Old solution with locked gold in it

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markk

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
Messages
54
anachronism said:
markk said:
Just as another example, I just found out a couple days ago that you should not do IC chips and gold fingers, or other good gold bearing items in the same batch and also that you should not drop gold from solution with every batch but wait till it is fully saturated with gold. This would have been nice to know from the beginning.

Well whoever told you that isn't someone you need to be listening to very much.
 
markk said:
anachronism said:
markk said:
Just as another example, I just found out a couple days ago that you should not do IC chips and gold fingers, or other good gold bearing items in the same batch and also that you should not drop gold from solution with every batch but wait till it is fully saturated with gold. This would have been nice to know from the beginning.

Well whoever told you that isn't someone you need to be listening to very much.

shor international . Instructions from their sub zero. Not very clear . Jumped right in thinking it was easy peazy . Just crunch up chips and toss in aqua , toss in some urea, pour out some red dust, put in crucible in filter and hit with a torch. Yep worked great except for that very large amount of gold I lost in solution and blowing away with torch. Too bad I pured out all that solution except for the small amount from last batch which I still have but dont kn ow what to do with it. Dropped in a stainless spoon but not sure what that is actually doing. Solution is from '06. Still have a small amount of the gold dust in a bowl that I will process next time I do some fingers. Sure wish I still had access to all that gold bearing old military and computer stuff I got back then.

Instead of using stainless steel to cement your gold out of solution use a copper bar.
 
Read read read... watch watch watch.. You got that right. I have spent many hours reading here and other places and there are so many different ideas on things it is hard to sort out what really is the best thing to do. But as I found out the hard way , just because someone says to do it their way does not make it a good idea and watching videos is good but I find that some are just nonsense and others from very smart people are not going to give the whole story just a good outline of the procedure but not the needed details to perform before the procedure. I think perhaps before the video gets going they should make it a point to tell uneducated people that the videos only show the procedure and they need to learn the "how to" before trying to recover anything.

Something else on these mlcc's and other components. The way I always understood it is that just about all components have PM in them even if in very small amounts on end caps of resistors and the like. I just depopulate the boards and toss the stuff in a bag. Maybe some day it will be worth selling to refinery ? I put all the SM and small stuff in one bag and the larger through hole stuff in another . Some of the larger caps and stuff I desolder and keep for possible resale as good components.
 
Barren Realms 007
Okay , I just asked someone and they told me to toss in the spoon. I was not really sure what that accomplished as I have never really studied up on doing anything with the used solutions.
dont want to hijack this thread with this info so I will post this question in another thread in techniques section .
 
Barren Realms 007 ;
On with the question from other thread , but to inform others reading I will recap:
tossed boards , ic's etc. all in aqua solution. Gold trapped in aqua due to all the solder mask, glue , tin..... From 2006. Dumped most of it but still have a little from last batch of , just a small batch . Lots of gunk in bottom of jar . Added water , washed off what ceramic and boards were left . Put in a stainless steel spoon and sat on counter . Lots of gunk dropped top bottom and spoon looks like rusted. Not sure what that accomplished or how to recover anything from it.

So you say to cement out with a copper bar?
I do not know anything much about this process. Could you tell me in a nut shell what will be happening. Then I will find some info on exactly how to proceed from there. I read now and then about cementing out with copper and such but never really understood the whole thing as I had no reason to dig in deep at the time.
 
markk said:
Barren Realms 007 ;
On with the question from other thread , but to inform others reading I will recap:
tossed boards , ic's etc. all in aqua solution. Gold trapped in aqua due to all the solder mask, glue , tin..... From 2006. Dumped most of it but still have a little from last batch of , just a small batch . Lots of gunk in bottom of jar . Added water , washed off what ceramic and boards were left . Put in a stainless steel spoon and sat on counter . Lots of gunk dropped top bottom and spoon looks like rusted. Not sure what that accomplished or how to recover anything from it.

So you say to cement out with a copper bar?
I do not know anything much about this process. Could you tell me in a nut shell what will be happening. Then I will find some info on exactly how to proceed from there. I read now and then about cementing out with copper and such but never really understood the whole thing as I had no reason to dig in deep at the time.

This thread should help you out. Take time and read it.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=21273
 
You didn't mention testing the solution with stannous chloride. How do you know there is any gold dissolved in it?

By using copper to cement any values, it will only reduce any precious metals that may be in the solution. As the copper dissolves it gives up electrons to the dissolved metals, reducing them back to elemental metals. Using stainless will reduce many other metals, including copper that will be mixed in with any gold powders.

markk said:
Put in a stainless steel spoon and sat on counter .

Please say you don't have this on your kitchen counter. Or anywhere else in your house. If so, stop what you are doing and get it outside. Like, now.
 
yes it is on the counter in a mason jar. but is mostly water at this point as it had dried up and I washed off the parts in it and then added a lot of water.
I made the mistake of setting AR on my counter in tupperware and it migrated right on out while I was at work and ate up my countertop. Which by the way is where this came from. Its been sitting in shed since 06 evaporating out and rusting all my stuff up.

to this point should I add more acid since it is mostly water now ?

I know it has gold in it as I did not recover the gold from it. It would not be much however as it was only a small amount of stuff in a small amount of AR . I will be getting some stannous soon as I will be doing some fingers.
 
Okay then. the spoon I assume should come out . Is that rust all over it anything other than rust?
When the copper is added I am assuming that the gold is going to drop to the bottom , but is now going to be contaminated with other metals because of the spoon ?


Here is what I understand from reading stock pot stuff. the steel is going to drop copper to the bottom.
the copper is going to drop gold to the bottom.
So now, after adding copper bar, I have copper /gold/otherstuff.

Now having no need for a stock pot since I will not be processing much scrap, ( as soon as I get off my butt and go back to work I will not have any time for this) is the stuff at the bottom of stock pot recoverable with AP or do they use it for something else?

Oh and I would read Hoke's book but have never been able to DL a copy. Always get error , not authorized or something similar.
 
Mark, I've moved some of your other posts about your old solution to this thread, although I may have missed one or two. It gets very confusing when the answers are spread across multiple threads. Please try to keep all discussion about a particular situation in a single thread.

Dave
 
here is a pic of solution . The mud is tan and the solution is dark brown . The spoon has a rusty redish brown coating that washes right off in the solution and now that it is sitting out in air is turning green with silver specks.

was hoping that brown on spoon that washed right off was gold . I will be tossing in a copper bar soon but forst need to know if I should add more acid since it is now 70% water. I think.
 

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@mark: There are hundreds of people here that could tell you WHAT to do, but until you understand WHY you are doing those things you will be just as lost tomorrow.
Please take this in the spirit it is intended. We all want to see you succeed, but the only person that can help you right now is YOU.
Read Hokes' book until it makes sense to you; forget everything that you think you know and study.
Your solutions aren't going anywhere, and they'll be waiting for you when you are ready to apply what you will come to understand.
 
Golddigger Greg said:
@mark: There are hundreds of people here that could tell you WHAT to do, but until you understand WHY you are doing those things you will be just as lost tomorrow.
Please take this in the spirit it is intended. We all want to see you succeed, but the only person that can help you right now is YOU.
Read Hokes' book until it makes sense to you; forget everything that you think you know and study.
Your solutions aren't going anywhere, and they'll be waiting for you when you are ready to apply what you will come to understand.
I would have read that long ago had I ever been able to DL it. Might be a browser problem. I'll just have to check that out. Always get an error of forbidden.

I do now know what to do to process what I have now. the old solution was another thing since I had never studied up on anything like that . But I think I have the general idea of what is going on and what to do about it from the answers I have received. They have been quite educational. I have also read a lot on this forum and some on other forums.
I do understand your point on knowing WHY something does what it does.
 
https://www.google.com/#q=download+c.m.+hoke

Try the first link, it is a direct download from the forum. If it won't work look a bit further down.
 
You can read Hokes book online on my wiki.
http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/Hoke_Refining_Precious_Metal_Wastes

Göran
 
Shark said:
https://www.google.com/#q=download+c.m.+hoke

Try the first link, it is a direct download from the forum. If it won't work look a bit further down.
Thanks , that one worked .
 
g_axelsson said:
You can read Hokes book online on my wiki.
http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/Hoke_Refining_Precious_Metal_Wastes

Göran
thanks. I got it DL now.
 
by the way that brown layer in the bottom is the normal stuff plus all the paint, glue, plastic .... anything that was on a few memory sticks and some IC's and processors that decomposed while sitting in AR since '06. It is mucky and sticky. I did manage to dig out a bunch of white goo that I think was white paint but not sure.

Well we will see what happens with it . I'll do some reading and then decide what to do from there.
 
How do you know all these things you are assuming Mark? What are you basing your assumptions upon?

Edit: Also at the top of this page you removed a whole reply from one of your posts a full day after you made it. Fortunately Frank had already quoted you otherwise the context of the thread and replies would have been lost. Don't do this please it's against the rules to delete a post.
 
Jon, I think that post about Shor was lost when Dave combined his threads. It was confusing, and he has scattered them around a bit more since.

Mark, I hope you have at least taken that mess out of your house. If you listen to nothing else, please do that. You have a copy of Hoke now I see. Take the time to read it. Read it again. Do the acquaintance experiments she recommends. It's a great way to learn the basics. As Anachronism is saying, assuming you know what's going on will only lead to more problems, and I assure you, nobody wants to see you get hurt trying half understood processes.
 
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