Eco-goldex CYANIDE Leach

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Platdigger said:
So, is this actually any safer to use than (as you say) "straight cyanide"?

Well, I would say so. I do not think that you can buy cyanide and have it delivered by regular post. I am right in the middle of testing this leach and so far I am amazed at speed and ease with which it dissolve gold plating. As I said next step is to get that gold out. Once I will have all sorted I will post everything in here. Some material took couple hours but when air is introduced it reduced processing time to mere minutes. It was literally disappearing in front of my eyes. I did not processed any huge quantities. It was rather small batches of various types of plated material I have.
Like copper lid from P4 CPU with plating inside that lid. I did about 40 pieces and gold dissolved in less than 10 minutes. Stirring is the key here. Material need to be stirred and moved around so liquid is in motion. That was partially accomplished using fish tank air bubbler and occasional stirring of material. I do believe that the more often you stir the faster it work.
It sure looks even faster and safer than sulfuric cell but as I said I am in the middle and I just removed gold plating - now I need to get it back.
When I will crack this one I will post as much as I can.
One note - I am testing their original powder called eco-goldex where ph need to be adjusted prior leaching. -like first video I posted on start of this thread.
They do have new product called eco-goldex E where you do not need to adjust ph and they do sell it with another powder which do precipitate gold out of solution after it is stripped. -last 2 videos I posted here few days ago.
 
That seems like good news.
I was not looking forward to clearing the decks and having to run a sulphuric acid cell.
But as the decomposition of Potassium Ferrocyanide was one of the original ways to manufacture cyanide.
Is there not the potential for accidental decomposition during processing.
When heated to decomposition or if it comes in contact with acid or acid fumes it emits toxic fumes of cyanides.
All situations that can happen in a work space quite easily.
even if it is used in table salt and fertiliser I think it should be treated with similar safety precautions as the other cyanide salt's.
On which the advice varies. all the civil lab's and university's specify a completely separate working spaces and equipment for the use of cyanide. along with strict working practises such as always having a buddy out side the work aria observing and specialist medical kit. Then decontamination that would gladden the heart of any one with O.C.D.
But the attitude and working practices observable with in the preciouses metals industry seem to suggest that is over kill.
Cyanide poisoning is one of the things I would not want to learn about by trial and error.
 
Cyanide, nitric, chlorine, smb or hot sulfuric fumes are all deadly no doubt about that. To discuss which one is more deadlier than the other is in my opinion pointless, there are many other factors involved when using any of that. Yes they sure can kill, it is on individual to use them in a way to stay safe. Accidents can and will happen. I am in no way affiliated with eco-goldex and I am not promoting their product. I had impression that people would appreciate process that may be faster, cheaper or that can produce less chemical waste.
I do have feeling that people here do have rather negative view and various concerns. I do not have any problem with that, anyone is entitled to his/her opinion, it just make me wonder if I should continue to try to share what I am doing when it seems that people are not ready for it.
 
Sorry if I seemed unappreciative.
I am looking for a better alternative for plated item's quite keenly.
I was hoping for some clarification on the finer point's of use from people better qualified and experienced than I am.
A process has to be looked at completely under all conceivable local conditions before going forward.
And the accidental production of cyanide is what concerned me about the process.
J
 
Same here Pat, I do appreciate all the work you are putting into this and your willingness to share.
And I understand different forms of the same element can be fairly inert or benign.
I mean as we all know sodium metal is a very reactive metal and chlorine gas can be lethal, but combine the two and we have common table salt.
Also Deano posted about cyanate being easy to get and I guess unregulated in Australia.
I would just want to know if it was possible to emit or create cyanide gas from potassium ferrocyanide, and if so, under what conditions.
 
Hi Friends, motivated for this very interesting post I decided to say hello for first time, in more than a year reading the forum occasionally, and to thank Pathnor for sharing his finds. I'm not chemical I am inclined to those alternative methods of recovering some gold for hobby. I have been collecting material for more than 3 years (part time scrapper) and I don't have access to nitric and pure sulfuric acid like most of beginners in this forum. this methods like the one seen on Leo Chang videos are amazing and you are the perfect guys to test them I keep reading this valuable information. I reach this forum following Moose the scrapper videos and others and now I see the difference of watching lots or youtube videos and reading here comments from the professionals. I'm very patient and learned a lot of things here. it is amazing to get gold metal without mining tons of rocks and dirt.I have read many postings here it feels like I know many of you. thanks to all here for that valuable information.

Luis (Puerto Rico)
 
patnor1011 said:
Cyanide, nitric, chlorine, smb or hot sulfuric fumes are all deadly no doubt about that. To discuss which one is more deadlier than the other is in my opinion pointless, there are many other factors involved when using any of that. Yes they sure can kill, it is on individual to use them in a way to stay safe. Accidents can and will happen. I am in no way affiliated with eco-goldex and I am not promoting their product. I had impression that people would appreciate process that may be faster, cheaper or that can produce less chemical waste.
I do have feeling that people here do have rather negative view and various concerns. I do not have any problem with that, anyone is entitled to his/her opinion, it just make me wonder if I should continue to try to share what I am doing when it seems that people are not ready for it.
Hi Pat , following your post . it is very interesting new way to recover gold plating from e-waste .I even bought a sample kit , but will wait for your results,ed.
 
yes is my very first post thanks , after more than a year reading everything that happens as an spectator. I started buying pathnor cd on 2015 (very instructive) an taking ideas from here to there an enjoying how everybody give opinions. and following this interesting thread. I'm sure that much members are waiting results and researching about this new methods. (the safer and cheapest way to get the gold out) it is the second time I heard above this since the Leo Chang on you tube (amazing secret formula?) I have a lot of material in storage but I can wait. with time people still finding newer ways and combinations for gold recovering technics. also enjoy reading those old posts when everybody realize that the best part of the BGAs was the top black epoxy. when I started I was saving the green fiber and throwing away the top part. it took me weeks to really find the bonding wires on the chips. now I use a cheap USB microscopic to spot wire bonding when prospecting chips. thanks for the welcome

Luis.
 
patnor1011 said:
Cyanide, nitric, chlorine, smb or hot sulfuric fumes are all deadly no doubt about that. To discuss which one is more deadlier than the other is in my opinion pointless, there are many other factors involved when using any of that. Yes they sure can kill, it is on individual to use them in a way to stay safe. Accidents can and will happen. I am in no way affiliated with eco-goldex and I am not promoting their product. I had impression that people would appreciate process that may be faster, cheaper or that can produce less chemical waste.
I do have feeling that people here do have rather negative view and various concerns. I do not have any problem with that, anyone is entitled to his/her opinion, it just make me wonder if I should continue to try to share what I am doing when it seems that people are not ready for it.

Pat, please continue with your posting on this subject. How are trace metals recovered and the waste disposed of? I am sure that it is only my ignorance that I have not found that information yet. If the method gains popularity, this will most likely be the starting point for future posts and it would be awesome to discuss the full cycle (all the way to disposal).

I definitely see your point that they are all deadly, but anything with the word cyanide has a unique place in the hearts of people who watch Investigation Discovery :shock: . I see any (safe) experimentation as beneficial and look forward to seeing this thread progress. That being said, I have enough learning on my plate that I will sit here and watch with peaked interest as I work through my current projects. My post was meant to be one of encouragement and to show my interest in the topic. Please continue!!
Shawn
 
Well, I did not discovered this method or leach so there is no credit to be earned and I am not after appreciation or attention seeker. I was pointed to it by another member and wanted to try it on. I am by no means any expert on thio or cyanide based gold recovery. I started this thread to encourage people to engage in discussion I was hoping that some experts in this field may chip in with some pointers and help. Perhaps it will take time, I need to be more patient and somebody will come eventually and help us to crack this one.

There is no doubt this leach work. It work and it work fast. Now I am going through internet (which is full of good and bad advice and info) trying to figure out what next.
I am looking for method how to tell where my gold is as it look there is not much in a liquor itself, color is pale yellow so most of it settled on bottom in a form of blackish powder.
I want to find safe way on how to proceed with this powder and how to test solution itself. I tried to contact seller of this leach but he may be out of country or perhaps busy so I guess while he is the first one where I do look for answer maybe there is somebody here who may know a bit or offer some advice.
This leach do have potential to be extremely cheap compared to classic acid stripping or recovery most of hobbyists use today.
Times when I was jumping head on in everything without hesitation are long forgotten, now I have no problem to wait till I find proper solution before I even try to experiment.
 
I will upload more pictures later on with better resolution but just to show how it look like here are few.
 

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Some more pictures - before and after. All of these were done in less than 15 minutes with air added and stirred like 5-6 times during 15 minutes.
 

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2 more same as last 2 posts (about 15 min with air added)

small bit of plating remained close to center piece with solder. About 1% of visible gold exposed to leach.
 

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From all different batches there were only few pieces with undissolved gold. I simply picked them and included them to next batch of material and they were stripped.
When I finished I had only clean metal with all gold dissolved.
 
patnor1011 said:
From all different batches there were only few pieces with undissolved gold. I simply picked them and included them to next batch of material and they were stripped.
When I finished I had only clean metal with all gold dissolved.

Pat, it looks like the stuff is doing a good job. When you get to find out about recovering the gold from the solution see if you can find out if the solution can be reused over again or if it is just a one time usage deal. Also if you would ask if it can be used for the recovery of other PGM's.

Will the solution attack copper or other base metals and id there a possability that the precious metals will cement back onto the base metals.

Thanks for doing this and keep up the good work.
 

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