Hello from Oregon!

[Aaros1]

Name : Aaron
*** : Male
Age : 33
Location : Troutdale, OR
Profession : Mechanical Engineer
Hobbies : Buying and selling toys
Interests : Gold!!
How long have you been refining gold or have interest in precious metals? : less than a year
What are you looking for in our community? : I would like to learn anything I can about gold recovery
How did you discover our Forum? : Google

This forum is exactly the place I need to be, soaking up as much information as possible. I have large aspirations when it comes to recovering and refining gold. But I want to do it the right and safe way.

 

[g_axelsson]

Name : Aaron
What are you looking for in our community? : I would like to learn anything I can about gold recovery

Welcome Aaron! Here you can learn everything about gold refining and recovery. :mrgreen:

Be sure that you have followed and read all of the links in the guided tour. You should also download and read Hoke's book (there's a link in the guided tour and many other places on the forum)
Then watch Lazersteves videos on his website http://www.goldrecovery.us/

This will keep you occupied for a while....

Göran

 

[niteliteone]

(snip)
This will keep you occupied for a while....

Göran

... Not to mention give you an understanding of what we are talking about when we answer questions

 

[Aaros1]

Thanks alot guys. I've already been wandering around on the guided tour quite a bit. I'm not even attempting to ask a question until I read Hoke and havegathered as much info as I can. That's become perfectly apparent after a few hours on this forum

 

[butcher]

Aaros1,
Keep up the good work, it sounds like you have begun with a good start, while going through the forum and Hoke's book you will get many new ideas of where to find scrap, and how to prepare it.

After reading through Hokes book, going back and doing the acquaintance tests, and the testing procedures to identify metals in solutions, these small experiments are invaluable learning tools.

I also have a few suggestions, do not rush out and spend a bunch of money on lab equipment, and chemicals, wait until you know for sure what you need, and most of the things you need you can get as you find a need for them, you can also start out with simple things you can find as kitchen ware, also it is not wise to rush out and begin to spend a bunch of money on eBay, buying scrap, until you have a good understanding of the true value of this treasured/trash, you may acquire some valuable scrap stay away from the temptation to begin learning on this more valuable scrap (save it until you gain more skill and understanding).

I also suggest starting out with a simple scrap, like memory fingers, close cutting the fingers off of the computer memory card's to keep solder (tin out of the project), this gives you basically two main metals to deal with gold and copper (minor amount of nickel), learning the copper II chloride leach (misnamed acid peroxide or AP) to separate the copper from the gold foils (recover the gold), then the process of HCl/NaClO (bleach) (to refine the gold), this material and processes will not have the problems many of the other material or processes will, making it easier to get started learning, using simple steps in the beginning and building on these with bigger steps and more complicated material and processes to build on your newly found skills.

For me I find working with a high grade material like karat gold, not only gives you more gold in the melting dish, but in many aspects seems much simpler that dealing with electronic trash, and all of the problems that follow it, once you get a little experience, do a few getting acquainted experiments with this in your lab, but as I said above wait until you gain some lab skill, and a little experience, losing a troy ounce of dissolved gold in the dirt because of a broken beaker is not fun or profitable.

safety first
Welcome to the forum.