Directions for a noob Refiner

[Thomascorley]

Hi All,

I have been recently acquiring lots of gold scrap in the form of old laptops and mobile phones. I have also started to acquire some chemicals, Nitric acid, Hydrochloric acid and sodium meta bisulfite. Still a long way to go and materials but coming along slowly but surely.

My question is....

Can cell phone boards and computer boards be incarcerated? The ash/lead pins collected and bathed in boiling hydrochloric acid to remove base metals, the solution then needs to filtered leaving gold leaf. The gold leaf to be dissolved in aqua regia?
A very quick description of method but I'm sure some one here will correct me on a more exact method.

Would be really good to hear off some one who has experience in incinerating fibre boards, with regard to actual incarceration setup's /safety tips ect. Or just to be politely pointed in the right direction. I have been doing research in techniques of using hydrochloric acid to dissolve base metals, dissolving gold in aqua regia- neutralising the aqua regia ready for the sodium metabisulfite to precipitate the gold from the solution.
I have been reading the Hokes book, It is full of fascinating information and goes in too a lot of the science of the chemistry behind gold refining but doesn't really go into any detail at all in dealing with fibre board products.

One finale question (for now)

I recently dropped a cell phone mother board in a 36.2% solution of hydrochloric acid to dissolve the unwanted metals on the board. when I noticed that Hydrochloric acid even at room temperature very readily converts to a gas (Hydrogen?) Is this a result of a reaction with the oxygen in the air? I ask only because I would like to seal the container when not in use but I am worried about a build up of gas causing potential explosive threats. I did notice as soon as you open the primary container (of Hydrochloric acid) it very rapidly started to produce a white steam like gas.

Many thanks for reading, constructive comments very welcome.

 

[TomVader]

That white fume is HCl gas contacting atmospheric moisture. It then forms a solution with the water: hydrogen chloride. I don't think you can just i n c i n e r a t e whole boards like that, I mean, you can but it would result in a giant mess. I don't process E-scrap myself, but from reading on this forum I believe they strip the boards of the gold bearing material before further processing. You can find the whole procedure on this forum.
Remember: read, study and understand before you do ANYTHING. Good luck getting your gold and be safe!

 

[Thomascorley]

Hi ,

Thanks for the reply, I got the idea off another member (goldnscrap) he has his own website that very briefly touches on the idea but doesn't go into any detail on what to do after all the parts have been incinerated!?
Thanks for the info.

 

[jeneje]

First welcome to the board,

The first thing you should do is download Hokes books and start reading, do research on the board for the type of material you are going to process. Read the safety section and the guided tour here on the forum. Next DO NOT BOIL any acid until you know what you are doing. Boiling acid can be very, very dangerous.

Second DO NOT INCINRATE any boards until you have a complete understanding of the toxic gas that are released.

Again welcome and be safe.

Ken

 

[Thomascorley]

I had hoped my first post would have given other members a chance to see that I have already downloaded Hokes book, This post was intended to gather more information regarding incineration/handling ect.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[Claudie]

Using AR to dissolve Gold foils is an unnecessary expense and more dangerous method than what most members here use. The popular way of dissolving the foils is with HCL / Clorox. There is a link in my signature line that will take you to the guided tour, That is a good place to start reading. You should understand all stages of a process before you start it, so you don't end up confused and with a big mess half way through. Don't underestimate the need for safety precautions, sometimes you don't get a second chance.If you incinerate the boards, you are just mixing all the metals into one big pile of ash that can be more difficult to get the PMs out of. The methods you will find on this forum have been tried and proven to work, stick with them in every detail and don't try to short cut things and you will do fine, but you need to know the process before you start it. Now get busy learning and we look forward to seeing photos of your first Gold button!

 

[MysticColby]

I have not processed electronic scrap myself, but a couple things I've picked up from reading what others have said:
it's spent incinerate.
separate all types of gold-containing scrap first. remove all pins, cut off all gold fingers, remove all chips, take off all extra parts that are waste (plastic, aluminum, steel). each of these should be processed separately.
usually includes some sort of pulverizing into a powder.

Please do more research until you get to the point where you know that what you're doing will work before you do it, and what to do when unexpected things happen.

 

[Thomascorley]

Hi Claudie

Just followed one of your links in your signature. Through It I stumbled upon electrolytic article which lead me to lazer steves website. And discovered some new things one of my biggest problems is removing the waste components (quickly) one of those components is the solder-mask. Now studying this new found (electrolytic) method of gold recovery. Then will be looking into the a refinery process that use's borax.

Mystic Colby,

Thanks for your input much appreciated. Don't worry have also been reading a some what shocking PDF entitled "Chemistry for non-chemists" And from what I have seen so far you only get one shot at getting this stuff right, My current job employs the use of powerful acids to etch away calcium based stone giving a crystallized honed Finnish. The gas's released are not anywhere near as aggressive as what you would get from Aqua Regia but they certainly are not to messed with.

Cheers for the help so far..

 

[Claudie]

Steve has a video of solder mask removal on his site, you may want to check that out. Keep watching and reading, and be patient. It takes a while to absorb all of the information you will see here, don't cheat yourself by thinking you know "enough" to try something.