First carat gold refining
- Thread starter Skeeter8154
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Looks pretty normal to me, maybe slightly lumpy indicating it probably didn't get fully alloyed.
Heat the dish gently and slide the button out using a graphite rod or sterling silver/SS utensil.
Buff the dirty button off with a wire wheel in your grinder (be gentle, not too aggressive).
If it's smooth and uniform color proceed to nitric acid, if not proceed as stated below.
Flux your dirty dish with copious soda ash to clean out the residues.
Place the buffed button back in the dish and melt again with a flux mix of equal parts of soda ash and borax, pouring off the dirty flux while the button is fully molten.
Repeat as required.
Steve
Heat the dish gently and slide the button out using a graphite rod or sterling silver/SS utensil.
Buff the dirty button off with a wire wheel in your grinder (be gentle, not too aggressive).
If it's smooth and uniform color proceed to nitric acid, if not proceed as stated below.
Flux your dirty dish with copious soda ash to clean out the residues.
Place the buffed button back in the dish and melt again with a flux mix of equal parts of soda ash and borax, pouring off the dirty flux while the button is fully molten.
Repeat as required.
Steve
Skeeter8154
Active member
I have already poured the molten mixture in water and proceeded to the nitric acid boil, but when the boil was completed there was no gold flakes just black mud. Thoughts on this. The burn dish has residual left after melting the gold and silver.
Where did it come from?
If your inquarted material is 25% gold, the gold usually holds together in pretty much the same shapes it was in before the nitric leach. If it was much below 25%, the gold can break apart and leave you with mud. It can still be quite clean, but it is more difficult to wash and decant.
Dave
Skeeter8154
Active member
The carat gold I got was marked and Tested the gold. I don’t know where the black mud came from. The quarter gold looked fine with some black spots, maybe slag from Borax, maybe used too much borax when preparing my new crucible. Not sure, looking how to recover the gold from anyone who knows what happened.
Skeeter8154
Active member
How can I recover the gold Frugal?
With unknown black powder of unknown makeup here is how I typically proceed.
1: Get a dry representative sample of the material and take/send it out for XRF. Most cities have either a scrap yard or precious metals buying within 50 miles or so that have a table top or handheld XRF on site. Get the material scanned and decide on a protocol for processing once you have a better idea of what you are dealing with.
On this subject don't forget to CYA. Namely, don't put all your eggs in one basket. On the off chance that the XRF owner/operator is not 100% honest you may get scammed.
Only provide a sample that is large enough to test. Small powdered samples won't provide super accurate results on XRF, but will provide you a starting point on how to proceed. Providing a small sample also gives you a reserve of the material for a second opinion to keep the first guy in check if the need arises. It also covers you in case it comes back as a high percentage of Rh or the like and "mysteriously" gets lost, dipped into, or worse.
Don't assume everyone in the business has your best interests at heart, especially when dealing with possibly high value amounts of unknown material. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Once you have a reliable guesstimate of what you are dealing with, the proper process should be easy enough to determine.
My guess is that you have a 3-12% by dry weight Au powder entrained in silver chloride with trace base metals and fractional PGMs. Mind you, just a guess.
Steve
1: Get a dry representative sample of the material and take/send it out for XRF. Most cities have either a scrap yard or precious metals buying within 50 miles or so that have a table top or handheld XRF on site. Get the material scanned and decide on a protocol for processing once you have a better idea of what you are dealing with.
On this subject don't forget to CYA. Namely, don't put all your eggs in one basket. On the off chance that the XRF owner/operator is not 100% honest you may get scammed.
Only provide a sample that is large enough to test. Small powdered samples won't provide super accurate results on XRF, but will provide you a starting point on how to proceed. Providing a small sample also gives you a reserve of the material for a second opinion to keep the first guy in check if the need arises. It also covers you in case it comes back as a high percentage of Rh or the like and "mysteriously" gets lost, dipped into, or worse.
Don't assume everyone in the business has your best interests at heart, especially when dealing with possibly high value amounts of unknown material. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Once you have a reliable guesstimate of what you are dealing with, the proper process should be easy enough to determine.
My guess is that you have a 3-12% by dry weight Au powder entrained in silver chloride with trace base metals and fractional PGMs. Mind you, just a guess.
Steve
Skeeter8154
Active member
How do I recover it from the mud Snoman701?
You're already half way there. Dissolve it in a minimum amount of AR, then drop it. Of course, follow all the standard steps of cooling, diluting, filtering, washing, etc.
Dave
Dave
Skeeter8154
Active member
Thanks Frugal and Snoman I’m working on draining off my blue liquid of silver and copper plus other base metals and rinsing off with the distilled water until I claim all the black mud with no blue liquid left and clear. Then I will proceed with the AR and filter out any base metals at least a few times before dropping the gold. Then rinse again and repeat before melting into the gold bar. Please check my statement to make sure it is correct. Thanks
Skeeter8154
Active member
Skeeter8154
Active member
Put in AR and boiling for 1hour of the black mud. Thoughts?
Skeeter8154
Active member
Skeeter8154
Active member
Thoughts on how this would turn out to drop the gold with SMB.
Looks like it contains a lot of AgCl (cloudiness). Add Sulfamic acid in small amounts with stirring until no more fizzing occurs. Allow to settle and pour off transparent yellow solution from white sludge (silver chloride). Filter last of the solid with medium speed paper and a funnel, rinsing well. Combined transparent yellow liquids and add SMB while stirring until brown cloudiness forms(similar to chocolate milk). Allow to settle, wash, and melt brown solid.
Steve
Steve
Skeeter8154
Active member
Skeeter8154
Active member
Thanks everyone
