Crystals forming after gold precipitated out

[GoldUser]

Hey,
I have dropped a small amount of gold (0.5-1.0g). After waiting for the HCl/Water to evaporate there are always white crystals(looks like sugar from the size/color) forming between the gold.
Now I have put some HCl in and it dissolved away but I dont know what that is? I also dissolved with water one time (it also worked) but it always comes back when dried.
I use HCl/Peroxide/Bleach/SMB.

David

 

[butcher]

White salts:
NaCl (sodium chloride) is water-soluble hot or cold with similar results, a very possible reaction with the basic alkaline solution of sodium hydroxide in the bleach and the hydrochloric acid upon neutralization of your acid.
Lead chloride reaction of lead and chloride ions in solution, limited solubility in cold water, becomes much more soluble in hot water.
Cuprous chloride CuCl, fairly insoluble in water, HCl will dissolve to form a green solution of CuCl2 or to a dark almost black solution of mixed CuCl2/CuCl.
silver chloride AgCl is not soluble to any extent in a chloride solution but becomes somewhat slightly more soluble in a solution of a very high concentration of chloride ions (like concentrated aqua regia) as AgCl2, AgCl is not soluble in water to any extent hot or cold, silver chloride is basically insoluble in HCl when washed with water and exposed to light the salts will turn dark.
Lead sulfate, and so on are other possibilities, depending on the metal ions and or chloride and sulfate ions in the evaporated solution.

 

[Martijn]

You mean you evaporate the liquid to completely dry after dropping the gold?
You're adding Sodium Meta Bisulfite to precipitate?
There will be all sorts of stuff in the 'water' after dropping gold selectively to separate the gold from everything that was in the solution. Like Sodium and Chloride for instance. Or cuprous chloride.
Some anhydrous salts are white where the hydrated forms are colored.
Could really be any combination of what went in the mix.

 

[kurtak]

The "short" answer (which is what everyone else is telling you) is --------

You are not getting ALL the chem washed out of your precipitated gold before drying it

So - because ALL the chem is not washed out (which was dissolved when wet) turns into actual crystalline salt(s) of those chems

Just like regular table salt that is dissolved in water will turn back to crystalline salt if you evaporated the water off to dry - other chems turn to (crystalline) salt(s) when evaporated to dry

Kurt