AR and Gold Filled Wire

[BobGold]

Would it be possible to use AR on clean gold fill wire to dissolve the surface gold and pour off acid when the gold has changed to bronze color and then drop the gold from the AR. This would seem to be so much less expensive and time-consuming than dissolving all the base metal with nitric leaving the foils and then using AR.

Have any members tried this and if so, did it work? Anyone's thoughts would be appreciated, because I have a lot of gold fill to refine and do not want to use gallons and gallons of nitric.

If someone has a good commercial refiner they use for gold fill, please feel free to post it if the Forum rules allow this. I may go this route if the only other route is eating all the base metal first in the gold fill and then refining the foils. Wow, that's expensive.

Thanks inadvance for any one's comments.

Bob

 

[jimdoc]

Figure out the gold content and sell it on Ebay.

 

[BobGold]

Jim Doc,

Thanks. That idea is so simple, I had honestly not thought about it.

Bob

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Trying to dissolve the gold from the surface of gold filled material just doesn't work well for a few reasons. At first, the acids will start dissolving the surface gold, which is an alloy of gold and base metals. Both gold and base metals are dissolving, but the more reactive base metals are more readily dissolved, and they act to force the dissolved gold back out of solution. As the alloyed gold on the surface becomes compromised, the acid starts to act more preferentially on the base metals underneath. It gets complicated, involving relative reactivity of the metals and their electrical potentials, and other things I can't fully explain.

So gold that has dissolved early in the process will cement back out on the base metals and will be mixed with the remaining metals you are trying to avoid dissolving.

You might consider having one of our members toll refine it for you. There are several here who refine gold filled on a regular basis. If you're just trying to process a bit of material here and there, the small quantities of acid can be very expensive. For commercial refineries or members here who toll refine and buy acids in bulk, the prices are more reasonable.

Give us an idea of how much material you have, if it's a one time deal or if you will have an ongoing supply, you general location, etc., and someone may get in touch with you.

Dave

 

[BobGold]

Thanks Dave for the excellent information. I will weigh it up and consider pursuing your recommendation.

Thanks for the response.

Bob