I was wondering if it could be possible to process gold filled directly in AR to disolve the gold layer and get the core out of the acid as soon as the gold disolved. Nitric acid is realy expensive for me and I cant afford to use 2L worthing more than 50$ to disolve base metal and then recover only a few gram of gold.
Best way to process gold filled and rolled gold filled
- Thread starter elfixx
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With rare exception, it is NEVER wise to attempt to recover gold from material that contains base metals without eliminating the base metals first. There is no way you can dissolve only the gold. The moment base metal is exposed, values will begin to precipitate, dissolving the base metals and taking the values out of solution.
You can recover some of the values while there is still base metal present, but a total recovery is highly unlikely. The amount of value you'd lose to the process, for the most part, would be far greater than the value of the nitric used in the process.
One other thing that can prove troublesome is the alloy. If the metal in question is yellow gold, it's unlikely you'd have any luck dissolving 14 K gold filled with AR. All depends on the thickness of the gold layer. The silver content tends to build a hard crust on the surface, isolating the values from the AR. In that case, base metal would be the only thing dissolved. I know of no shortcut for processing gold filled----I used nitric, and never did any melting. That way the values are not reduced to fine powders that are often difficult to settle.
Harold
You can recover some of the values while there is still base metal present, but a total recovery is highly unlikely. The amount of value you'd lose to the process, for the most part, would be far greater than the value of the nitric used in the process.
One other thing that can prove troublesome is the alloy. If the metal in question is yellow gold, it's unlikely you'd have any luck dissolving 14 K gold filled with AR. All depends on the thickness of the gold layer. The silver content tends to build a hard crust on the surface, isolating the values from the AR. In that case, base metal would be the only thing dissolved. I know of no shortcut for processing gold filled----I used nitric, and never did any melting. That way the values are not reduced to fine powders that are often difficult to settle.
Harold
