most likely containing some or mostly metastannic acid. Metastannic acid is like jelly or slime and hard to filter. It is created by dissolving tin/lead (60/40) solder in nitric acid. The other salts may include sulfates if you are using home made nitric acid.

The blue solution should be allowed to settle until it is clear ( no cloudiness or particulate) and siphoned off of the sludge. Test a sample of the clear blue liquid with a drop of HCl (muriatic acid) to see if a curd like white solid appears. This is either silver or lead chloride or a mixture of the two. If you don't get any results from the acid being added to the blue solution it does not contain any values and should be neutralized with baking soda and the resulting by products properly disposed of. 

You should not process mixed types of cpus together. Sort them by type (486, Pentium, PII & PIII, MMX black fiber, FC Green Fiber, Athlon brown epoxy). Don't include other e-scrap with your processors. 

The dark green solution from the AR reaction appears to be a copper chloride solution free of gold. Testing with stannous chloride will tell you for sure. The yellow color is likely from the copper chloride and muriatic acid. 

The powder in the filter looks to be copper I chloride (dissolves in HCl= muriatic acid) or solids from the crushed chips.

The parts you processed may have had a few tenths of a gram of gold and it is most likely in the bottom of the bucket along with the undissolved base metals and mixed debris.

Take a step back, do some reading in the Guided Tour Link below, Hokes book (found in the link), and start with a small test sample of a single type of scrap. Work out of a test tube until you can identify colors, precipitates, test reactions, etc. Learn how to make and use stannous chloride before you scale up your reaction to a beaker.

Above all, have fun and be safe!

Steve


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## barka1 (Feb 23, 2011)

Here is the scrap ...
has processors, memory, _cell/mobile phone board and also below a piece of scanner(I do not put in nitric acid first, went straight to the AR_



In detail...





Tks...


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## patnor1011 (Feb 23, 2011)

Way too much solder IMHO. I can say that you put hundred times more folder than gold in your solution.


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## glorycloud (Feb 23, 2011)

Alt - Ctrl - Del maybe?

Collect more scrap and study the incredible wisdom offered freely here.
Everyone loves to help - especially those who will study, study and study
BEFORE they do.

Questions are great - help me because I screwed up by doing without
studying or asking causes you and all the good folks here heartburn.
You haven't lost much so far other than time and from the looks of it
maybe no more than a gram or possibly two of gold (maybe $50 - $90)
so chalk it up to a learning experience and try again when you're
really ready to do it right?


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## patnor1011 (Feb 24, 2011)

Way less than gram. Probably not even 1/2 of it. Cost of acid probably outweitht any gold what was in there. 

With cell phone board it is recomended to depopulate completelly to get rid of as much solder as possible. You then process boards in AP, pins in crock pot or small reverse electroplating cell (depend on size and amount of pins involved), small IC chips and flatpacks ball mill or crushing to powder then I would use either nitric and AR or again AP. I will try to acumulate as much material as possible and process different types separatelly. Or if learning / testing / playing with small batches like your might be considered do this to observe process and learn as values recovered from this amount are very small - visible but not really something you can weight.


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