BEST PROCESSES??

[TOMCAT_7475]

I acquired a large amount of telecommunication electronics last year, it is so outdated that the best option is to scrap. I have been spending some spare time depopulating the boards and have sorted the material into several different types. Could someone please guide me towards the best way to process each? What I have separated into is : Gold plated nonmagnetic pins (gold from end to end), nonmagnetic pins with gold tips, magnetic gold plated pins, gold plated copper, magnetic incinerated chips, and non-magnetic incinerated chips.
I am interested in using HCL/CL. Nitric acid is not cheap and I'm not sure I am ready to make my own. What are the disadvantages of bleach compared to using nitric? Thanks for all your help

 

[malfeces]

Hi there, Welcome to the wide world of pm recovery and refining! Just a couple of notes about your post, CL is not bleach, sodium hypochlorite is bleach, and the HCL Bleach solution is used pretty much exclusively to refine gold that is in powder or foil form, and is only used to recover gold from gold rimmed plates and cups etc.

Best tip I can give you is to read Hokes book, its free, its right here on the forum in the library. It should answer all your questions.

Read up on the Acid Peroxide method of recovery. I think that might be a good solution for most of your materials. Magnetic gold plated pins are often not ferrous but may have a layer of nickel between the gold and likely brass or copper core. Nickel is one of the only three magnetic metals.

I am no expert, and I am sure you will get a lot better advice, but would strongly....STRONGLY recommend Hoke's book. For right now though, you should probably forget about the HCL Bleach solution.

The good news is that if you have already incinerated your chips, you can pan out a lot of free gold bonding wires!! And that only uses water. Just be sure you save the metal legs and silicon wafers as they may contain gold, silver, and palladium.

Best of luck to you!

 

[TOMCAT_7475]

Thanks Malfeces! I did order me a gold pan last month. I've been too excited over the gold I could see to try the panning yet. I'll give that a try later since the storms are preventing me from doing much else.
I did download the book a few months back and am reading it little by little. I already know that I will have to read more than once to get a good understanding of it.
I guess I am just getting anxious to see my first button. Almost a quarter of the way through separating material and I have close to 5 pounds of the pins and such. I know I have gold, most tested above 22K. Just do not want to make a mistake and loose any of it .
I was curious about the bleach because of the cost and I also watched a Youtube video (I know not everyone on youtube knows what they are doing) that used the bleach on pins. The muriatic acid/peroxide worked good on the few fingers I have done, but don't seem to be loosening the gold from the solid pins very well. I started with the acid/peroxide, then got a fish tank aerator. Been around three weeks and still have gold clinging to the pins.
Thanks!

 

[rewalston]

Gold is clinging to your pins, because with the Copper Chloride method needs to dissolve all of the base metals leaving you with a black sediment (which is your gold). You won't see foils from doing pins in AP...pins are best done with the reverse electroplating cell...search for it, it's also called a gold cell, it's best used for items that are gold plated because it leaves the base metals alone. It will dissolve the gold and settle as a black powder.

Rusty