AP waste

[oldtimmer]

My first 5 gal bucket of AP waste went according to plans. Copper to drop any thing missed followed by iron to drop the copper. Both buckets have been used to recover fingers from boards. Both of the solutions look like real dark express coffee.

I now have 2 more 5 gal buckets of AP waste. I have done the copper and recovered a small amount of black mud/slime. I have an iron bar in each of the two buckets, one for 5 days, one for three days. On one, I can see a very small amount of copper on the top of the iron bar, near the surface. The bottom 90% as well as the other bar in the second bucket are covered with a black slime and no copper is being dropped.

What do I need to do to get the copper to drop?

 

[qst42know]

The iron is dissolved and displaces the copper in solution. Best guess is you need more surface area to speed it up.

 

[ppoowweerr]

I concur with more surface area. I have done the same thing recently, as I am just beginning myself. I used my dremel grindings from another toy project so I have alot of surface area, it seems to be working fine. I havent looked at it much though.

 

[glorycloud]

try the big aluminum heat sinks from the P2 or P3 slot 1 processor. They have lots of surface area and seem to drop the copper very well.

 

[aussco999]

Try using steel wool pads (HomeDepot, paint section). It has minimum of 1000x more available surface area.

Also, before you drop the copper in the bucket, weigh it first. Then weigh out the steel wool a few grams heavier and that should give you enough iron for complete cementation.

Depending on your solution's acidity, processing time could be in minutes, instead of hours/days.

Good luck,

John

 

[qst42know]

It's just my opinion but for processing wastes it's better if you don't have to buy anything or don't use anything with a decent scrap value like aluminum. Aluminum is fast sometimes too fast. If you do use aluminum be certain to have plenty of head space as it will foam plenty.

 

[glorycloud]

i have 18 foot ceilings in the warehouse.

 

[leavemealone]

I wouldnt use steel wool.You'll find that because of the high surface to mass ratio you will most likely end up with all of it dissolving into solution before the copper has a chance to adhere.

 

[qst42know]

AP will have a lot of copper in it perhaps a piece of flat sheet metal would be better. That way you can scrape the copper sludge down periodically keeping the iron exposed to the solution. Steve uses computer cases.

 

[wop1969]

Yes, bubble air thru the mix until the color becomes a clear transparent green color (about 24 hours). Adding more peroxide will accomplish the same goal.

The HCl is not what dissolves the copper in this reaction it's the copper chloride. If you add iron, steel, aluminum, etc. you will remove the copper as stated and the solution will no longer be useful as AP.

Found the above quote in another post on the subject of AP reuse.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=1645&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

This would indicate that if you want to reuse the AP you need to use a bubbler and if you want to just get rid of the AP you can drop the Cu with Steel, Aluminum (Al), Iron (Fe).
Is this correct?

 

[Sodbuster]

I used a 2 liter pop bottel and droped a rod (3/8 to 1/2 diameter) out of a flatbed scanner in the top. I think after about 12 hours all the heavy metals had droped to the bottom of the jug. I didn't have to scrape it off the rod, you could watch it slough off and puddle to the bottom. At this point I think I could have taken the rod out, but I left it in until it ate the intire rod after a week or so. I put in a second rod and it had no effect on it.
I used the pop bottel cause it made it easy to watch the cleaning. Im guessing that after I see no more falling off the rod that its safe to decant off the liquid, nuturalize it and despose of properly.

Can someone tell me if I mite have reused the HCL to continue disolving base metals had I not disolved all of the rod and loaded it full of iron?
This was a solution of HCL/H20 only.
Ray

 

[Richard36]

Can someone tell me if I mite have reused the HCL to continue disolving base metals had I not disolved all of the rod and loaded it full of iron?
This was a solution of HCL/H20 only.

I tend to think so. I recently stripped some Gold from some plated copper parts out of a computer with straight muriatic acid (31.45% Hydrochloric Acid) in one test sample, and in another, equal volumes of Muriatic Acid and Water. When heat was applied, and the acid reached reaction temperature, it went to work immediately by dissolving the copper, turning the solution a deep shade of green. The gold remained within the solution as flakes of free metal, in both batches. I filtered the solution to remove the coarse undissolved copper, then filtered the solution with the gold particles through a coffee filter in a plastic filter basket. I then spritzed the filter and gold with hot water to rinse the acid from the Gold, as well as from the filter, so that the dissolved metals within the acid hung in the filter, and on the gold would not dry, and be present as an impurity to be reduced to the bullion when I smelt the gold, as well as the filter, with a gold flux to remove any remaining impurities, and cast the gold as a button. My solution is still active, and can be used again. When it slows down, and it does, I rejuvinate the solution by adding a little muratic to it. I hope that this has been of some help. Sincerely; Rick.

 

[Sodbuster]

Rick:
Yes - Thanks for the reply. I don't usually go to the filter untill all base metals have disolved. I don't want to have to seperate gold flakes from some of the undisolved chunks.
So I always have room in the beaker to top it off with fresh solution if not fully disolved, or builds up with clorides. If I was to recycle some of that solution that I had cleaned up with steel wouldn't it just start dropping out the base metals?
I just wonder what would happen if I was to use the recycled HCL to start a new batch with some poor quality stuff, just to get at some of the base metals? Like those card slot wiskers that don't have alot to give.
Ray

 

[Richard36]

I do not see any reason why you could not reuse the HCL to strip the base metals from plated scrap, as long as the acid is still active. It is possible to dissolve iron and copper in HCL at the same time without the iron causing the copper to drop out of the solution as it dissolves, as well as dissolve copper in HCL with iron within it and not have the copper drop out of the solution as it dissolves. This has been my experience with HCL anyway. I hope that this has been of some help. Sincerely; Rick.