E-Scrap Gold Recovery Help

[Infantry0311]

Hello All,
I am a rather small home refiner trying new computer parts such as for this mess I am in is CPU's. I usually use Nitric Acid and Hydrochloric for AR. I have never used a Nitric substitute, until I bought a small kit off of Ebay. Have no clue what the substitute was, but I processed a pound of K5 CPU's, which has a half gram on each CPU. I dissolved all the pins and gold. I then decanted, added urea, then water. Once I added water, the entire solution went to a chocolate milky mud color. I waited until over night for everything to settle. Next day I added SMB, no reaction. I placed a small, tiny amount of Sulfamic Acid to make sure there was no active Nitric or subst. No reaction. Stirred the bucket, and the milk chocolate liquid still present. I then added some HCL to it, and it instantly took the milk chocolate substance from the AR. No gold has dropped. No mud has formed, just a clear very light green liquid now. I can smell the SMB in the liquid, 4 days later still no mud.
What has happened here? Anyone with any suggestions, please comment. I am lost. I have done E-scrap refining for a very long time and have been very successful, never had any of this kind of problems ever.

 

[geedigity]

Have you tested the solution using stannous chloride? If there is any gold in the solution, it will turn some shade of purple. A drop of solution plus a drop of stannous chloride will reveal the answer. I should add that the drop of the solution may turn a slight brownish color when the stannous chloride is added due to the SMB.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

There are a number of kit sellers on ebay, most of them make their own small kits then sell. I never have trusted these and always buy my chemicals wholesale and in original containers. There is a very good chance you got a botched batch. Dont have too many answers at the moment. It would be helpful if I knew the "nitric substitute" being refered to. Chances are the bottle just says nitric substitute.
Just a thought, have you tried testing the ph of your solution. Part of the problem sounds like the smb is staying suspended in the solution.

 

[Justincase]

How are you meant to run an informed process if you do not know what you are using?
Even worse how lightly is it for an one to guess what was used with second hand information form a distance.
what would be needed would be a highly trained "remote refiner" trained the same way as the C.I.A.'s "Remote Viewer's" :lol:
Any how The problem is most lightly the Kit Some are just wrong e.g.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NC-13439-Gold-Recovery-Kit-2-5Kg-Sodium-Metabisulfite-and-2-5Kg-Urea-Refining-/281657801754?hash=item41941cfc1a
You may have to dry to a crust and incinerate so you can start again.

 

[nickvc]

Assuming you did actually dissolve the values, as suggested a stannous test should prove that, the values are in solution and the answer may well be to cement the values out using a piece of copper and to start over using any of the methods well covered here in the forum to refine them, with nitric hard and also expensive there are workaround methods for most materials, HCl and bleach work well on small particles or foils.

 

[lanfear]

but I processed a pound of K5 CPU's, which has a half gram on each CPU.


I am lost. I have done E-scrap refining for a very long time and have been very successful, never had any of this kind of problems ever.

If you expect a half gram from each cpu you will be disappointed. Not even the pentium pro contains a half gram.


Jon

 

[MarcoP]

Time is precious but learning is invaluable. If you want to learn go ahead to try to understand what went wrong. If you don't want to, just stick a copper bar to cement values. Stannous chloride is the first tool you must have before you even think to start.

Marco

 

[rickbb]

Buying a "kit" of unknown chemicals from eBay is what beginners do, not people who have been refining e-scrap for a long time do. I know, it's the mistake I made before finding this site.

Follow the wisdom you find here, you will recover and refine better than you ever have without having to buy unknown, unlabeled chemicals. That nitric substitute is probably cheap stump remover or fertilizer the seller purchased at the local big box home store and repackaged and marked up 10 times or more.

 

[bswartzwelder]

I was going to mention using stannous chloride, but was beaten to the punch. When I use stannous, the color is BLACK. Not purple, green, pink, or blue, but a very solid black. It always has been. I suspect it is because my solution of stannous is much more concentrated than what most people suggest. Personally, I prefer using the stronger solution of stannous chloride because it seems to work very well for me. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[g_axelsson]

Stannous cloride test that turns black means you have a strong gold solution. If you dilute the gold chloride you will see the purple color even with strong stannous.

Göran

 

[Anonymous]

I was going to mention using stannous chloride, but was beaten to the punch. When I use stannous, the color is BLACK. Not purple, green, pink, or blue, but a very solid black. It always has been. I suspect it is because my solution of stannous is much more concentrated than what most people suggest. Personally, I prefer using the stronger solution of stannous chloride because it seems to work very well for me. Just my 2 cents worth.

I have no idea how "strong" my stannous solution is but it still varies in reaction colour with the strength of the gold chloride in solution. Just an observation chaps and please let's not get into another preparation of stannous discussion or I'll lose the will to live. 8) 8)

 

[Palladium]

What is the K5's base metal? Sounds like you had iron in the mix and when you diluted it came out of solution. When you added hcl it went back in. That's a sign your nitric acid was depleted which tells me your gold is probably stuck somewhere on the materials. Did you test the solution first? Was every last thing dissolved?

 

[Anonymous]

Ralph I think that the K5 doesn't contain iron/Kovar.

Jon