Cyanide leaching gold fingers and CPUs

xelexo
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
kjavanb123

kjavanb123

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
1,746
Location
USA
All,

After some reading here, I finally gave it a try this morning, added 6.7 grams of sodium cyanide, 1 gram of m-nbss to 500ml of distilled water, prior to this washed all the beakers with NaOH solution to make sure they are not acidic, first I tried it at room temprature, didnt see any reaction, once I put it in gentel heat, it was soooo cool to see how it would remove the gold plating and gold only. Here are some photos;

CPU before cyanide leach;
image.jpg

After only fraction of minute into cyanide solution at gentel heat;
image.jpg

I tried the same with fingers, total of 10 kg of mixed PCI cards were scrapped and cut the fingers, had 400 grams of fingers, which was a blast to strip the gold off of them using cyanide and gentel heat, but I think agitation is also required since after I rinsed the fingers some of them still have partially gold plated,

Starting load,
View attachment 4

This is after 20 mins into gentel heat no agitation,
View attachment 3

Here is the cyanide solution after dissolving gold,
View attachment 1

Also the CPUs after being leached by cyanide,


Thanks
Kevin
 
Of all things to put in a used drink container, I would think a cyanide solution should be near dead last.

Jim
 
Very interesting! Nothing I would try myself, but I would enjoy to read and see more of your journey.

Of all things to put in a used drink container, I would think a cyanide solution should be near dead last.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought, when I looked at this picture...please don't do that again! This is seriously an accident waiting to happen.
 
Kevin,

What the hell are you trying to do? Get yourself killed? Others?

This is about as unsafe as it gets. This is not something to play around with, to put in water bottles, or just for you to be doing. In my honest opinion, you're not cut out for this gig. If you can't manage to put the stuff into a suitable container, with a suitable label, you have no business doing this. Time to call it quits.

I'm half tempted to sticky this post and rename it "What not to do--hall of shame"
 
hey geniuss, you leaved half your gold on the cpu... what are you gonna do now?? DO NOT PUT those cpu in acid, do not incinerate them. ask someone how to kill you cyanide before it kill you or others

edit : can somone save that man life? i mean ... it is clear that something bad is about to happen and cyanide do only one bad thing...
 
Why do people mess with things they no nothing about? I hope he survives this. Leaving the cyanide in open containers is not good.

Ken
 
I really don't know how the moderators put up with this guy. The bad thing is if they ban him he will find the information some where else. If they don't ban him are they in any way responsable for his safety when he kills himself, which I see happening very soon. When this guy kills himself and they start investigating his death and find out where he has gotten his information from what is it going to do to the forum? He has been told repeatedly to stop what he is doing and now he goes and does this.

I hate saying something bad about anyone.

Is this what those companies you have been talking about are teaching you?

I can only imagine what Harold is going to say on this topic.

Kevin, many years ago one of my best friends was like you. He had money to burn (literaly, he was wealthy). He decided he wanted to raise hogs. But he had one up on you Kevin. He at least was smart enough to go work on a hog for for a year before he spent over $500,000 on building one. He was killed in a freak auto accident.

I really don't want to hear about you being killed in a freak chemical accident. Please if you are so intent on opening up a refinery go to work for one for a year before you build one.

You are a hair away from killing yourself.

PLEASE STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GET SOME HELP.
 
Cyanide is bad news if improperly handled and disposed of. I work in an analytical/metallurgical lab and I work with and have been trained for cyanide handling, but I do not use it near as much as those who work across the hall in the metallurgical lab who use it on a daily basis.

Safety is stressed in every aspect on a daily basis, from PPE to daily work habits and I have personally written many SOP's on safety in the lab as well as papers on emergency response and spill prevention.

If OSHA walked into our lab (which they did last week and found no violations) and saw an unknown vessel of acid or waste, it would be an automatic $10,000.00 fine to start.

Speaking of an unmarked vessel of waste, let me tell you about a man I worked with, he decided he wanted to take on a glass etching project. After work he filled a Gatorade bottle with HF (hydrofluoric acid) and took it home and set it on his counter, his five year old son came running in to the kitchen as his father walked out. He grabbed the Gatorade bottle, knowing no difference, and proceeded to chug it.

It was only a matter of minutes before he had lost his only child to his own lgnorance; and safety isn't something that should only be practiced at work, it's a state of mind in ones life, especially in our field of choice.

You need to put the chemicals away and choose a new hobby, and how did you get your hands on a highly regulated chemical in the first place? If your bad decision result in someone's death and I pray it doesn't , you deserve no compassion or remorse for your obviously ignorant choices!!!

Just my twenty five cents (inflation affects us all)

Edit: for spelling and content clarity
 
Geeez,

First, those water bottles were sealed right after I took the picture, secondly, Everything was done under the fume hood, no one besides me is not working in that area, so there is no chance someone else can get near the bottles.

Regards,
Kevin
 
kjavanb123 said:
Geeez,

First, those water bottles were sealed right after I took the picture, secondly, Everything was done under the fume hood, no one besides me is not working in that area, so there is no chance someone else can get near the bottles.

Regards,
Kevin
Click to expand...

What if something happened to you, don't you think the ambulance crew should have a warning of what they may find?

Jim
 
kjavanb123 said:
Geeez,

First, those water bottles were sealed right after I took the picture, secondly, Everything was done under the fume hood, no one besides me is not working in that area, so there is no chance someone else can get near the bottles.

Regards,
Kevin
Click to expand...

But they weren't sealed when you took the pic and they were placed out in an open area filled with a highly toxic chemical that is beyond deadly! Where any man woman or child could come up and say "hey this looks like a nice tasty beverage on hot day" , then your your family or those close to you are dead , six under then what ? Because you put a cap on the bottles under a fume hood, if that is even how it "really" went down.

Open your eyes, you are working with one of the most deadly chemicals known to man!
 
On another note , do you even know how to neutralize it to properly dispose of it after you have removed the gold? That is not something you can't just dump down the drain!

I am quite concerned about this whole scenario, I feel like someone might die, at the very least.
 
Kevin,
You should really heed these warnings, these guys have very valid concerns.

I was not going to say anything as everyone else has been trying to help here, but you drew me into the conversation, by that last post, you really need to take another look at your processes, and lab techniques, (in this area most all of us can improve), lab skills and safety we can always learn more and improve on, and we should be grateful for those noticing and pointing out to us, where we are making mistakes, or lacking in our knowledge, in our techniques or our processes, especially when it comes to safety.

It does not matter if you are the only one in the lab, disregard for safety, will not only affect you but will always affect others.

Your last comment has made me also to think it is time for you to stop and take a very close look at how you are working before you do any more, that kind of thinking is as dangerous as you have been with the cyanide.
 
kjavanb123 said:
those water bottles were sealed right after I took the picture, secondly, Everything was done under the fume hood, no one besides me is not working in that area, so there is no chance someone else can get near the bottles.
Click to expand...
The point is that they ARE water bottles. You should NEVER use any type of vessel identified with consumption for storage of dangerous chemicals. You may know the difference, but not everyone will, and there's no guarantee you're the only person to have access to your facility. You may go years without problems, but this is the type of problem that can easily be prevented by simply not doing something stupid. I can only imagine the horror of a family member paying a visit and thinking the bottle looked inviting. It could easily be mistaken for a fruit beverage, especially by a child.

You say kids aren't welcome in your lab?

Stranger things have happened than uninvited guests, I'm sure you'd agree.

Thinking beyond your comment about being the only person with access to your facility, if you are in the habit of drinking water from such a bottle, it's only a matter of time until you're distracted and grab one to take a sip. It could well contain cyanide in enough volume to kill you, even if it had been emptied previously.

Kevin, please pay attention to the admonition to exercise greater care in what you're doing. Cyanide is nothing to fool with if you don't have excellent work and personal hygiene habits. It takes very little to kill a person.

Harold
 
how did you get your hands on a highly regulated chemical in the first place
Click to expand...

Wow, I believed, you are a professional refiner, since you could get this highly regulated chemical! I take everything back, what I said, that I'd like to see and read more. After what I read now, I think you are just one step away from prison, if you proceed this way.
 
I apperciate everyone concern regarding this matter, but Inread all the posts related to the subject specially the great one titled KCN setup and yes I read about how to convert waste cyanide solution to less poisenous cynate, and so far I did produce the gold powder using zinc method.

Those bottles were labeled posion cyanidr solution after photos and sealed and were only used for this first trial, ss containers will be used once I learned enough.

Antidote of 1% sodium thiosulphate solution and amytl nitrite pearls all availale per hook insttuctiins.

The only concern I have is when drop everything with zinc rinse the beaker eith water boil and repeat 3 times, can we use peroxide solution to remove any traces of cyanide?
 
As a first answer, I would say, consider them (edit: the beakers) to be contaminated regardless how much they are rinsed and make sure, they will not be used for other purposes. At least in my country they would only be lawfully free of contamination, if decontaminated, typically incinerated, by a specialized and officially authorized company. This would at least be the procedure for the german fire departments.

edit: Oh I guess,I misunderstood the question.
 
The cyanide (plus m-NBSS and/or H2O2) solution will only dissolve gold plating. It will not dissolve gold alloys, such as the gold/tin braze used to attach the CPU lid or the gold/silicon braze use to attach the IC chip. Since about 60-70% of the gold on those particular CPU packages is contained in those 2 brazes, stripping them with cyanide is sort of a fool's errand. Now you'll have to finish them off with AR, after, of course, you get rid of the cyanide residue on them.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top