Ok everyone I have a question about some gold filled refining I was doing, I began incineration of 200 grams of mixed gold filled caps, pins , necklaces, and one pair glasses. Everything was normal no solders melting out on incinerated material. Began nitric treatments. Had a normal results blues liquids from my boils. I had a few stubborn pieces “ the glasses frames”. On last rinse a few pieces of the glasses pieces started leaching out a purple solution. I have never seen that and I was wondering if anyone could let me know what it might be?
Gold filled refining question
- Thread starter Jerey1981
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I do not know what the purple was, but if we get tin and gold into a chloride solution together the gold will reduce as colloidal gold in solution they call Purple of Cassius, working with the glasses and other scraps you may be dealing with alloys that include tin.
jarlowski1
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Like butcher stated we don't know what alloys they use in some cheaper jewelry. I don't know if you separated the magnetic stuff or not, but the stainless steel in some jewelry can cause problems too.
The eye glasses are more than likely stainless with gold filled layering.
The stainless will not dissolve in the nitric acid and you had to boil it so long the nitric acid has broken down the 10K (Assumed) layer of gold. The silver and base metals in the gold filled went into solution and the purple you are seeing now if finely divided gold blown to dust without it binder to hold it together. Butcher called it, Purple of Cassius! It is an ass backwards way of getting there though, but it works. Funny story i may tell one day about turning around $10,000 in perfectly good gold cholide in one of the god awful messes.........
Gravity separation and not filtration might be your friend here. It happens and it's how we learn and sometimes it might actually work to your benefit in some future situation. It's still there if you have not thrown anything away and you learned something to.
The stainless will not dissolve in the nitric acid and you had to boil it so long the nitric acid has broken down the 10K (Assumed) layer of gold. The silver and base metals in the gold filled went into solution and the purple you are seeing now if finely divided gold blown to dust without it binder to hold it together. Butcher called it, Purple of Cassius! It is an ass backwards way of getting there though, but it works. Funny story i may tell one day about turning around $10,000 in perfectly good gold cholide in one of the god awful messes.........
Gravity separation and not filtration might be your friend here. It happens and it's how we learn and sometimes it might actually work to your benefit in some future situation. It's still there if you have not thrown anything away and you learned something to.
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In the future it might be easier to process the magnetic pieces in hcl under heat separately from the non magnetic pieces you'd use dilute nitric leaches with. Incineration is good, it will also burn off any oils or organics that the pieces may have accumulated during their use as well.
