Hi, my name is David Rey and im new in refining gold and in this forum.
Let me tell you a little about my self, im a computer tech and i work with a lot of electronics, i use to invest my money buying gold from APMEX, I like to buy gold because it is an long term investment and i have been done reading and research about buying and selling but i like more to buy gold and silver.
one of my coworkers was studying how to refine gold, but he only looked at youtube videos, i told him gold refining was a process and have to be careful about what he was doing in terms of safety and what steps to follow and after a while he could not get a single gram of solid gold from cell phone pins, boards and IC chips. I know he made the mistake of putting the whole board in nitric acid without cleaning the board and taking off other components like surface mount resistors and little pieces of steel, iron and speaker magnets. finally he gave up and he was about put in the trash can some plastic bottles filled with what i know is nitric acid and aqua regia, some of the bottles have a orange red mud, others have red wine color mud, i asked him to write everything he did before he handled all the acid containers and mud containers for proper neutralization and disposal.
In a nitric acid container he put the whole boards without taking off small electronic components, after the nitric acid did its work, he filtered the remaining metals together with the gold flakes and put it in a glass container filled with nitric acid 42 Be 68%, hydrochloric acid 20 Be 32%, one part nitric acid three parts hydrochloric acid and the next day he added sulfuric acid to drop inpurities, he filtered again and when using sodium sulfite the gold will not drop, only awhite foam will show and then it will disappear every time he puts sodium sulfite in the aqua regia and nothing will drop.
In separate container the tried to cement the gold putting a lot of copper, until now, every piece of copper he put in the aqua regia it will desappear and the gold will not cement, another thing he did is to add baking soda while the aqua regia was boiling and he ended up with a black crust in the reaction flask and lasting he did is to add baking soda to the aqua regia in three 24oz plastic containers and the result was a red and orange mud in the solution and that what he have done until he gave up and just give me all the chemicals and lab glass, for the reaction flask with the black crust i used clean aqua regia to clean it and save the acid because it turn clear yellow again after it dissolve the black crust, the reaction flask looks expensive because it has good known brand stamp and the rest of glassware ass well, he gave me all the glass ware as well i think he got frustrated, i asked him to do a research and read before doing something but he didnt and just did what he saw on youtube.
I downloaded a copy of hokes book from another location and i have being reading, i got most of the chemicas needed to do the process, I really like to read but i cant find a section that describes dropping gold with baking soda instead of copperas, or boiling the aqua regia to get rid of nitric acid.
for the used nitric acid container i did a little experiment and i ad hydrocloric acid to a small beaker and i got clear cristals from the solution wich i think are siver salt or silver nitrate, the silver crystals are mixed with green crystals and some have a combination of both colors, some of them are flat and long like triangles.
to get familiar with the process i downloaded hokes book and follow the direction described in the refining precious metals and commonest case section but i cant find anything that describes dropping gold with baking soda, only for accidental contact with skin and how to neutralize it, ia have been looking on the forum as well without luck.
This is what i know to this point, any help will be greatly appreciated concerning the orange mug of baking soda in the aqua regia containers, i have never done gold refining and i think it is a science and now since my friend gave me the lab glassware, chemicals and some tools i want to learn and read everything i need to get familiar with process before attempting to drop the gold from the baking soda mud in the aqua regia containers
thanks for taking the time to read, please any reply will be greatly appreciated
Let me tell you a little about my self, im a computer tech and i work with a lot of electronics, i use to invest my money buying gold from APMEX, I like to buy gold because it is an long term investment and i have been done reading and research about buying and selling but i like more to buy gold and silver.
one of my coworkers was studying how to refine gold, but he only looked at youtube videos, i told him gold refining was a process and have to be careful about what he was doing in terms of safety and what steps to follow and after a while he could not get a single gram of solid gold from cell phone pins, boards and IC chips. I know he made the mistake of putting the whole board in nitric acid without cleaning the board and taking off other components like surface mount resistors and little pieces of steel, iron and speaker magnets. finally he gave up and he was about put in the trash can some plastic bottles filled with what i know is nitric acid and aqua regia, some of the bottles have a orange red mud, others have red wine color mud, i asked him to write everything he did before he handled all the acid containers and mud containers for proper neutralization and disposal.
In a nitric acid container he put the whole boards without taking off small electronic components, after the nitric acid did its work, he filtered the remaining metals together with the gold flakes and put it in a glass container filled with nitric acid 42 Be 68%, hydrochloric acid 20 Be 32%, one part nitric acid three parts hydrochloric acid and the next day he added sulfuric acid to drop inpurities, he filtered again and when using sodium sulfite the gold will not drop, only awhite foam will show and then it will disappear every time he puts sodium sulfite in the aqua regia and nothing will drop.
In separate container the tried to cement the gold putting a lot of copper, until now, every piece of copper he put in the aqua regia it will desappear and the gold will not cement, another thing he did is to add baking soda while the aqua regia was boiling and he ended up with a black crust in the reaction flask and lasting he did is to add baking soda to the aqua regia in three 24oz plastic containers and the result was a red and orange mud in the solution and that what he have done until he gave up and just give me all the chemicals and lab glass, for the reaction flask with the black crust i used clean aqua regia to clean it and save the acid because it turn clear yellow again after it dissolve the black crust, the reaction flask looks expensive because it has good known brand stamp and the rest of glassware ass well, he gave me all the glass ware as well i think he got frustrated, i asked him to do a research and read before doing something but he didnt and just did what he saw on youtube.
I downloaded a copy of hokes book from another location and i have being reading, i got most of the chemicas needed to do the process, I really like to read but i cant find a section that describes dropping gold with baking soda instead of copperas, or boiling the aqua regia to get rid of nitric acid.
for the used nitric acid container i did a little experiment and i ad hydrocloric acid to a small beaker and i got clear cristals from the solution wich i think are siver salt or silver nitrate, the silver crystals are mixed with green crystals and some have a combination of both colors, some of them are flat and long like triangles.
to get familiar with the process i downloaded hokes book and follow the direction described in the refining precious metals and commonest case section but i cant find anything that describes dropping gold with baking soda, only for accidental contact with skin and how to neutralize it, ia have been looking on the forum as well without luck.
This is what i know to this point, any help will be greatly appreciated concerning the orange mug of baking soda in the aqua regia containers, i have never done gold refining and i think it is a science and now since my friend gave me the lab glassware, chemicals and some tools i want to learn and read everything i need to get familiar with process before attempting to drop the gold from the baking soda mud in the aqua regia containers
thanks for taking the time to read, please any reply will be greatly appreciated