AP and base metals

[jimmyreece]

what base metals are best used with the AP process

 

[jimmyreece]

is the AP process recomened to be the best method to use to to dissolve base betals other than using a cell for gold recovery prior to refining with AR?

 

[dtectr]

That's a good question, jimmyreece.
The process is safe, a little slower than nitric & aqua regia, but safe. I use it almost exclusively for fingers, & similar things, ones where the Au to base metal ratio is relatively low, like these:

Also, the only base metals I'll encounter are nickel & copper, both of which clean out easily with the HCl & water rinses. I keep a bubbler going on my solution 24/7. Cold weather slows things down quite a bit, but I had other materials to work on. Time seems like the major factor.

Poor Man's AR speeds things up considerably, due to the addition of a nitrate.

Just my dos centavos

Hope that helps some.
dtectr

 

[jimmyreece]

ok, so for the most part its best used with fingers. ive had limited sucess with cpus using AP. i tried AP on a lb of small connectors but it constantly kept saturating my solution and turning everything black before lifting any gold off.
i have over a 100 lbs of connectors,80 lbs of GP jewelry and equal amount of cpus and aprox 40 lbs og plated circut boards.just tryn to determine the best approach to it all.....lots of reading,asking questions and of course trial and error. but im gettn frustraighted with the latter. it would be easier if all the connectors werent mixed.
im open for suggestions

 

[Barren Realms 007]

ok, so for the most part its best used with fingers. ive had limited sucess with cpus using AP. i tried AP on a lb of small connectors but it constantly kept saturating my solution and turning everything black before lifting any gold off.
i have over a 100 lbs of connectors,80 lbs of GP jewelry and equal amount of cpus and aprox 40 lbs og plated circut boards.just tryn to determine the best approach to it all.....lots of reading,asking questions and of course trial and error. but im gettn frustraighted with the latter. it would be easier if all the connectors werent mixed.
im open for suggestions

You need to get some patience. If your AP get's saturated before your gold comes off do a smaller batch in the same amount of solution till you find a mix that works for you. This is not something that you can rush. And you can loose an awful lot of material if you don't watch what you are doing.

 

[dtectr]

Cpu's & pins - Poor Man's AR - you can find the recipe & steps from lazersteve's guided tour link. Of course, do each separately, In smaller batches so you can observe what's taking place. I seriously recommend taking notes - something about organizing your thoughts to put the observations/steps on paper really helps me as a memory aid. You need just 3 ingredients - Muriatic acid, distilled water & a nitrate, sodium nitrate, or potassium nitrate (which I use). Its safer & cheaper than buying nitric acid outright.

Gold plated - the sulfuric cell, really one of the easiest treatments if you follow the safety guidelines. lazersteve has a DVD devoted to this.

I don't remember if someone mentioned this to you before on another thread, so bear with me - Have you thought about getting lazersteve's DVDs or GSP's book? These do a great job of breaking down the "why's" & "how's".

On the connectors, well, some do better in a ball mill than others, due to the plastic used. If they were plated AFTER the pins were inserted, they needed a heat/chemical resistant plastic which can be a real pain to get to release the metal. If a ball mill is feasible, rusty has had good success ABRADING the gold from plated connectors.

Like Barren, I recommend patience, as well - learn one process well before moving on to another. The metal will still be there as you become expert at each process. There is a great feeling that comes from a process working exactly right, every time & that only comes with knowing your feed stock & the chemistry, following the steps ("don't try to re-invent the wheel", as they say on here a lot.

we've all been where you are - hang in there & make your own luck!
hope this helps some.

 

[jimmyreece]

thanks again. this forum has really been helpful. and comunicating with you guys has made it interesting and very imformative.
your right about having patience to which i lack much of. ive been a concrete construction foreman for 24 years now and its branded a production way of thinking in my head and i gotten intp the habit of applying it for almost any task i take.
i have run test samples on many of this so far. and its good to hear in a sense "live" comments reguarding what im currently learning from the guys who know. kinda helps to confirm what im already thinking. thanks again