Black powder/slime

[travis86]

Finally after getting my gold to drop out of my hcl/cl solution after siphoning off most of the liquid I noticed most of it was black powder slime. I proceeded with a few hot hcl and hot water baths nothing changed. I washed the crap down the sink and gave up. It wasn't much I would say almost a gram. What did I do wrong?

 

[Claudie]

"What did I do wrong?"
Answer: You washed it down the sink.... :|
That is where your Gold was.

Edit for clarification

 

[nickvc]

Well one thing you did wrong was throw your powder away
What exactly was your starting material, how did you prepare it for dissolution?
We need full information to give you an answer.

 

[travis86]

I know the black stuff was gold. I couldn't clean it and washed it down the sink out of frustration.I processed a mixture of pins fingers and a few pcb's with gold traces on them. I used the ap method on all my scrap mixed together for about 30 hours and then the clorox phase followed by smb and let it sit for 36 hours.

 

[patnor1011]

Finally after getting my gold to drop out of my hcl/cl solution after siphoning off most of the liquid I noticed most of it was black powder slime. I proceeded with a few hot hcl and hot water baths nothing changed. I washed the crap down the sink and gave up. It wasn't much I would say almost a gram. What did I do wrong?

Washing that down drain was your mistake. If you would just simply incinerate to red hot and then washed in hot HCl you would be OK.

 

[eeTHr]

Travis---

Getting your gold off of your eScrap is called "recovery."

You next step would have been "refining," starting with what patnor said.

You could have used that refined gold to check for, and/or remove, the last small amount of nitric from your next AR refining batch.

Next time you get frustrated, go for a walk first. 8)

 

[Geo]

exactly. next time something like that happens, stop everything and log on to the forum and ask for advise. you should have evaporated all the liquid out till you had dry powder, slime or not. then dissolve the mess again and start over, whatever was in it that was hindering the process would have been left behind in the dissolution and rinses that followed. next time you feel like throwing gold away just send it to me, ill pay for postage.

 

[travis86]

I dont have nitric acid............... I thought hcl was enough for cleaning..

 

[Geo]

I dont have nitric acid............... I thought hcl was enough for cleaning..

you dont need nitric acid to dissolve gold using hcl/cl. when you precipitate and all the powder wont drop, dont panic. there are some washes you should do to refine the precipitated gold. the first is after you decant/siphon as much liquid as possible, add water (tap water will work) to just below full. this will dilute the ramaining solution and remove any water soluble salts. decant/siphon again down to whatever material you have left. add fresh hcl and heat to a slow simmer. this will remove any base metal left as oxides. add water (distilled water should be used here) again to just below full, decant/siphon down to solids. repeat the distilled water rinse and this time heat the water to a slow boil for at least five minutes. decant/siphon water down to the solids and allow powder to dry (cover with a watch glass or glass plate) and heat on low till powder is dry. salts will form from the left over hcl. add distilled water and warm to steaming. decant/siphon down to solids. add 1 cup ammonium hydrate (ammonia from the detergent isle at the super market) and heat to a slow boil, this will remove certain PM's that wasnt removed by the hcl. add distilled water to below full and decant/siphon down to solids. do a final rinse with distilled water and bring to a slow boil. decant/siphon down to the solids which should be a tan or blonde color now. to refine further would require transfering to a clean vessel and dissolve and precipitate and go through the rinses above should bring purity up to as close to .999 as a home refiner can get.

 

[travis86]

Dang thats alot of steps but thank you! Im giving it another go. I have 21 Nintendo 64 game cartridge pcb's soaking in a 2:1 muriatic acid/ 3% hydrogen peroxide mixture. What ive learned from my first attempt was to be more patient, don't go so heavy on the Clorox, add 3 parts water after the clorox stage and sit over night and then drop in smb, and a better cleaning process.


When I have it on low heat for the powder to dry can I just rubber band plastic over the top rather then putting a plate on top?

 

[Palladium]

I'm wondering if his black powder plague is the same one i am researching with my problem with getting robbed. Chances are good it robbed you to and was in the black powder you washed down the drain.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=11596&p=114092&hilit=i+got+robbed#p114092

 

[Claudie]

Dang thats alot of steps but thank you! Im giving it another go. I have 21 Nintendo 64 game cartridge pcb's soaking in a 2:1 muriatic acid/ 3% hydrogen peroxide mixture. What ive learned from my first attempt was to be more patient, don't go so heavy on the Clorox, add 3 parts water after the clorox stage and sit over night and then drop in smb, and a better cleaning process.


When I have it on low heat for the powder to dry can I just rubber band plastic over the top rather then putting a plate on top?

....and DON'T throw anything away!

 

[Claudie]

I'm not sure what you did with the solution from your first attempt, but if you put that in your drain, it could cause some problems. Read up on what to do with spent solutions to keep us all safe and to keep you from having to re-plumb your house....

 

[travis86]

I have all my used chemicals in divided containers and the only thing I washed down the drain was the black stuff which would of ended up being under a gram of gold if I was lucky. I wish I lived in a house Vermont real estate is so expensive. I'm sure theirs more hazardous stuff going down the drains in other apartments in my development. Im pretty sure theres a small meth lab on the other side of my development lol.

 

[Geo]

the reason for the cover is any splatters will will be trapped and (hopefully) fall back into your vessel thus the bottom needs to be concave with the rim pointing up. also another purpose for the cover is to condense solution back to the vessel to reduce loss of chemicals but that is not an issue for your situation. a porcelain plate will work in a pinch but i wouldn't ever eat from it again and porcelain will shatter at high temperatures. you shouldnt have that problem. if you cover the top with plastic with the edges folded down condensation will wash any splatters over the edge of your vessel and you will lose your values. as a side note, some of the gold you tossed down the drain may be trapped in the pea trap under the sink. look underneath the sink and it will be in the bottom of the pipe thats shaped like a "U".

 

[Claudie]

Are you doing this inside of an apartment? The fumes can be pretty bad, under NO circumstances do you want Nitric (HNO3) in there. The Chlorine fumes from HCL/Clorox are pretty bad too. Please use caution and read about safe ways to use these acids.

 

[butcher]

travis86 "Finally after getting my gold to drop out of my hcl/cl solution after siphoning off most of the liquid I noticed most of it was black powder slime. I proceeded with a few hot hcl and hot water baths nothing changed. I washed the crap down the sink and gave up. It wasn't much I would say almost a gram. What did I do wrong?"

Travis what I think you are doing wrong, is getting ahead of yourself, by not spending the time to understand what you are trying to do, slow down, study some more, keep going like this and your just chasing yer tail. not only the pipes but your taking the chance of losing your freedom from dumping toxic chemicals into the sewers, that will eventually end up in someones drinking water, (those down river drink what those up river flushed).

do not take offence, but you need to study or you will always be losing values and asking what is wrong, where is my gold.

read the post on dealing with waste.
do not refine in your home, or apartment, what good is getting a few dollars worth of gold going to do you while your coughing up blood in intensive care unit, running up medical bills asking what did I do wrong?

 

[travis86]

I do the bad stuff outside on my back porch with a hotplate. And as I said before I flushed not even a gram of black gold down the sink. I have all my chemicals in storage containers outside on my deck. And I learned alot more during and after my first process. Im awaiting on my ap solution to break apart my game cartridge pcb's and try to do everything the right way this time. Its been 9 hours so far for this batch. Slow and steady

 

[dtectr]

Everyone here feels the same shock at your naive honesty that I do -
"If you've never done one dumb-ass thing in your life - hold up your hand!"
I didn't think so ...

That being said, (and i think you realize, now) you pulled a real bone-head maneuver, there - stop trying to justify your actions (mistake) and resolve never to mix tequila and refining again !!

This is all good advice - take it in the spirit it is intended. Cop an attitude and, well, it can get pretty cold out there ... :shock:

Your "less than a gram" would probably keep my home phone on this month - we take our profits very seriously, here.

BTW - if butcher takes time to answer (typing with one hand), say "thank you, sir" and move along.

good luck, amigo! Hope to see your 1st button soon!

 

[butcher]

Funny dtectr, I can use two fingers now, one on each hand to type (and can use spellcheck, but seems I have to edit to get that done) I have learned alot here thanks to you guys...

oops I double posted trying to edit with spell check? I still have lessons to learn.