foils with one side brown

[rpg]

dropped everything back into the solution is starting from scratch. Added more HCL and a tiny bit of peroxide and a few more fingers. Running with the air bubbler now. I'm sure the gold is in the powder I recovered. So my assumption is if I run it again in AP the copper will go back into the solution and the gold powder will be left in the bottom. Any gold that will get dissolved will be dropped by saturation, so I'll continue to add fingers until solution is saturated again. As I was not planning in refining gold until spring (I'm in new england and snow is coming) I did not order Tin drops until yesterday. Sometime next week I should be able to test for gold in the solution. I'll keep you up to date of my chemical on the job learning (I'm a software guy with minimal chemical knowledge) TIA

 

[butcher]

That sounds like a plan.

It will also give so time to get a little more knowledge under your hat, while the copper dissolve from the pins and leaving the gold in the bottom of your bucket.

Winter time is a good time to make Nitric acid, Sit by the warm fire with a good bookreading Hoke's, and a good hot drink.

 

[steyr223]

Sit by a warm fire
Reading Hoke's
A hot drink


You just had to mention nitric acid :mrgreen:
You gave me the chills

 

[eesakiwi]

You first want to recover the gold, as free from other metals as much as possible, before moving on to the refining process where you dissolve the gold.

If you just used HCl and a little 3% H2O2 to begin with and then bubbled air from a fish tank air bubbler, you could remove copper without dissolving the gold foils.

Using strong hydrogen peroxide is just complicating the process dissolving gold with copper, this should be avoided for better results, and a cleaner gold solution when you move from recovering the gold to refining the gold, where you want to dissolve the gold with as little other metals as possible, making the refining easier, less loss of values, and better gold in the end product.

Thankyou for this information. I now relise that added concentrated H2O2 will 'overconcentrate' in the acid & dissolve the gold.
& that I should have not used 30% in the first place......

I understand how the gold will 'plate out' back onto the remaining copper & thats why the reaction is hard to start sometimes, like when I pour the liquid out, clean the still copper plated foils & add new HCL/h2O2.
It makes sense to use the air bubbler, theres no way it can 'over concentrate' the HCL acid, which would dissolve the gold..

 

[nickvc]

You first want to recover the gold, as free from other metals as much as possible, before moving on to the refining process where you dissolve the gold.

If you just used HCl and a little 3% H2O2 to begin with and then bubbled air from a fish tank air bubbler, you could remove copper without dissolving the gold foils.

Using strong hydrogen peroxide is just complicating the process dissolving gold with copper, this should be avoided for better results, and a cleaner gold solution when you move from recovering the gold to refining the gold, where you want to dissolve the gold with as little other metals as possible, making the refining easier, less loss of values, and better gold in the end product.

Thankyou for this information. I now relise that added concentrated H2O2 will 'overconcentrate' in the acid & dissolve the gold.
& that I should have not used 30% in the first place......

I understand how the gold will 'plate out' back onto the remaining copper & thats why the reaction is hard to start sometimes, like when I pour the liquid out, clean the still copper plated foils & add new HCL/h2O2.
It makes sense to use the air bubbler, theres no way it can 'over concentrate' the HCL acid, which would dissolve the gold..

I fear your still not understanding what's dissolving your gold. The hydrochloric won't dissolve gold under normal conditions but add an oxidiser like nitric, chlorine or peroxide and it will and readily.