Dissolving gold with hcl/cl

[denim]

Is it possible to lose some of your gold if you add too much clorox, too quickly to your hcl when dissolving gold? I recently did this and when pouring the clorox into the beaker with hcl in it I added way too much clorox (I think anyway). After that I filtered and let the auric chloride set for the night. The next morning I dropped with SMB and did not get the desired result for quantity of gold. I have done this before- when I added the clorox slower and got better results with regards to the quantity of gold after dropping. So, my question is can gold evaporate, so to speak, if you add too much clorox too quickly? Many thanks to those who help those like me- indeed.

 

[Geo]

when you add the bleach, the tiny bubbles create an aerosol of mist from your solution. im sure a tiny amount goes up into the air but i cant see any appreciable amount being lost, or at least enough to cause the end result to suffer any great loss. over a period of time it will add up. use a paper towel to wipe around where you have been working and add a drop of stannous chloride to the paper towel. if you get a positive, you need to cover your reactions.

 

[denim]

Thanks for the reply Geo.

 

[maynman1751]

Also, you may not have rid your solution of excess chlorine. Heat the remaining solution, until steaming, let cool and test for gold. Heating may also precipitate more gold out of solution.