Gold will not drop

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sleepyman1

Active member
Joined
Oct 23, 2021
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37
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So I'm an amateur at this. I've been reading and watching videos and here is what I've got.

Collected 10 pounds of gold fingers. NOT RAM modules, the fingers from them. Soaked in HCL and peroxide to remove the foils. Collected the foils in a container marked with ounces, the foils almost reached to the 3 ounce mark. I know, it's liquid ounces on the container I'm just giving a visual. Further processed the foils in HCL and bleach in a large plastic container, the foils dissolved. Added sodium metabisulfite dissolved in water, about 400 grams in 2 gallons of water. Got the muddy water reaction. It's now been several days and the gold is not dropping, nothing is there. The solution is now dark but translucent sort of like tea. What am I doing wrong? What could I do next? Also, the solution is still producing strong chloride odors. There's a lot of gold in there and I'm getting worried.

Thanks for any help from the experts.
 
So how much bleach? If you used 2 gallons of water just for smb. I'm assuming you probably used a ton of bleach? It doesn't take much.

The muddy color is the gold precipitating. Does it go back into solution? The fineness can reflect on a slow settlement of the powder as well. A dirty solution can do the same.

All of this can be fixed by using heat with some evaporation. If you don't have access to using heat. Which could easily be an old coffee pot and warmer. (But sounds like you have quite a bit of too much liquids for that.) You can use the sun. It will take a bit longer.
 
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I think it was 400 ml. The solution was not perfectly clean. I had tiny parts and some white powder in it, but it wasn't much. Didnt think it would make that much a difference. Thanks for the reply, seriously. I'll purchase a hot plate. What temp do you recommend?
 
I think it was 400 ml. The solution was not perfectly clean. I had tiny parts and some white powder in it, but it wasn't much. Didnt think it would make that much a difference. Thanks for the reply, seriously. I'll purchase a hot plate. What temp do you recommend?
I'm just giving an instance for next time...not a whole process

Putting the foils in a beaker. Pour in hcl just enough to cover them. Slowly add bleach in smaller incremental steps like one would with nitric. Waiting 5 mins or so inbetween. You can use a turkey baster to add the bleach. Just be wary the super cheap ones don't always hold the liquid very well.

After your foils are dissolved you can follow normal steps.

Put on a low heat just enough to see a fume for 10-15 mins. Doesn't need to be a rolling boil. This will help rid of the chlorine for an easier drop.

When you are adding your smb. It can be added dry. It's usually been a preference thing. The only time I will dilute it is when I have a super dirty solution which will make the gold drop slower.

If gold is precipitated and having a hard time settling you can use heat again. It will help with clumping and sinking to the bottom of the flask.

Andrew
 
@Lino1406

I don't have any SO2 so I don't know what it smells like. It does have a strong odor though. Not as strong as HCL but its there. Probably because I have so much water and SMB in it???

@acpeacemaker

Thanks for all that but my gold has already been dissolved in the HCL bleach solution. I mixed my SMB with water and then added it. It's been on low heat for 2 days now and nothing has dropped. The solution is a light green color now. What the heck am I doing wrong? Getting nervous.
 
"The solution is a light green color now." Sounds like you've dissolved copper from the pins...there are threads in the Archives here that might help you drop the copper which should help give you a cleaner drop. I would also recommend reading the relevant threads talking about using Bleach with Hydrocloric. Household bleach contains other additives that can poison your drops...
 
It sounds like you have to much bleach in solution. Peace Maker is right. It is going back into solution. Meaning, that will continue to happen until all the bleach is used up. Or you neutralize it some way.
 
Listen to Andrew and Dave.
First and foremost test with Stannous, make sure it is acidic.
If you have added too much bleach it would have neutralized the HCl, then SMB will not work and maybe some gold left behind.
Just add a bit HCl to make sure.
Or test pH if you can.
 
@FrugalRefiner
My stannous solution is years old and probably unreliable so I ordered some more. Will be here next week.

I finally have some gold dropping! There's about 1/4 teaspoon at the bottom of the jar. But with foils from 10 pounds of fingers there should be a lot more.
 
@FrugalRefiner
My stannous solution is years old and probably unreliable so I ordered some more. Will be here next week.

I finally have some gold dropping! There's about 1/4 teaspoon at the bottom of the jar. But with foils from 10 pounds of fingers there should be a lot more.
Stannous Chloride is only good for a couple of months then is unreliable, you can make stannous easily. buy some cheap Tin (II) chloride and mix a little with some 50% water/HCL (25ml). To make the stannous last longer add some tin metal.
 
Stannous test is dark brown. Which means gold is there correct? I feel like I don't have enough of one of the chemicals but which one?
 
The Stannous bottle has a label on it that is color coded. The Au column has purple and brown. The purple is labeled low concentration and the brown is high concentration. ????
 
So I decided to empty the solution to see what has dropped. The SMB simply recrystallized in the bottom of the jar. Large chunk of it. Is the gold trapped inside it? What would be the best course of action?
 
So I'm an amateur at this. I've been reading and watching videos and here is what I've got.

Collected 10 pounds of gold fingers. NOT RAM modules, the fingers from them. Soaked in HCL and peroxide to remove the foils. Collected the foils in a container marked with ounces, the foils almost reached to the 3 ounce mark. I know, it's liquid ounces on the container I'm just giving a visual. Further processed the foils in HCL and bleach in a large plastic container, the foils dissolved. Added sodium metabisulfite dissolved in water, about 400 grams in 2 gallons of water. Got the muddy water reaction. It's now been several days and the gold is not dropping, nothing is there. The solution is now dark but translucent sort of like tea. What am I doing wrong? What could I do next? Also, the solution is still producing strong chloride odors. There's a lot of gold in there and I'm getting worried.

Thanks for any help from the experts.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 10 lb of fingers is probably going to yield less 1 gr of gold. Depending upon how much solution you have it dissolved in, that's going to look like a smudge on the bottom of your beaker. I learned this the hard way about 10 years ago. Escrap just isn't worth the effort unless you're processing it by the ton. AP is good for getting the foils separated from the card stock. After that you really need to process with distilled water and Nitric 1st to remove any silver and base metals. A couple of drops of Sulfuric at this point will precipitate any lead. Then Hydrochloric and Nitric to dissolve the gold. Complete and thorough rinsing between processes is absolutely necessary.
 
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