Gold Floating In Solution

[mike.fortin]

Wayne--thanks. Somehow burning doesn't seem to fit what Sue was saying. Lye might be it. Are there other causticks beside lye? Sounds like I need to get one of them Hoke books you all talk about. Mike.

 

[aflacglobal]

Mike,

I posted some books for refining on one of my treads. They should help
greatly. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=559


Ralph

 

[P_CARROLL]

At one time in my life, I did caneing and to cause the cane to be more pliable faster, I used glycerin to break the surface tension, no soap bubbles. You can get it at any pharmacy. It only takes a drop or two per gallon of water to do the job. Something to try, not sure if it will work well for this application or not.

Gary

Maybe thats why glycerine is used in the cell. For surace tension reduction so the gold goes to the bottom.

 

[Gene Gindling]

From my understanding those blue shop towels contain silicone. Anyone trying to paint something who accidently wipes it down with one of these is in for nothing but a bunch of fish eyes.
Just a thought.

 

[Rag and Bone]

I had a nasty mess of cpu pieces, foils and pins from several test batches. I took the whole works and did 3 rinses of HCl. Then I soaked it in a cold barn in HCl-Clorox for 3 weeks, adding more clorox periodically. Filtered the auric chloride, now the nasty mess is a pretty jar of auric chloride!

ON the floating gold note, I had the same problem when I first started out last year. Since I started cleaning my equipment better and pre-washing my scrap the floating gold problem is gone.

 

[eagle2]

I just use a surfactant and a stirring rod. The pieces will then settle much quicker.

My surfactant is Triton x-100. There are many types, including Dawn and Glycerine.

Al

 

[steveonmars]

Mike,

I posted some books for refining on one of my treads. They should help
greatly. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=559 Link repaired


Ralph

This link didn't work, can you put up another link. I haven't been able to find Hoke's book yet but I'm reading as much as I can on this subject.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Rag and Bone]

steveonmars

Harold has a link to perchase the Hoke book attached to his posts, on the bottom.

 

[Palladium]

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=559

 

[steveonmars]

steveonmars

Harold has a link to perchase the Hoke book attached to his posts, on the bottom.

Thanks Rag, I found it.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

The gold floats because of the surface tension of the water,not because of any specific type of water or any oil.The easiest way to solve this promlem is to break the tension on the surface of the water.Any gold prospector worth his weight can tell you a tiny amount of dish soap and water sprayed onto the surface of the gold bearing water will break the surface tension,forcing the "floating gold" to fall.Of course now you have introduced the chemicals from the dishsoap into your gold solution.This shouldnt be a problem as long as you rinse well.
Johnny

 

[Rag and Bone]

Oil most definitely will cause gold to float. Just a little bit from your hands is all it takes to have foils and powder floating on the surface, very annoying. It's easy to prevent by cleaning the scrap and equipment beforehand. I'm talking about electronic scrap which is my only point of reference.

 

[Scott2357]

Several aquatic critters like pond skates rely on water surface tension to do their thing. You ever notice a skate will stand high and moves easily in clean water but hardly ventures far from shore if the water is muddy or contaminated in some other natural way. Surface tension is weaker and some of the little hairs that support them fall beneath the surface. A drop of soap spread across the water is deadly since they can never get above the water line and drown.

 

[Harold_V]

The gold floats because of the surface tension of the water,not because of any specific type of water or any oil.

While gold of thin cross section will float on clean water, it's not true that oil isn't a problem, as you've already been well informed by others.

The floatation process that concentrates values relies on oil to function.

If you want to minimize gold floating, cleanliness is critical, not only with your vessels that contact the product, but with the product itself. Those of us that have refined on a commercial basis know and understand the value of incineration.

Harold

 

[eagle2]

Most electronic scrap is contaminated with grease or greasy dirt. Just put there by the factory or picked up from usage.

A short dip in warm Sodium Hydroxide will make a big difference in getting rid of the grease and also prepare the surface, so that the next step will work much better.

Al