kadriver, Agua regia is good for processing karat gold which has been inquarted, and the silver copper and base metals removed with nitric acid, then the more pure gold dissolved in aqua regia, solution denoxxed and so on.
It is also hard for someone learning to get the hang of . reading Hokes book and following her instruction’s on getting aquanted with the metals and the reactions will be a big help.
I call Aqua regia a sledge hammer and for a lot of these processes where a tack hammer is needed at least at first, using too big a hammer is more destructive than good ( high base metals need eliminated), you will learn base metals need eliminated first before even thinking of going for any of the gold in the materials.
Aqua regia is not good to use on plated materials or base metals mixed with gold (there are some special cases), as base metals will give much difficulty if dissolve with Aqua regia, forget what you have read on the internet, you have found the gold refining forum, study here and you will learn to refine, read Hokes book until you get a good grasp of processes, also Laser Steve’s web site is a good resource for learning to deal with gold and base metals, he has also done a lot of great work in the processes used here, his videos are good resources, you will learn much from them, also for dealing with silver GSP has an excellent book he put together from his 40 years experience as a professional refiner, with a stick to it attitude, patients, hard work and study and more study, you will be melting some pretty gold.
welcome to the forum