Ohiogoldfever
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2020
- Messages
- 254
I have a curious one I’d like some input from people smarter than I am.
This batch is from about 1lb black poly top duel leg transistors. I removed the legs in a previous step using AP. After leg removal I was left with the plastic D shaped tops.
Tops were incinerated, crushed in a mortar and pestle. The crushed material was rinsed in a bucked to separate the ash from the heavy materials. Once rinsed all material was put into a 2 liter beaker and digested using 1 tablespoon potassium nitrate and roughly 300 mL HCl. The reaction was allowed to take place in the sun over the course of about eight hours.
After all visible gold had been digested I filtered the material and de Nox with Sulfamic acid. At this point I rinsed all the remaining materials several times using distilled water. The rinse water was filtered and used to dilute the pregnant solution (stannous test positive for gold) . Once diluted I filtered one more time (coffee filters) to try and remove some final haze in the solution. I left this over night to filter intending to drop this morning with SMB.
This morning the solution is crystal clear though slightly green. A fine layer of material has settled to the bottom. Slightly gray in color. Probably super fine ash mixed with gold mud is my expectation.
Stannous test now shows negative.
I don’t need advice on recovery as I am comfortable with that. I am just curious if anyone can help me understand why the gold dropped without SMB treatment.
This batch is from about 1lb black poly top duel leg transistors. I removed the legs in a previous step using AP. After leg removal I was left with the plastic D shaped tops.
Tops were incinerated, crushed in a mortar and pestle. The crushed material was rinsed in a bucked to separate the ash from the heavy materials. Once rinsed all material was put into a 2 liter beaker and digested using 1 tablespoon potassium nitrate and roughly 300 mL HCl. The reaction was allowed to take place in the sun over the course of about eight hours.
After all visible gold had been digested I filtered the material and de Nox with Sulfamic acid. At this point I rinsed all the remaining materials several times using distilled water. The rinse water was filtered and used to dilute the pregnant solution (stannous test positive for gold) . Once diluted I filtered one more time (coffee filters) to try and remove some final haze in the solution. I left this over night to filter intending to drop this morning with SMB.
This morning the solution is crystal clear though slightly green. A fine layer of material has settled to the bottom. Slightly gray in color. Probably super fine ash mixed with gold mud is my expectation.
Stannous test now shows negative.
I don’t need advice on recovery as I am comfortable with that. I am just curious if anyone can help me understand why the gold dropped without SMB treatment.