Bag of Fingers

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Well I try to read as much on this forum. Apparently my memory, comprehension or both have came up a little short. I have replaced the iron bars with copper buss bars. All I want to accomplish at this point is to rejuvenate the solution in both buckets to continue the reclamation of gold from 14 more pounds of fingers. I am assuming that the two hours of time spent for the iron in the solution didn’t ruin it. I really miss access to LaserSteves website, as I am more of a visual learner and that’s what I used ten years ago when I had my first batch of fingers that I processed. Is there a particular post you could post a link to that talks about treating AP waste? Any information that I could couple with reading would be very appreciated. Thank you.

Kenny
 
You can have both iron and copper in solution as a solution ferric and cupric chloride, both of which will work as a leach for base metals, although this normally takes more concentrated solutions and heating to be effective, you also will need to understand what is going on during the leaching process, for example, the formation of white salts of copper and other metals upon cooling or oxidation-reduction potentials of the leach solution.
For that matter, depending on the oxidation state of the metal ions (and thus oxidation potential of the solution), we can have both copper and iron in solution as cuprous and ferrous chlorides that will not work to dissolve more copper or base metals very well at all.

You can always take the copper cemented from the iron chloride solution (the white copper I chloride salt or the cemented copper metal) and add some HCl and air to the solution and be right back to a working cupric chloride solution ready to take electrons from the base metals and dissolve them into solution as ions or salts of those metals...
 
butcher said:
You can have both iron and copper in solution as a solution ferric and cupric chloride, both of which will work as a leach for base metals, although this normally takes more concentrated solutions and heating to be effective, you also will need to understand what is going on during the leaching process, for example, the formation of white salts of copper and other metals upon cooling or oxidation-reduction potentials of the leach solution.
For that matter, depending on the oxidation state of the metal ions (and thus oxidation potential of the solution), we can have both copper and iron in solution as cuprous and ferrous chlorides that will not work to dissolve more copper or base metals very well at all.

You can always take the copper cemented from the iron chloride solution (the white copper I chloride salt or the cemented copper metal) and add some HCl and air to the solution and be right back to a working cupric chloride solution ready to take electrons from the base metals and dissolve them into solution as ions or salts of those metals...

Thank you for your update Butcher. I went and took the iron out of the buckets and replaced with copper as soon as I read your post last night. There was no visable reaction to the iron, I didn’t sand off the paint so I assume it was acting as a barrier.
 
So today I took my yield from the two buckets and proceeded to making Auric Chloride with bleach. I had 34.4 grams of foils and impurities such as fiberglass and a little bit of filter paper that the foils were stuck to. I started by adding 400ml of Hydrochloric acid and then slowly added about 300ml of bleach over a period of about 1 and a half hours. I also did this on a warmer on low heat. It was the most foils I’ve ever tried to digest at one time. Typically I do about 10 to 15 grams at a time. But things went really nice, it was a slightly breezy day so it made staying away from the fumes easy. I filtered the solution twice and I think I have a very nice looking batch of AuCl3. I think that is the correct way to write the compound. Here is a pic of the finished product, I will let the chlorine dissipate for a day or two and make the drop! I’ll keep you posted with the results of that process.
 

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Well it weighed in quite a bit lighter than I had expected, but it’s still a pretty sight none the less. It’s been many years since I’ve held one of these beauties and it still feels just as glorious as ever! I have saved my wasted and filters hoping maybe I’ve left something behind. But I do have 14 more pounds to add to this little chunker. To all of you that are gracious enough to share your experience,knowledge, and opinions I want to say thank you. You definitely had made life a little happier and more interesting for a whole ton of people.....safer too. Hope you enjoy the pics.
 

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butcher said:
Man, that gold has a beautiful shine of its own, just from seeing it, it has brightend my day.
Thank you for posting the pictures, keep them coming.

Well the foils are dropping a lot faster than I expected in this weather, I just finished up the second run of the 20 pound lot I started with. The last pic posted on this thread only shows 18, but I did manage to fill up 2 more bags as well 385 grams in the GTE rectangular cards posted earlier in this thread. Today’s foils were from 3 1lb bags in one bucket, the scraps that didn’t strip completely from the first batch, and the weird rectangular cards. I don’t know the weight of the partially stripped fingers, but the rectangular cards were 385 grams in total. I started the digestion with 20 grams of foils. The picture of the button below shows you the end result, so looks to have had just under 6 grams of waste. So just under ten pounds so far and 33.2 is where I stand. It’s not looking to be 5 grams a pound stuff but I sure am happy and it’s beautiful to look at as well as bounce it it the palm of your hand.😁😁😁. Now it’s time to go back to the stockpile and grab six more bags to toss in the buckets!!!
 

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Here’s a couple pictures of the total amount I was able to recover from the stock picture I started this post with. It’s not as much as I thought I’d get, but definitely worth it and nice to look at while I figure out what I want to do with it. To those who engaged with me on this post, thank you. It was as fun as I remember it being last time!!
 

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You certainly can’t complain about 3 per pound. Well worth the effort! And thank you for the compliment
 
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