filtering black mud from cell

shop deals on amazon
xelexo
Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
A

Anonymous

Guest
I am using a cell to deplate gold plated compluter pins.
I have deplated, rinsed several times and am ready to filter and boil in HCI.
I assume I need to get rid of the water so as not to dilute the HCI
when I filter the water off I end up with filters full of black mud.
When I rinse the filter with a spay bottle I end up with a good deal of water again

Here's my question

Do I not worry about the water and add JCI?
Do I try to dry the mud and scrape it off the filter?
Do I put the filter, mud and all into HCI?
Or maybe something else?

Any help will be greatly appreciated

James
 
Let your gold settle to the bottom of your container and then siphon off the liquid. The more you wash it the faster it will settle. Don't pour off the dark cloud, it is your gold. Then put it in your choice of HCL/clorox or AR.
 
If you don't want to keep a burn pile you can throw the gold into the HCL, filter paper and all. This will get rid of your excess water problem. The filter paper will break down into a mushy mass. If you are satisfied with just doing a wash in HCL you can then filter the HCL and rinse the paper/gold material and then melt. I would personally refine the gold(with the filter paper) in AR, filter/rinse and then drop the gold.
 
Goldenchild,

Your reply was most helpfull.
I am following a process I found on the forum that recommended a short boil in Hcl after several rinses, rinsing seveal more times after the HCI boil, and then incinerating. Is it OK to skip the incineration?
 
jcomtrader said:
Goldenchild,

Your reply was most helpfull.
I am following a process I found on the forum that recommended a short boil in Hcl after several rinses, rinsing seveal more times after the HCI boil, and then incinerating. Is it OK to skip the incineration?
Click to expand...


You can proceed after recovering the gold from the cell in several ways. One way is to follow what you have read and boil the recovered gold in HCL. This serves to get rid of the other inferior metals that came from the cell. You can melt the gold after the boil/rinse if your aim isn't super pure gold. If you want to take it a step further you could take that boiled/rinsed gold and refine it in AR to get a more pure end product.

Personally, I would syphon the sulfuric acid and then rinse and filter the gold at the bottom of the container. When I'm sure the gold is well rinsed, I would put it in a reaction vessel (including the filter paper) and digest it in AR. I would then follow the normal procedures to drop the gold and then refine the recovered gold a second time. I would do it this way because 1. I dont like to keep a burn box and 2. I almost always twice refine my gold with the exception of when I start with high purity material.

There are so many ways to skin a cat when it comes to refining. You just have to try different things until you find what is easiest and best for you.
 
Goldenchild

Well the way you outline seems much easier than the process I'm trying to follow. I have a couple of questions though

1. you mentioned "siphoning" off the acid in the cell. I have seen that term used in the forum but am not sure what it means. Is that just another way of saying decanter or are you actually setting up a siphon hose?

2. What is the 2nd refining process you use? Are you just talking about another round in AR or do you go through several rinse cycles too?

3. I'm using Muratic Acid (31.5% HCL). I have read 1 part Nictric to 4 parts Muratic for AR. Is that what you recommend?

Thanks so much for the help. As you said, there are many ways to skin a cat and trying to refine just from the forum notes leaves a lot of my questions unanswered especially since when I post a question I get answers outside of the process I'm trying to use.

Thanks

James
 
jcomtrader said:
1. you mentioned "siphoning" off the acid in the cell. I have seen that term used in the forum but am not sure what it means. Is that just another way of saying decanter or are you actually setting up a siphon hose?
Click to expand...
I hope you don't mind my replying to a question posed to another.

Siphoning is a great way to transfer solutions in the lab. It's dead easy to do, and perfectly safe if you use good judgment.

I always used a 3/8" ID vinyl hose for my transferring. It's large enough to provide a respectable flow, and easy to see what's going on in the hose, which can be important under some circumstances.

Keep the length of the hose that is used no longer than is absolutely necessary. It should be able to reach the bottom of your largest vessel, with the opposite end capable of being lowered a few inches below the same elevation. The greater the difference in distance, the faster will be the flow. That is key to controlling the transfer, not disturbing solids that have settled in the first vessel.

To start a siphon running, one should wear gloves, so you can plunge your one hand directly in the solution (if necessary). Fill the length of hose with some of the fluid to be transferred, using a basting type syringe. When the tube is full, cap both ends using your gloved thumbs.

Move to the vessel to be emptied, then hold the discharge end of the hose below the top of the vessel. That prevents any of the fluid from leaving the tube. Plunge the first end in, removing your thumb in the process. Keep the opposite end capped with your thumb and nothing will happen.

Adjust the end in the vessel, then lower the opposite end so it's below the one in the vessel. Remove your thumb and flow begins. Again, the greater the distance between the two ends, the faster the transfer. Take advantage of this feature by brining the discharge end near the same level as the one in the vessel as you near the bottom. You can control the flow to the point where it transfers very slowly, ignoring any settled solids.

If you are transferring solutions that have no value, you can fill your hose at the tap. No need to use the same solution that will be transferred.

For waste solutions (after removing copper and nickel), I used to use a short length of garden hose, for faster transferring.

Harold
 
I would like to add to what Harold said about siphoning. If you are working on a small scale, say 1 liter beakers, you can siphon without using a hose. You could use something like a turkey baster or even the syringe you would use to start the siphon using a hose. Just let the solution settle 100% and suck the liquid out of the container depositing it into the waste/value container.

You can use this technique for any solution you come across weather it be a waste or value solution. This will make filtering much faster as the filters will only get clogged with a minimal amount of liquid before it passes through. I use whats pictured below. Its like a turkey baster but not quite. The fluid stays in the "baster" instead of trickling out like a normal baster does. Effectively its a giant pipette. I got this at the dollar store. Just make sure its the right type of plastic especially if your siphoning sulfuric acid.

2. yes I meant a second treatment in AR

3. some use 3:1 some use 4:1. I started out using 3:1 but always ended up adding more HCL because it was spent so I would say use 4:1

DSC00744.jpg
 
I love this forum! Thanks Harold and Goldenchild for this great tip. I've already discovered that filtering is a royal pain in the butt, so anything that reduces what goes through the filter is a big deal to me. I'll be off to the dollar store today!

James
 
Barren Realms 007 said:
Well be careful using it because when your fluids drip out of the device it will stir your gold up. :roll:
Click to expand...
The baster I use doesnt drip. Its just like a pipette. You get very good at siphoning this way to the point where you can get almost all the fluid out without disturbing the settled material. If you do happen to disturb the settled material you just have to wait for it to settle again. If dripping disturbs the settled material its most likely time to put it through the filters anyway.
 
goldenchild said:
Barren Realms 007 said:
Well be careful using it because when your fluids drip out of the device it will stir your gold up. :roll:
Click to expand...
The baster I use doesnt drip. Its just like a pipette. You get very good at siphoning this way to the point where you can get almost all the fluid out without disturbing the settled material. If you do happen to disturb the settled material you just have to wait for it to settle again. If dripping disturbs the settled material its most likely time to put it through the filters anyway.
Click to expand...

I probably just needed some more practice with it then. 8) I used mine a few times and quit. I just use a siphon hose now. That is till my new acid resistant vacume pump comes in soon and then I will redesighn my work area again. :lol:
 
Here's another tip. Go to a physician's supply and buy what they call an irrigation syringe. They're a large bulb with a small tip. That's what I used for years, after having less than stellar performance from a basting syringe, which loved to leak around the interface of the bulb and syringe body.

No, they're not expensive, and they outlast the rubber on basting syringes.

Harold
 

Latest posts

Back
Top