black chips from memories stick

[arthur kierski]

i am after the gold inside these chips---i incinerate these chips and make a grey powder with a lot of iron----i tried to separate the powder from this iron wire with a magnet without sucess---the fine powder separated continues magnetic.
i put all this incinerated powder +wire in full strenght hcl and boil for a while,then i dilute this hcl (now green solution) and continue boiling---i filtrate the powder from the hcl solution and dry it in a oven---when i try to see if the powder is still magnetic, it continues magnetic.
what can i do (chemically) to eliminate this iron? if i do an ar dissolution of the powder with the iron mixed in it,no gold goes to the ar solution because the gold precipitates over the iron-------
i need help from members of how to eliminate the iron before i do an ar or hcl-clorox or hcl-h2o2 leach?
i have 200 kilos of memory sticks and each kilo have 397grams of black chips(79kilos of chips----i did obtain gold from the chips but with a lot of trouble to eliminate the iron----thanks all for the help
Arthur

 

[Barren Realms 007]

I would suggest a continued soak in HCL and rinse with HCL and soak again till your HCL dosen't change colors.

I would guess you have taken a sample of the wire you have removed and did a test on it to make sure you are not removing values from your mix.

 

[arthur kierski]

thanks Barren realms,i will soak in hcl until no more collor change---i did not test the iron wires inside the incinerated chips because they are all soaked in hcl with the powder-------

 

[qst42know]

I have had some small success removing iron, steel, and some stainless with heated dilute sulfuric.

I don't know if this is the most chemically efficient way. It seems somewhat effective.

 

[Platinum]

Happy birthday Barren.

 

[Oz]

Qst42know has a good point as to dilute sulfuric being effective but I would ask the question of waste disposal.

Stepping beyond that I know nitric is very inexpensive for you, but how does it compare to your HCl in cost per liter? Nitric has the advantage of not putting gold into solution but as you know HCl can in several circumstances. Nitric is also typically faster for most base metals, but sometimes it is too fast. You mentioned that you were after the gold, while I can not say from personal experience I have heard more than once there are other values to consider in these packs.

As to AR, that depends much as to the material and how much you wish to micro manage your reactions. If you follow it through in multiple steps at a boil (assures full nitric consumption before testing with stannic) testing at each step to be sure there is no dissolved gold or higher PMs it could be useful if you find values other than gold in high enough quantities to make it cost effective.

 

[arthur kierski]

Oz----the only way that i eliminated the iron wire was using a nitric solution+sulfuric-- one could see the wires dancing in the solution until it dissapeared(dissolved) ---i tested the solution with nacl for silver(no agcl)then with stanous chloride for other pms and the result was gold(strange )+perhaps pd----i incinerated the powder again and did an ar treatment which resulted in gold,
this iron wires inside the chips is very troublesome----but without eliminating it,the gold does not come out------other problem is obtaining the gold and pd from the leach solution that eliminated the iron(nitric +sulfuric)----- i did not have these problems when processing chips from other components like motherboards and cellphone boards------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i am worried because i have over 70kilos of these chips and i am expecting to receive another79 kilos from a new batch of memoryes---the gold from the fingers in the memory boards i use gold stripper solution with splendid result-----
thanks
Arthur

 

[qst42know]

Qst42know has a good point as to dilute sulfuric being effective but I would ask the question of waste disposal.

Oz.

For waste disposal what issue would be different from the procedure detailed by 4metals?

Cement with copper for possible PMs.
Cement with iron for base metals.
Calcium/magnesium hydroxide (lime) to neutralize.

Except for perhaps substituting aluminum for the base metal step what might need changed?

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Happy birthday Barren.

Thank you kind sir.

Another year older and more wisdom from the school of hard knocks learned. 8)

This has been the best time I have spent this year is on this forum. I have really enjoyed everyone here.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Oz----the only way that i eliminated the iron wire was using a nitric solution+sulfuric-- one could see the wires dancing in the solution until it dissapeared(dissolved) ---i tested the solution with nacl for silver(no agcl)then with stanous chloride for other pms and the result was gold(strange )+perhaps pd----i incinerated the powder again and did an ar treatment which resulted in gold,
this iron wires inside the chips is very troublesome----but without eliminating it,the gold does not come out------other problem is obtaining the gold and pd from the leach solution that eliminated the iron(nitric +sulfuric)----- i did not have these problems when processing chips from other components like motherboards and cellphone boards------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i am worried because i have over 70kilos of these chips and i am expecting to receive another79 kilos from a new batch of memoryes---the gold from the fingers in the memory boards i use gold stripper solution with splendid result-----
thanks
Arthur

Arthur, I wouldn't mix your nitric with your sulfuric unless you are ready to disolve your gold. Paitence will be your biggest virtue with these batches. And stick with one type of acid to disolve your base metals. You have enough of this lot to do a test and find out the best way to recover the PM's. Nitric, sulfuric, HCL.

The iron wires you are trying to remove might have some of your PM's on them, my suggestion would be to disolve with the rest of the lot.

You said you had incinerated these, did you run them thru a ball mill and screen after you did this? The size of your material will have an impact on how it recovers.

 

[arthur kierski]

thanks Barren for all the sugestions and congratulations for your aniversary
i did not screen the material because i milled it to a very fine powder+the iron wires-.... i have a batch at the moment in hcl and will stick to it until all the iron is dissolved-----if it works fine----if not i will try oz sugestion with only nitric---if not ,i will try with sulfuric(dilute)(qst42know sugestion)-- i surelly with all of your help will find the way
thanks all

 

[Barren Realms 007]

thanks Barren for all the sugestions and congratulations for your aniversary
i did not screen the material because i milled it to a very fine powder+the iron wires-.... i have a batch at the moment in hcl and will stick to it until all the iron is dissolved-----if it works fine----if not i will try oz sugestion with only nitric---if not ,i will try with sulfuric(dilute)(qst42know sugestion)-- i surelly with all of your help will find the way
thanks all

If you can apply a little bit of heat to the solution I find it helps. I haven't had much problem removing the iron with HCL if I know it is there.

 

[Oz]

For waste disposal what issue would be different

Cementation and neutralization will work fine with sulfuric but I would prefer having chlorides and nitrates instead of sulfides as a final waste product.