CHAPTER V - REFINING GOLD SCRAP

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

[AuCl4]-

Active member
Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
33
Location
Brampton, Ontario
Hello, this place is great....a shame I didnt find it sooner.

If someone can help me please you will have my everlasting gratitude.

In Harolds booklet in chapter 5

THE COMMONEST CASE—REFINING GOLD SCRAP THAT CONTAINS NO PLATINUM METALS

Under Step 6 - Recovering the dissolved gold with copperas.

Can I use sodium sulphite to drop the gold at this step instead of copperas and is there a similar procedure?

I am working with pc scrap and I dont think there is an appreciable amount of platinum in it. Is this the procedure I would use or the one later that deals with no platinum?
They seem similar................Thanks
 
sodium sulfite, sodium metabisulfite both will selectively precipitate gold. as far as Pt, i dont think ive ever heard of Pt in computers. ordinarily you find more Pd any way if you know what to look for.
 
Thank you for the quick reply .......

Geo said:
sodium sulfite, sodium metabisulfite both will selectively precipitate gold

When you say 'selectively', does that mean that gold and only gold compounds will drop?

I processed two batches already. Well 1 and 1/2 to be exact. The second batch I botched but I documented everything.

The first batch I got a yield of brown powder that does not react with 50%-70% HNO3 that I made myself. The HNO3 is plenty strong enough to react with a penny almost instantly so I think I got gold!! I'm very exited!

I noticed that when I washed with HCl, I had less brown powder than when I collected the brown powder after precipitation.
So if only gold compounds are dropped, did some gold get washed away or was it some other compound that was put into solution by the HCl?

Many Thanks............
 
if you use both hcl and nitric acid on the same material without first incinerating the material, you will dissolve some gold without knowing it. you should study more on the processes you are trying and also testing. download a free copy of Hoke's book "refining precious metal waste" http://www.scribd.com/doc/2815953/Refining-Precious-Metal-Wastes-C-M-Hoke
 
I understand now! Since I didnt take proper steps to remove HNO3, upon adding HCl, I inadvertently created AR that put some of my powder back into solution!

Even if the AR created was very weak, the surface area of the very fine grains of powder suspended in the solution allows the weak AR to react quickly.

It's a good thing that I save everything.............Many Thanks
 
Back
Top