Aqua Regia method with 12-13% Ag _inquart_

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Hello everyone and happy new year!🎆
Unfortunately I couldn't conduct any test last month.
I am going to make my first test next week.
My friend and I had a hot debate about the optimal process for my gold. He is pro chemistry, but I don't, really I don't know much about chemistry.
Given the gold alloy weight 1kg, with 60%Au and 13%Ag. We are debating 2 options
A: To go directly into the inquarting process. I don't want to say how because everyone here explained throroughly.
B: As my friend proposed. Go with AR, get gold around 90-99%, but lose some gold in the Au/AgCl. Then gather that and make an Au-Ag alloy, then inquart it to retrieve Au.
Both process will recover Ag by electrolysis.
____________________
What is your comment?
 
giahylxag said:
Hello everyone and happy new year!🎆
Unfortunately I couldn't conduct any test last month.
I am going to make my first test next week.
My friend and I had a hot debate about the optimal process for my gold. He is pro chemistry, but I don't, really I don't know much about chemistry.
Given the gold alloy weight 1kg, with 60%Au and 13%Ag. We are debating 2 options
A: To go directly into the inquarting process. I don't want to say how because everyone here explained throroughly.
B: As my friend proposed. Go with AR, get gold around 90-99%, but lose some gold in the Au/AgCl. Then gather that and make an Au-Ag alloy, then inquart it to retrieve Au.
Both process will recover Ag by electrolysis.
____________________
What is your comment?
Click to expand...
For B you either need to convert the AgCl to Silver or smelt it with flux Bi Carbonate I think.
And the Gold are not in loss just a bit delayed.
 
Silver Chloride is like rust, it forms quickly and coats the surface. Much like rust it slows down further corrosion by inhibiting the ability of the chemistry to reach what you are dissolving. More Silver in the alloy amplifies this process.

It is a really tough choice because 12-13% is high. If you choose the aqua regia method, you will benefit greatly by slowly tumbling the reaction to mechanically remove the Silver Chloride coating. And only trying it will tell you if it is working effectively enough.

The inquartation method is almost fool proof, and you will probably need it to completely dissolve the remnants on the insolubles if you use aqua regia first.

If it were me, I would inquart first because it removes all of the Silver and cleans up the alloy to 99+% Gold quickly. And copper cementation will give you a nice Silver metal for a small Silver cell. And you skip dealing with Silver Chloride processing completely.

I am a big fan of keeping all of the values from a single lot together to make accounting easier, not chasing a few percent of gold all over the shop for days. For security in a refinery that is a good thing, and by inquarting you will know quickly that your recovery meets expectations. That cuts down on theft.
 
Yggdrasil said:
For B you either need to convert the AgCl to Silver or smelt it with flux Bi Carbonate I think.
And the Gold are not in loss just a bit delayed.
Click to expand...
Well that is my worst fear when thinking about refining gold. At the end of the day when I gather all the stuff and add to calculation then some gold is lost and I don't know why. I just made a lost.
 
4metals said:
If it were me, I would inquart first because it removes all of the Silver and cleans up the alloy to 99+% Gold quickly.
Click to expand...
It seems getting gold to 99+% even to 99.95+% consistently at a home refining is not hard at all. But it seem really hard to get 99.99% Why? Is this the limitation of AR and one can only get 99.99% by electrolysis?
 
giahylxag said:
It seems getting gold to 99+% even to 99.95+% consistently at a home refining is not hard at all. But it seem really hard to get 99.99% Why? Is this the limitation of AR and one can only get 99.99% by electrolysis?
Click to expand...
No, but there are impurities in the water, acids and precipitants.
 
giahylxag said:
Distilled water, tech grade acid, and SO2 as recipitant is good?
Most of the refined bars in my market come up with silver (0.005%) as impurity
Click to expand...
Should be good, but needs plenty washing after precipitation.
There are procedures from Harold_V to get 59 by these means.
Search the forum.
 
Filtering plays a large part in purity as well. Poor technique or some make do filter papers can allow tiny amounts of various impurities through, and it will show up in your gold when melting. Even something as simple as a dirty torch or burner in the furnace can bring about small impurities.
 
giahylxag said:
Distilled water, tech grade acid, and SO2 as recipitant is good?
Most of the refined bars in my market come up with silver (0.005%) as impurity
Click to expand...
Another question is why to do it?
It won't pay much better than 99.5 and its cost are way higher.
 
Shark said:
Filtering plays a large part in purity as well. Poor technique or some make do filter papers can allow tiny amounts of various impurities through, and it will show up in your gold when melting. Even something as simple as a dirty torch or burner in the furnace can bring about small impurities.
Click to expand...
Most of the time I see there is silver impurity in bars that I got. As low as 0.003%.
 
giahylxag said:
Most of the time I see there is silver impurity in bars that I got. As low as 0.003%.
Click to expand...
Filtering the solution diluted with Ice cold water will remove most of the Silver Chloride.
Washes the powders with Ammonia will too even though I seem to recollect there were reasons not to do it.
 

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