Accomplished nothing so far

[Edwin Price]

Can any of you folks explain this occurrence? My wife had an old discarded outside flower pot near my work area. It had a couple tin or aluminum decorative leaves attached to the outside. Somehow the aged decaying metal attracted gold flakes that adhered to it. I can only think of two ways it could’ve gotten exposed to my refinement attempts: (1) by something in the boil off vapors that was carried there by my fan, or (2) one time I had a sudden reaction to addition of SMB to solution that spewed some liquid out of the flask. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting phenomenon. ty

 

[Shark]

Boiling is not good in refining, generally. This could be a prime example of why not boiling an auric chloride solution in an open vessel is advised. But it is still a cool view of the effect that may teach many future people to avoid boiling, until properly setup conditions are met.

 

[Edwin Price]

Boiling is not good in refining, generally. This could be a prime example of why not boiling an auric chloride solution in an open vessel is advised. But it is still a cool view of the effect that may teach many future people to avoid boiling, until properly setup conditions are met.

Heat is ok to speed the reaction - right? Just not to the boiling point…

 

[Shark]

Heat is ok to speed the reaction - right? Just not to the boiling point…

Yes. Even then I use a watch glass to help re condense as much of the vapors as possible. It aids in limiting the use of nitric at times also.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Heat is ok to speed the reaction - right? Just not to the boiling point…

That is correct in some cases.
Boiling is ok as long as the solution itself do not hold values.
But if you are boiling a Gold bearing solution, each bubble that rise to the surface and explode,
has the potential to throw a droplet of Gold bearing solution out of the beaker.
Boiling for washing and or dissolving base metal do not pose much potential to "throw away" values.

 

[Edwin Price]

Things may be looking up. Running a small test sample. It looks good and gets strong black positive stannous test.

 

[Edwin Price]

Help! What cause hot AR not to dissolve all gold present? See pics. ty

 

[Proffshuggarn]

Hi Edwin
It depends..
Often because you need a ml or two more of nitric (often).
I’m no expert, but some basic questions:
-What are your material? (karat/e-waste etcetera..)
-How did you the AR?
—Depending on material, did you pretreat it? (Remove base metals etc)
-Ph? Could be a need of either more Hcl or Nitric.

Try to describe the process so exact as you can, then it’s easier for the pro’s (not me) to help you out
/Dennis

 

[Yggdrasil]

Help! What cause hot AR not to dissolve all gold present? See pics. ty

It might be too saturated.
It seems dark.
Add a splash of HCl, even a bit of water may help.
As Poffshuggarn says, detailed description always help.

 

[Edwin Price]

I’m guessing I used too little nitric acid so far…?

Hi Edwin
It depends..
Often because you need a ml or two more of nitric (often).
I’m no expert, but some basic questions:
-What are your material? (karat/e-waste etcetera..)

Answer: ewaste from computers.

-How did you the AR?

Used HCL, water and heat at first. Then added about 10 ml of nitric 2-3x during the process.

—Depending on material, did you pretreat it? (Remove base metals etc)

Answer: Yes. The materials were closely trimmed gold/gold plated computer parts. Plastic, tin, copper, fiber board removed as much as possible.

-Ph? Could be a need of either more Hcl or Nitric.

Answer: I need to buy some kind of pH meter. Litmus paper is of limited value. My guess is too little nitric. I went from one extreme to the other.

Try to describe the process so exact as you can, then it’s easier for the pro’s (not me) to help you out

Answer: Started with 50% HCL and water solution. Heated

/Dennis

 

[Edwin Price]

I’m guessing I used too little nitric acid so far…?

Answer: ewaste from computers.

Used HCL, water and heat at first. Then added about 10 ml of nitric 2-3x during the process.

Answer: Yes. The materials were closely trimmed gold/gold plated computer parts. Plastic, tin, copper, fiber board removed as much as possible.

Answer: I need to buy some kind of pH meter. Litmus paper is of limited value. My guess is too little nitric. I went from one extreme to the other.

Answer: Started with 50% HCL and water solution. Heated then filtered out as much non gold as possible. Took the remaining visible gold pieces, put with filtered solution in new beaker, added more HCL. Then started adding small amounts of nitric and heat till obvious reaction was ongoing. Gold floated on top the solution as shown instead of dissolving. Stannous test was negative. I do not know why this solution turned dark green. My test run yielded a clear orange solution. I’m going to try more incremental additions of nitric for now. Thank you. edp

 

[Edwin Price]

I’m guessing I used too little nitric acid so far…?

It might be too saturated.
It seems dark.
Add a splash of HCl, even a bit of water may help.
As Poffshuggarn says, detailed description always help.

I can certainly add more HCL and water to dilute. Although it seems I have used significant HCL already. I have noted that Sreetips generally adds more HCL and water while heating followed by small does of nitric and even one shot of sulphuric. Thank you, edp

 

[Shark]

HCl is a gas dissolved in water. Heat, while it may speed up some processes, will cause the gas to come out of the solution. So when using heat an excess of HCl is often needed to drive the process to completion.

 

[anachronism]

Have you got deposits in the liquid- as in does it look cloudy now? If so you have too little HCl. Adding HCl would then clear the solution (as in clarify it) and the reaction would start runnng but you need head room because it may be vigorous.

If it's clear then try a drop and I mean a drop of Nitric. If it gets going again then it was Nitric. A Hot solution devoid of Nitric doesn't require a lot to get extremely lively if there are lots of metals but judging by the few bits a drop or two should be enough.

 

[MvK]

Help! What cause hot AR not to dissolve all gold present? See pics. ty

Dillute the mixture, when it does not start dissolving gold again just filter the liquid, drop the gold and run the filtered solids again.

In the recovery phase its always tricky to determine the amount of nitric needed. This way you wont have to deal with excess nitric in the first place.

 

[Golddigger76]

Is the gold that was not dissolving only on the surface ?
It appears to me this is the case by looking at your pictures.

Or was there flakes all the way through the solution ?

if it only had floating gold then simply spray the gold and surface of your acid with a misting spray bottle of water and that will break the surface tension and make the gold sink so it can be in full contact with your acids.

Help! What cause hot AR not to dissolve all gold present? See pics.

 

[AndrewSuperD]

Can any of you folks explain this occurrence? My wife had an old discarded outside flower pot near my work area. It had a couple tin or aluminum decorative leaves attached to the outside. Somehow the aged decaying metal attracted gold flakes that adhered to it. I can only think of two ways it could’ve gotten exposed to my refinement attempts: (1) by something in the boil off vapors that was carried there by my fan, or (2) one time I had a sudden reaction to addition of SMB to solution that spewed some liquid out of the flask. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting phenomenon. ty

Just curious…many of the gold specs in the picture have flat sides. While the specs are out of focus, are they really hexagonal shaped? They look like “leprechaun glitter” we bought one time. Or is it the sensor shape on the camera/mirror you’re using since the specs are out of focus?

 

[Edwin Price]

Just curious…many of the gold specs in the picture have flat sides. While the specs are out of focus, are they really hexagonal shaped? They look like “leprechaun glitter” we bought one time. Or is it the sensor shape on the camera/mirror you’re using since the specs are out of focus?

Just tiny specs of gold colored mostly square, rectangular, circular, hexagonal and other random odd shapes tightly adhered to the tin or aluminum. Some are shiny, some are darker. ?

 

[Thomas M Joseph]

Looks like flakes of mica.

 

[Edwin Price]

Looks like flakes of mica.

My pics don't do it justice. Doesn't look anything like the mica I have encountered while mining or panning for gold in the wild. I scraped the golden specs off one leaf and they reacted and dissolved in AR.