Dissolved Gold spilled on groung

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Anonymous

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I recently had dissolved my karat gold using aqua regia and the pyrex container apparently had a crack on the bottom. I was doing the process outdoors as I have done before but as I lifted the container, the bottom fell out and everything went into the ground. Quickly, I shoveled the soaked sand into a plasic 5 gallon bucket. I am certain that I got it all as the surrounding sand was very dry.

What would be the best way to get through this misfortune? I considered adding HCL to the material and filtering then precipitating the liquid.

Thank you for your help......Ken
 
If everything was in solution water would leach it out, heat may help. It is often forgotten that plain water is one of the best solvents.
 
cwopdog said:
I recently had dissolved my karat gold using aqua regia and the pyrex container apparently had a crack on the bottom. I was doing the process outdoors as I have done before but as I lifted the container, the bottom fell out and everything went into the ground. Quickly, I shoveled the soaked sand into a plasic 5 gallon bucket. I am certain that I got it all as the surrounding sand was very dry.

What would be the best way to get through this misfortune? I considered adding HCL to the material and filtering then precipitating the liquid.

Thank you for your help......Ken
Click to expand...

Use an old crock pot as a water bath to warm your AR, that way, if your beaker breaks, nothing is lost but time.
 
Thank you for your advice. I will try the water rinse and also the crock pot with hot water. Much appreciated.
Ken
 
cwopdog said:
Thank you for your advice. I will try the water rinse and also the crock pot with hot water. Much appreciated.
Ken
Click to expand...

I think a hot spot and a small scratch combined to propagate a crack. A glassblower at the University where I worked showed me the trick to making a clean break in a glass tube by making a scratch with a diamond or carbide tool in the direction you want the break to go, then using a torch or a string soaked in alcohol, then ignited. Try it using a glass bottle and see how you can replicate your broken beaker.

The rule is never apply uneven heat to glass. Use a Water bath, or if you need more heat, an oil bath. Dot 5 brake fluid is Silicone based and is good to over 250 Deg. C and is non flammable unless you get it extremely hot. Don't use flammable oils unless you want to burn down your shop.
 
My soil is high Iron, it would most likely replace the gold, then I would have to leach the Iron, before getiing to the gold,
catch basins, and fiberglass trays help catch spills.
leaching dirt is no fun.
 
What butcher said. Do not discard the soil, for it may have had enough base metal to cement some of the values. May not, but play it safe until you are sure you recovered the values.

I used beakers for years, and had many break from heat, but only when they were allowed to over-heat due to material settling on the bottom (such as polishing wastes that had been incinerated. Much like working with fine sand). To avoid breakage by that manner, try to keep everything in suspension. It's not easy in all cases. Also, once you have scratched a beaker, you encourage breakage at the point of the scratch.

If you use heat, don't use heavy walled vessels. They are far more sensitive to heating and breakage than are thin walled vessels. Note that coffee makers use a thin glass. That's by design.

If you feel your soil contains cemented values, I'd advise a prolonged wash with HCl, then rinsing well. Then go after the values with AR. Do any of this after you have rinsed it well with water, to remove values that were still in solution.

Luck!

Harold
 
Butcher is good at keeping us all on our toes. It is a good thing too, as mistakes can be costly in finance as well as health.
 
Thanks Mark. I have learned my lesson well.'All dirt in in 5 Gal plastic trough presently. Contained in the dirt is "dropped Gold" and about 10 diamonds. I plan to rinse everything through a classifier and then process the settlings another time with Aqua Regia and see what happens. If nothing happens, I feel pretty good about recovering the diamonds. I will report back on this thread. More suggestions are always welcome. Talk about a sinking feeling!! I was at warp speed fetching the shovel you can be sure of that!!http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/posting.php?mode=reply&f=64&t=6732#

Thanks .. Ken
 
butcher said:
I can not believe it Harold missed incenerating the sticks and leaves :lol:
Click to expand...
When Harold leaves a reply, I assume incineration would be standard practice when there is anything to incinerate. One of the simplest, but valuable info that I have learned from Harold (that and read Hoke).

Thanks Again Harold.
 
HTPatch said:
butcher said:
I can not believe it Harold missed incenerating the sticks and leaves :lol:
Click to expand...
When Harold leaves a reply, I assume incineration would be standard practice when there is anything to incinerate. One of the simplest, but valuable info that I have learned from Harold (that and read Hoke).

Thanks Again Harold.
Click to expand...
My pleasure! 8)

Harold
 
Thanks guys! This is an awesome forum. I have just begun doing this stuff About a year ago and since I have been on here I have gained a lot of knowledge and respect for all of you that share yours.I am 67 yrs old and wish I had started earlier in life. I also collect vintage Accutron tuning fork watches. I have learned to completely disassemble and put them back together. Microscope is required and my hands are still pretty steady. One of my treasures is a solid 18K weighing in at 43 grams I bought off Ebay years ago when gold was at a low. It originally sold for $1300 back in the 70's. Also into ham radio strictly use Morse code (CW). My low power station is totally powered by solar panels and also have a wind generator. I cant wait till I retire and enjoy my hobbies and have more time for my family.

All the best....Ken
 
i also dropped gold from AR with smb in a crockpot warming it up over night. apperantly it bubble all the gold out on a wooded floor. i had the crock pot on for hours and it didnt even bubled to the half way point when i was watching it. but when i went to bed. woke up with parcipateted gold on floor. any ideas on how to pick it off the floor it dried into the plywood type floor? or do i just forget about it?
 
get a piece of plywood to replace the hole in the floor, incenerate the plywood with gold on it, if there was enough to make it worth while, if not you just have a gold plated floor.
 

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