Any and all Help Much Appreciated

[spannman]

Hello and Thanks so much for looking at my posts. I would appreciate any and all help with my process.

First let me be up front and say I have a few things going on that I have questions about so maybe should start by giving a little history...

I am using a few different items...cpu chips, mother boards, finger boards...etc...All however are from PC's. I have burned my boards prior to putting them through the chemical process.

I seem to be having a few different issues.

1. After refining approx. 44-50oz. out of foils. I yielded 11oz. of gold dust. I am getting a green tarnish or mold like color on the gold power and inside the walls of my beaker. After several attempts of over washing the powder with water, then ammonia, then a few drops of nitric acid and boiling my final dust. I yielded 11oz. and I don't want to possibly lose anymore gold.
(When testing the product I am getting various results...from a dark green color to a very faint almost clear blue ish shade) This is different depending on which batch I test. But all batches have been through the same process. I'm confused about that one.

2. When doing some melting tests with my dust and borax...I am getting a hard copper colored nugget coming back or a hard black nugget.

I am using AR, SMB, Distilled water, Ammonia, Acetylene or MAPP (I am sure I missed something on this list)

Again any help is appreciated. Thanks and have a gold productive day.

Spannman

 

[Claudie]

You mention a chemical process but you do not say what process. You mention testing but you do not say how you tested. It sounds to me like you don't have anything close to pure Gold as a final product. My suggestion would be to hold off of burning anything else or trying to use AR on anything until you have educated yourself a little more about what you are doing. All of the information you will need is here on the forum. Start reading with the guided tour, there is a link to that thread in my signature line. Get a free copy of C.M. Hoke Refining Precious Metals, also a link to that in my signature line. Spend some time reading and learning. Use the search function with specific problems. Welcome to the forum!

 

[jeneje]

Welcome,

Just to add something here, how did you burn your boards and with what? You would be served well ( health wise ) to read about the health risks when burning boards. To incinerate boards it is best to do that in an incinerator with an after burner to burn up toxic gases that are released into the air. You do not want to be breathing those fumes.

Take care and follower Claudie's advice.

Ken

 

[Palladium]

I guess my question would be " Where are you getting your information about how to process these materials from? "
Whats your source of guidance?

 

[Pantherlikher]

Spannman... Hi and welcome to the "only" forum you should study and learn "everything" you need to know to be attempting collecting and refinning PMs...
You just signed up here and shuved alot of "useless" history on us and hope we can fix what's wrong...

NOT!!!

How about what and where you've "learned how to" do what you've done so far... Best way to have a clue what "knowledge" you are missing to "Do it right" and "Do it safely!"

My guess would be 20,ooo Youtube/hurt yourself videos that don't teach you anything from start to finish so you are able to "Safely" do it and fix mistakes before they happen.

Have you read all of Hoke's Book?... It will answer everything you asked if you fully understand the information.

B.S.
... The richest of men are not of cash worth, but of knowledge...
...Chase the correct rainbow and the other wont matter...

 

[rod lancaster]

I am gaining the education to do the very same thing. I don't believe that I have the knowledge to get the metals out yet. I have burned some collected circuit boards and have separated out the ash, steel and copper. I am not throwing out anything just keeping them separate. I have just downloaded "Refining Precious Metals Wastes by CM. Hoke" and will study it devise a plan and run it through this community. I haven't screwed up yet I hope. Until I have the knowledge I will continue to burn the boards and separate the ashes, metal and copper.

 

[Claudie]

You are most likely losing values by burning the boards, not to mention what you're doing to your health.

 

[butcher]

The wealth of information on this forum is immense. New member join with a basic idea to get gold (usually from electronic trash), they have no understanding of the precious metals, the chemistry and other factors in the chemistry, values of scrap, how to test for these metals, or how to test for them in solution, they do not understand reactions with metals such as base metals in a melt with precious metals or chemical reactions with both precious and non precious metals in solution...

Basically they really know nothing of this science, they may have read a topic or two seen a video, and believe falsely that they know enough to begin, without an understanding of how dangerous that recovery and refining can really be, deadly fumes, toxic and corrosive acids, chemistry of explosive mixtures of metal salts and solutions, fire dangers, and hazards, trying operations that can cripple a man for life or harm him and his family, Knowing nothing of the toxic waste they will generate, which if not treated properly for disposal will leach into well water someone drinks, or would end up in a sewer going back into a river where the city down river gets its drinking water.

This forum has an enormous wealth of information and anyone wishing to get highly educated in this science can get that education, He can learn to recover, refine, buy, sell, test, and can become very educated in the field of precious metals.

People come here wanting to know how to get out of a mess or think they can just do a couple of simple things and melt pure gold, basically knowing nothing of what they are attempting, or the dangers they are putting themselves or other in, this forums information is hard to find, because most of the posts here on the forum are trying to convince these new members to study, to stop making a mess and putting themselves or others in danger, or trying to help them recover from a mess, or answering very basic questions simple questions that should be so obvious to anyone who spent just a little time researching would know the answer to, this fills the forum with page after page of useless information or chat, clatter chatter they will not help any one learn much but tiny bits and pieces filled or mixed with mostly useless clatter, this then makes it harder for the new guy to find the answers when he finally sees that he will have to study to learn or lose his gold and give up hope of learning and leaves the forum.

It would be nice if we could concentrate more on growing on the forum, posting useful information, and procedures or discussions which help every one grow in their skills, instead of spending our time responding to the new posters same old questions how do I get gold out of this mess I made, I know the process from a you tube video, but somewhere it did not work like the video...

With the popularity of the precious metals lately the forum has been flooded with new members and the majority of posts and topics are mostly useless for anyone wanting to grow and learn, mostly trying to get new members past the first stage of gold fever and thinking they know enough to jump from the airplane before they even learn what a parachute is.

How do we as members get past this, and begin enriching our forum with useful informational posts, procedures, and discussions, while still helping our new members get over that first hurdle to begin to study the useful information provided, learn the safety and get a good understanding of the science of precious metal recovery and refining.

I fear if we do not do something to solve this problem our forum can become stagnate filled more with useless information than good information.

 

[patnor1011]

People should forget idea that they can recover values burning boards.
Yes it can be done and it is done by few companies in world. It require specialized hardware and set up which cost in region of millions and tens of them.
In home or garden or your shed you just burn it and get traces of values which will never cover cost associated in doing so. Not to mention later cost you will acquire by the time doing this in form of ruined health of yours and everyone in vicinity of those experiments.

I do not believe that even if you will be guided that you will be able to recover enough to cover cost of what you already spent. Just for your information to get 11 oz of gold powder you will have to process close to 2000 pounds of boards. In case you have some vintage super special military equipment boards you will still need hundreds of pounds of them to get close to 11 oz of gold.

If you want to see gold and you are hobbyist then you need to start working hard as there is no easy way to do it. I do not talk about studying and learning as that is obvious thing which need to be done and it was mentioned by many people before me. I talk about working on separating good stuff from bad. Cherry picking only what you can recover and selling the rest. We use different processes for different parts on boards. While one process may be perfect for one type it is bad choice tor another type of material.
Imagine that you go out in field to pick herbs for your tea. You are not going to cut down everything and then spend eternity finding the right herb. It is very likely that you will lose it in that pile of grass.
Try instead to identify that herb, look for it, take it out and then have your tea. You can still sell leftover grass.
But if you cut it first and fail to find your precious herb by the time you spend looking for it, everything will be spoiled and you will never sell that either.

 

[Claudie]

I think maybe we are experiencing a modern day Gold rush. Someone finds out there are minute traces of Gold, Silver, and other precious metals in electronic scrap and the word starts to spread "There is Gold in them thar boards!" They forget to mention the minute part. People seem to think that the material they have is better than the average, and therefore contains a lot of Gold. The internet is world wide and gives access to an endless wealth of knowledge, but it also gives access to an endless river of misinformation. Separating the fact from fiction can be nearly impossible for someone with no background knowledge of the subject being researched. Youtube.com contains thousands of videos referring to getting Gold from electronic waste, but of those thousands, very few of them are detailed enough for someone with no background knowledge in refining to accomplish thier goal of getting Gold from electronic scrap. They do, however, give a misleading picture of how easy it is to get a shiney Gold button from an old computer that someone else put in the trash. Many people today want an easy way to do everything, they shortcut proven processes thinking they are too much work and they can still get the Gold without all of the extra work. How many times has someone come to the forum with a barrel of slime that used to be motherboards, cellular telephones, and who knows what else all mixed together, wanting to know how to get that Gold bar out, that is somehow hiding in the mix?
Throughout history, whenever there is a Gold rush, it was usually caused by Gold fever. How many people died from blowing themselves up back in the 1850's, trying to get that motherload that they are sure is burried in that mountain? How many people threw their lives away, staying year after year digging in barren ground, only to die broke and alone? When people get Gold fever, I don't think they will listen to the truth. There are many examples of that right here on the forum. How many times has someone came here asking how to get the Gold from something, then after they have been clearly guided as to what to do, they ignore it and try something else that is presumably much easier and faster, only to come back in a few days wanting to know how to fix the mess they have made? I don't think that there is a known cure for Gold fever, short of being disabled or killed trying to get rich.
As far as the endless stream of the same questions being asked over and over again, I don't think that will ever stop either. It is much easier to ask a question than it is to look for the answer. Too much work for todays society. "If it ain't easy, I ain't gonna do it!" No matter how simple a process might be, there is always someone who thinks it can be simpler, with even less work involved. Maybe the forum should be divided into two sections, one for active members to use, and another for new people to ask questions in. That may help filter some of the trash out of the main part of the forum, while still allowing access for everyone. If, after a while, someone shows that they are here to learn and they are not here because of Gold fever, they can gain access to the main forum pending a vote by the moderators. Those people that come wanting only easy answers or refuse to listen, can be banned to help keep the new part of the forum from building up too many usless posts.

 

[Pantherlikher]

I like that idea Claudi:
"As far as the endless stream of the same questions being asked over and over again, I don't think that will ever stop either. It is much easier to ask a question than it is to look for the answer. Too much work for todays society. "If it ain't easy, I ain't gonna do it!" No matter how simple a process might be, there is always someone who thinks it can be simpler, with even less work involved. Maybe the forum should be divided into two sections, one for active members to use, and another for new people to ask questions in. That may help filter some of the trash out of the main part of the forum, while still allowing access for everyone. If, after a while, someone shows that they are here to learn and they are not here because of Gold fever, they can gain access to the main forum pending a vote by the moderators. Those people that come wanting only easy answers or refuse to listen, can be banned to help keep the new part of the forum from building up too many usless posts."


Sign up, get logged into the starter forum... Where you go and make mistakes untill you can prove that you are here now to learn.
Then request to be invited onto the Forum where we learn and share the way it's designed for.

Or from hence forth... Any and all posts goto the "new posts" section and someone move information from there to the correct place only if it is "worthy"

Just my "Bingo" moment
B.S.
... I still have to distinguish between an amazing thought, or just bad gas...