Hello, New here, think I made a mistake..

[Anonymous]

I didn't know exactly where to post my issue. I am currently majoring in chemistry, so I understand the chemistry behind all this. I have done very similar methods in lab many times(but not with gold).

For what it's worth, listen to what's being said to you. You're no different from anyone else that come to this forum and want to do everything INSTANTLY because of what they already know. As you might see, your learning and )or) training will mean nothing here if you can't/don't apply those principle's you've learned. Chemistry is a big PLUS for you, but it means nothing here if you don't know the chemistry of breaking down metals (putting into a liquid form) and want to jump in to refining gold, silver and other metals. It very well may be as easy as you think, but you have to be ready to implement the experiments (Hoke's book), and learn from there.

I bought 1,300 dollars of lab equipment, one reason was to do the gold refining, the other reason was just to build my own lab. 90% of the stuff i bought isn't so much for gold recovery.

Again, you're explaining that you say you know chemistry, but know nothing about gold chemistry. The reason I'm saying this is because if you did know about gold chemistry, would would have all you need to refine gold, being as though you spent $1,300 worth of equipment, whereas it took me about a year or so to slowly add to my equipment arsenal, but paying less than $500 for my setup. I'm not saying you paid much for your setup, but I'm thinking that if you did pay that much for your setup, SHOULD be in the position to refine gold right at this very moment, for what you have.

Make the best of the equipment you've bought because it may very well server to be a help mate for you.

Here's my issue, I think I paid too much for memory cards. I was hoping to make a profit, but it doesn't appear I will(based on calculations). I have searched for the last 3 days for a solid answer, I just can't find one.

If your main thread is about you paid too much for R.A.M. sticks, then fine... you've learned a lesson. Yeah, you may have paid too much, but suck it up and refine what you can and your loss is lowered. Yes, they have gold in and on them. Go get it, and if you're keeping notes, you'll know what to pay for the the next time you come across them. But, in the meantime.... that was YOUR mistake. Not no one on this forum (I hope note), or someone forced you or you did see that part, or understand that other part. You bought them and they're yours. Refine them and LEARN from this experience. OK?

I paid $230 for 10 Pentium Pro Ceramic CPU's and guess what?.... at the time of the stock gold prices, My twice refined gold was worth only $126 at most. I bought them off of the video assumptions that there was at least up to 1 -3g per cpu. How wrong I was. Well, not me, but the other(s) that say so. FACT. I refine and I take notes. I compare my notes with others and then if I refine the same again, I'll come to the actual estimated yields of gold bearing items.

Do your own yields. You now have those R.A.M. sticks to refine. Show us the yields and maybe we can all learn about the yields even more on anything we even think about wanting to refine.... WWAAAYYYYYYY before we purchase them. I learned about Pentium Pro's. I KNOW what they're worth and how much gold is in them. I do need to go for the possible silver and palladium too. Oh well, another thread for that.

1. "On average, How much gold is in 1lbs of memory cards?" (question i can't find the answer to.)
2. "If i paid too much, how much should i pay on average/lbs?" Obviously I am gaining experience in this, I know different finger boards can go for different amounts. I am just looking for a safety net figure.
3. Is the best investment in rams, or in other computer components?
4. "Is there any problem of putting the gold fingers in to concentrated HCl, to dissolve everything except the gold. Filter it. Then hit the gold with some aqua regia, Dissolve the gold, neutralize the aqua regia then hit the solution with the SMB to crash out the gold. Filter out the gold and test the solution with SnCl2(tin chloride) to check for gold. If the test is positive, add some more SMB and repeat till the test is negative? I also have an idea for a centrifuge to take the gold out of the solution after you add the SMB more quickly.

BTW i paid about 19 dollars a pound for the memory cards.

Answer no#1. I can find that answer EVERYWHERE on this forum. Different people have different yields. That's where you come in. You do your own R.A.M. sticks and you post the yields. By doing that, you are adding to the yield list and when combined with other yields, it'll be easier to give an "approximate" yield. Do your own and tell us what YOU yielded. It's that simple.

I trust the other yields too, but I keep on thinking about this so-true saying, "Trust, but VERIFY"

Answer to no#2. Read no#1. What you yield, and compared with other yields should give you a close indication of what you should pay to obtain any of the R.A.M. sticks or any other precious metal bearing item.

Answer to no#3. Although there are different opinions on that question, the best way to find out by refining different material, keeping notes of the times and other aspects and you'll soon see that each member has a different niche item they would rather refine over the other members' item's. It's all in what makes you feel comfortable the most and time and also that the yields are greater in return(s).

Answer to no#4. The recommended way for removing fingers from boards are AP. You can, however use AR. But, if you are just wanting the gold fingers to flake away from the liquid and float, then the AP method should be used. If you cleaned and stripped your material well, you could go straight to AR.

You will see that to do one refining of a certain metal, there are more than one way to do it. So, although everyone has different methods of recovery, I would do 1st, what has been tried and proven effective, and 2nd, try other methods only AFTER READING AND UNDERSTANDING what you're doing.

DO NOT ALTER what works for you until you learn the complete process being done another way.


Kevin

 

[the iron dwarf]

to pu_239
even if you can return all the goods to the seller in exactly the same condition they sent them to you in and pay all fees and costs ( ebay and paypal fees here add up to about 20% on average ), all the postage both ways I would still consider you were in the wrong.
either as an auction or a buy it now it can only be something else if it is not as described and if that was the case you should have returned it un touched

 

[pattt]

Answer to no#4[/b]. The recommended way for removing fingers from boards are AP. You can, however use AR. But, if you are just wanting the gold fingers to flake away from the liquid and float, then the AP method should be used. If you cleaned and stripped your material well, you could go straight to AR.
Kevin

If you meant that putting close cut fingers or ram sticks "if you cleaned them and stripped them from other components" in A.R. is ok .

Sorry, I don't think so, putting clean cut fingers or cleaned ram sticks in A.R. will result in a loss, because some of the resulting AuCl will get sucked up in the remaining pieces of fiber boards.

Pattt

Edit : added,: in A.R.

 

[Anonymous]

I share Butcher's sentiments in both posts he has made.

Welcome to the forum, as a chemist you can look at things in a different way to the majority of us laymen. You can also learn a lot about techniques from the guys here that will dovetail in with your chemistry knowledge nicely.

Unlike some other I think you have done the right thing buying good equipment. It will set you in good stead if used properly, so apply what is willingly given here to your chemist's mind and good equipment and I am sure that in no time you'll be having a lot of safe, productive fun.

I concur completely about the deal you have just done. You bid too much, but pay the bill, don't mess the guy around and learn from your mistakes. You need to stand behind your deals. If you get it wrong, then pay up, take your knocks and move on. Experience will help you make less mistakes.

I disagree with the comments that suggest that to make a profit you effectively need to get your product for nothing. I'd prefer to take the approach that you need to know WHICH product has good yields and is worth paying for. Again, this will come from a combination of first hand experience and some clever forum searching. Don't always believe yield data unless it is corroborated with another source. People have a tendency to keep quiet about things they don't want others to pick up on. There are some "strange" sets of yield data round for various things so be careful.

Your early days will cost you money. Accept that and look upon it as an apprenticeship. As you get better you will make purer gold, and start to make money.

Enjoy

Jon

 

[jason_recliner]

Sorry, I don't think so, putting clean cut fingers or cleaned ram sticks in A.R. will result in a loss, because some of the resulting AuCl will get sucked up in the remaining pieces of fiber boards.

Wise words, Pattt.
There you go, I probably lost even more gold in my first batch than I ever even knew. Although they went in still wet and I rinsed pretty well afterwards, there will still be some loss.

 

[pu_239]

Thanks for the replies,

I see it like this, ebay is a business. They do have a money back guarantee so I see no problem with the email i sent the seller. If you buy something at a store and if you have issues or it's not what you expected you take it back.

If I bought something from someone on the street, or from someone on a forum or just out at a junk yard. Yes it's pretty obvious you have to stick to your word, a deal is a deal that's the bottom line. I bought some shoes that where too tight a few weeks ago from this guy i know. I didn't go to him asking for a refund, i know a deal is a deal and that's it, he even asked me... "You want your money back?" I told him no because i honored our deal. If he said, "i have a 14 day return policy" then that's another story.

But the seller and I came to a reasonable deal. He told me, "If i knew you where going to use it for gold extraction I would have sold it to you cheaper. The best I can do is 110 dollars + shipping. If you want to return it, I understand." I could have returned it but I didn't think it was right, so I didn't. He also told me he has sold over 500lbs worth of ram. I told him my goals/plans and how much i think i'll need a week and if he could supply my demands, he said, "i can't promise anything, but i do buy ram, and the market fluctuates, sometimes i have some, sometimes i don't." I plan to do business with him in the future, if I can't find a deal I am looking for (based on my program i made) i will go to him to buy some(if he has any). I also found a seller who is willing to pay 95% of the market value of gold. I was shooting to sell it for 80% of the market value. So over all, between everyone and everything, seems like things worked out ok.

I also plan to try to extact gold my way with 1lbs of ram. I believe my way would be faster than the Peroxide based method. I will calculate my yield of that and compare it to the standard peroxide method, see if i get roughly the same yield.

 

[jason_recliner]

If you buy something at a store and if you have issues or it's not what you expected you take it back.

If I bought something from someone on the street, or from someone on a forum or just out at a junk yard. Yes it's pretty obvious you have to stick to your word.

Do you feel that only a guy running a shop with higher overheads deserves to get stiffed with, in essence, you changing your mind? Or is he just a softer target?
If it's faulty or not what it is purported to be then that is reasonable, regardless of the vendor's shopfront status. But finding it cheaper somewhere else afterwards does not cut it.

 

[pu_239]

I didn't see all the replies before my last post.

@testerman, I agree with pretty much everything you said. As I mentioned above, I made a program to calculate profit. It's just a rough estimate right now based on current figures i seen around. But I will of course do my own yield and adjust my program for that. I know that 1,300 dollars for gold refinery is a lot to spend. I know 90% of what i bought isn't necessary for gold refinery. But I am majoring in biochemistry/chemistry, so I thought it would be nice to have my own lab. I do have some ideas on how to use what i bought to increase the speed of the refining process, but as of now it's just speculation until i actually do it. I will document everything very well, as if I was in a lab. As I also said, I am going to try my own method of recovery with 1lbs and see if I get a similar yield. If my method works it would be a lot faster.

I think i mentioned above, our lab final for general chemistry was they give you a solution of various metals, you have no idea what was in the solution. You had to figure out what was in your solution and this is done by separating all the metals from one another. So yes, I do have experience in metal separation. I will do 90% of the ram i bought with the standard method of recovery. the 10% is just to test my own method. I have learned this is a learning process as many have said. My first thought was a "get rich quick" method. But, based on everything i realized that's not going to happen. I see this as a part time job. But i like doing chemistry, so it's not like i am really working, it's mostly just for fun.

@patt I didn't know what A.R. method was, but i looked it up. Yeah that was exactly my plan. But I see the problem as you discussed. You made me realize that the A.R. method may not be the best method. My plan overall was to do the A.P. method in a reflux. That pretty much heats up the solution increasing the speed of the reaction, but the reflux avoids evaporation. But I see that it might break the gold flakes and I will end up in the same situation with the A.R. method. It might work if i keep the temperature below boiling. At the end of the day for me, it just boils down to testing and seeing the results.

ETA: was thinking about the A.R. method. I guess for me it really boils down to the volume of gold I can produce. I heard of people waiting 6 days for the A.P. method. Lets say I do the A.P. method 2x a week and i produce about 2g a week. If I use the the A.R method and can produce 1.5g every 2 days. That's 5.25g a week. I might be producing less per overall method, but I would make more money if i can produce more of it over the same length of time.

 

[solar_plasma]

You just want to avoid, that the gold dissolves, and it will, if you use H2O2 instead of using an air bubbler, especially in a warm solution. Even air in a too hot solution might do this. Not a big problem, if you are very familiar with CuCl2 leach. If you have the choice it is always better to be able to see the gold. But okay, you need to learn the hard way :mrgreen: and you may have the knowledge to do so.

Though it would be more comfortable first to learn the proper ways to do things. Many of your ideas would vanish and give you more time for useful experiments.

 

[joekbit]

testerman

welcome aboard. Do you have Hokes book? Im new to this as well and one thing I learned real fast was to pull the cotton from my ears and stuff it in my mouth. That s not meant to be harsh. I am currently reading Hokes for the 3rd time. I saw one of your posts, at least I believe it was you, on expected yields. As others have said, it varies.

Some things to think about are weights. For example, I have a neighbor who gave me some memory cards. the first thing I did was weigh them. The double sided cards were 26 grams, the single sided were 13 grams. So taking this info I can now estimate just what people are selling. Someone says I have 5 lbs of double sided ram, well do the math. How many cards is that? This will also vary based on the manufacturer and type. As you can see a lot of homework is needed to develop averages. That's what I have spent a lot of time thinking about.

Another thing to consider when you see cut board fingers for sale is how much board material is with the fingers. This will affect the number of actual fingers in a given weight. Lots of variables

This week I will begin buying scrap, RAM boards only, I'm not going to process any of it yet. Main purpose is to develop weight to quantity ratios. What do I expect? No idea. When I process them and look at all that info as a whole then I will have a bit of an idea. But the variables will always be there.

Noting ventured nothing gained. If I break even I will be happy. What I learn will help me generate positive numbers in the future. One question I will ask of any seller is this. How many boards is there? If they cant or will not answer then its' likely I'm not going to buy from them. I can understand if a person had 100 pounds and did not want to give me a count. But most of what you see on E Bay for example, is 5 to 10 pound lots.

For now I going with the lowest yields I've seen based on 100 fingers. I will be basing my purchase price on that until I develop my own set of numbers.

I spent the last 3 months reading and experimenting with very small quantities to get a feel for the processes and develop what I call my proof sets. Hokes calls them acquaintance experiments.

good luck

be safe

 

[pattt]

ETA: was thinking about the A.R. method. I guess for me it really boils down to the volume of gold I can produce. I heard of people waiting 6 days for the A.P. method. Lets say I do the A.P. method 2x a week and i produce about 2g a week. If I use the the A.R method and can produce 1.5g every 2 days. That's 5.25g a week. I might be producing less per overall method, but I would make more money if i can produce more of it over the same length of time.

so you are willing to throw away 2,5 grams every 10 days :?:
maybe better to use the time spend at the CuCl2 leach, to read some posts on the forum and some pages in Hoke's book.

pattt

 

[Anonymous]

testerman

welcome aboard. Do you have Hokes book? Im new to this as well and one thing I learned real fast was to pull the cotton from my ears and stuff it in my mouth. That s not meant to be harsh. I am currently reading Hokes for the 3rd time. I saw one of your posts, at least I believe it was you, on expected yields. As others have said, it varies.

Some things to think about are weights. For example, I have a neighbor who gave me some memory cards. the first thing I did was weigh them. The double sided cards were 26 grams, the single sided were 13 grams. So taking this info I can now estimate just what people are selling. Someone says I have 5 lbs of double sided ram, well do the math. How many cards is that? This will also vary based on the manufacturer and type. As you can see a lot of homework is needed to develop averages. That's what I have spent a lot of time thinking about.

Another thing to consider when you see cut board fingers for sale is how much board material is with the fingers. This will affect the number of actual fingers in a given weight. Lots of variables

This week I will begin buying scrap, RAM boards only, I'm not going to process any of it yet. Main purpose is to develop weight to quantity ratios. What do I expect? No idea. When I process them and look at all that info as a whole then I will have a bit of an idea. But the variables will always be there.

Noting ventured nothing gained. If I break even I will be happy. What I learn will help me generate positive numbers in the future. One question I will ask of any seller is this. How many boards is there? If they cant or will not answer then its' likely I'm not going to buy from them. I can understand if a person had 100 pounds and did not want to give me a count. But most of what you see on E Bay for example, is 5 to 10 pound lots.

For now I going with the lowest yields I've seen based on 100 fingers. I will be basing my purchase price on that until I develop my own set of numbers.

I spent the last 3 months reading and experimenting with very small quantities to get a feel for the processes and develop what I call my proof sets. Hokes calls them acquaintance experiments.

good luck

be safe

I see a few mistakes with what you wrote, and the first one is you start off your reply with my username. I believe you're directing this to the original poster? I hope so.

Also, when you wrote

This week I will begin buying scrap, RAM boards only, I'm not going to process any of it yet. Main purpose is to develop weight to quantity ratios. What do I expect? No idea. When I process them and look at all that info as a whole then I will have a bit of an idea. But the variables will always be there.

Once you start gathering material, plus taking notes at the same time, you better have an idea of what to expect. At least use other information from others to guide you, but you, do your own datasheet. You should expect to see weight data from starting material down to stripped down material, all the way to the melted material. That's what you should expect. You should expect to recover gold, or whatever you're after, if the material contains it. My point is simply to have an idea of what to expect, even if it's on the lowest yield scale.

Until you have actually refined R.A.M. sticks before (the black chips too), I would definitely get an idea of the yields first.

[Example]You don't want to collect them and after you've paid $1,000 for 100 lbs of them and find out later that you'll only recover 17g of gold.

That's one of the reasons that ANY yield data I find from ANY member, I compile them with the data from the same material and I do my own yields, and then I have a pretty good idea of what I can expect. Oh, the mistakes I made along the way by over paying for items I never touched before and simply relying on information that wasn't remotely close to actual yields.

I've processed probably about 20 lbs of R.A.M. so far, (fingers only), but I still have about 5 lbs of chips to do.

And speaking of chips, since you're wanting just weight yields for now, make sure after you weigh the R.A.M., you take off the MLCC's and weigh them, and take off the black chips and weigh them too, all separately. That will help you on your yields too because each of those other items contain precious metals in them. That's money.

If possible, buy you at least five (5) quadrille Composition Books. "5 Quadrille" means 5 squares equal 1 inch. I keep my notes in different books. It makes my notations easier to find.... For example, I have a book marked "Gold", one marked "Silver" one marked "Palladium" etc.. You can do a book that is marked "R.A.M. Sticks" and everything R.A.M. can be in just that one book, regardless of the metals you refine. You can have a book called "Yields" and that book can be of all the metals you refined and the yields you recorded in different sections of the book.. You mark them as you see fit, but if you document all you're working with in book form, you'll have notations that you know are accurate to your own working and you'll definitely know from that what something is worth in value to you.

The more yield data you collect and do for yourself, the more accurate you can be to determining how much precious metals is in a particular item. From the data I collected from MLCC's, I should have approximately $400 in palladium and some silver too. At this point, I don't know because I never processed them before. But I'm collecting them and they're piling up too. From what I've read, MLCC's should bear approximately 3% - 5% of it's weight in Palladium. I'll find out one day when I start to process them. Since I do have 1lb of them already, that's what I'm going to process all at once.

On an ending note, make sure you read up on yields before you buy something or ask someone here and I'm sure you'll quite a few answers to help you make an informed decision. Many members here have refined for such a very long time that it will be wise to listen to their advice.

Good Luck!

Kevin

 

[joekbit]

Thanks Kevin

I do have a good idea on the fingers as far as expectation. One location that seems some what obscure, or may seem to be, is the photo gallery. There are numerous posts there telling users just what was processed to produce the buttons and ingots displayed. As far as quantity, my plan is to start small "no auctions" . I will be looking at 5 to 10 lbs at a time with fixed prices.

I had to come back and edit / add some more. Again Thanks Kevin. What I have been doing is browsing prices then coming back to the forums and digging for answers. Main question " is this too much money" , and here is where I find the answers. Up until now I have not even had the funds to buy materials.

I just bought some nitric acid, SMB, Beakers, sodium nitrite for (Steves cold nitric formula) and a jewelers scale 1/10 gram increment. I'm looking at crucibles and decided to get some for simple torch melting and for a furnace. I'm going to make my own furnace (coffee can size ) but I don't want to do that till I have my graphite crucibles so I know how big the port needs to be. So far I spent just under 200 dollars.

 

[pu_239]

ETA: was thinking about the A.R. method. I guess for me it really boils down to the volume of gold I can produce. I heard of people waiting 6 days for the A.P. method. Lets say I do the A.P. method 2x a week and i produce about 2g a week. If I use the the A.R method and can produce 1.5g every 2 days. That's 5.25g a week. I might be producing less per overall method, but I would make more money if i can produce more of it over the same length of time.

so you are willing to throw away 2,5 grams every 10 days :?:
maybe better to use the time spend at the CuCl2 leach, to read some posts on the forum and some pages in Hoke's book.

pattt

A.P method = 2g a week = 77.60 dollars a week.
A.R method = 5.25g a week = 203 dollars a week.

I read hokes book, didn't find much that's too appealing, just the things in the end that talks about where to sell. Everything else just seems like basic chemistry.

The numbers above our just theoretical, i know that nothing is certain untill i try it. As I said I will do tests and stuff to see what will be best for me.

i will reply to everyone else later, got a big test tomorrow.

 

[Anonymous]

Answer to no#4[/b]. The recommended way for removing fingers from boards are AP. You can, however use AR. But, if you are just wanting the gold fingers to flake away from the liquid and float, then the AP method should be used. If you cleaned and stripped your material well, you could go straight to AR.
Kevin

If you meant that putting close cut fingers or ram sticks "if you cleaned them and stripped them from other components" in A.R. is ok .

Sorry, I don't think so, putting clean cut fingers or cleaned ram sticks in A.R. will result in a loss, because some of the resulting AuCl will get sucked up in the remaining pieces of fiber boards.

Pattt

Edit : added,: in A.R.

Good point there. But I am thinking this way now that you mentioned the AR soaking up in the boards. Have this been done, because I have a theory.

1. Have this been done once? A person took 1 lb of each R.A.M. sticks (2 lbs total) and put one 1lb in AP and let it lift the foils, and recover what is there, and compare it to this below..

[THEORY]
With the fingers in just HCL, enough to cover them, put it on low heat and let it heat the container for about an hour or so. I'm thinking an hour or even longer would soak enough HCL throughout the finger board and prevent any more solutions from absorbing in it.

Then, while on low heat, add the HNO3 to the solution to make the AR and dissolve the gold, without it even entering into the boards because of the "soaking in solution" process. And then pour, rinse, drop, dry and melt to compare with the other batch from AP.

I'm thinking if done that way, since the board is soaked all the way through, the gold would just dissolve and not get absorbed into the fiber board, making the yields pretty much the same. If the AR absorb into the boards, I think it would be minimal being that the HCL already soaked it up. If my theory is the way I hope it could be, then the AR would be faster than AP.

Unless I know for a fact it's been done, I'll do it myself once I get enough fingers to process. I just can't see much, if any of gold loss doing it that way. But remember I said it's just a theory. Nothing concrete to compare it to.

Kevin

 

[butcher]

"I read hokes book, didn't find much that's too appealing, just the things in the end that talks about where to sell. Everything else just seems like basic chemistry."



pu_239,

The problem you will have, as I see it is just that, thinking you know the basic chemistry, and in that you will not learn what Hoke's teaches until you start loosing your gold, in doing those basic chemistry reactions.

Maybe then you will be willing to go back and reread and study Hoke's book, and learn the basic principles of the chemistry involved in recovery and refining gold from Hoke's book.

Someone who does not know, (and knows it), is easy to teach, they have a great opportunity to learn.

Someone who already knows it (or everything) will be handicapped by what they think they already know, not being able to learn, (even the very simple basic principles so important to their success).

I suggest rereading Hoke's book, the lessons learned from her book are not obvious as they seem, from reading the pages, they can come from the overall study, and understanding of the principles of recovery and refining, an overall understanding of her book and what it teaches.
Although the simple experiment's are a great source of understanding the reactions and many of the basic principles, and will be very helpful in understanding many of the problems you will face when you do begin to work in recovery or refining of precious metals, the testing experiment's will be helpful, to help you know where your values are, and where they are not.

I have several fields of work I do, (mechanical, electrical, electronics, boiler man, HVAC, and several others, besides my hobby of refining) and even after working in these fields for many years, I always spend time reviewing and learning the basic principles involved in these, and always go back to the basics for more study in them to get a better understanding.
Many times understanding of the simple basic principle will be more helpful in solving a problem than understanding the very complex formula or reaction to a problem.

The principles are the foundation.
Understanding them give you a strong foundation in understanding, without understanding the very basic principles you are working blindfolded, or handicapping yourself.

Hoke's book is a great place to learn the principles needed in this field of work.

 

[solar_plasma]

pu_239
10% of Hoke is chemistry, 90% is craftsmanship.
Knowing the basic chemistry makes you knowing 10%. Though, when I look at, what chemistry you have assumed and written until now, you don't even know 1%. Listen to butcher or learn the hard way.

I can hardly believe that ignorance is what you have learned in your scientific education.

 

[MGH]

Just to add to Butcher’s wise words above (and now Solar’s who posted before I could get this in)…

… and I mean this as advice, not solely to tear down, though that is the intent, in part…

Pu_239,

As I see it, you are not a chemist. I am a chemist – it says so on my business cards. I’ve been in my career now, getting paid for the day to day work that I do, for more than a decade. I’ve learned much in my college courses, and even more in my real world experience. I work with lab equipment that makes your $1300 investment look like the smear of mosquito’s butt on a windshield. The knowledge and experience I’ve been so fortunate to gain has SLIGHTLY reduced the slope of the learning curve that I have gone through in precious metals refining. There is so much that you don’t know about in gold recovery and refining, and you don’t even know it yet.

I would love to be able to spend a few days in practical refining exercises with any one of the more experienced members on this forum. I think that so far I’ve learned maybe about 2% of what I could learn on this forum. There is so much here that you will NEVER encounter during your college education.

My advice to you, very similar to what many members give to other new members: slow down, read read read, shut up a little bit, humble yourself, appreciate the free knowledge that is here, take some Tylenol for that gold fever that you have, stop doing calculations until you’ve done some acquaintance experiments and small batches, then slow down again.

Best of luck

 

[Shark]

I am no chemist, nor am I overly smart. What I have learned over the past year or so from this forum is the fact that I know even less than I thought I did. Those experiments that Hoke mentions in her book are way more useful than can be imagined. If you happen to work with escrap, they can teach you the way out (quicker and easier than trial and error) when you "just can't get it work". A good example, when your drop don't drop even when you do everything just like the drop that worked. Even jewelry most often won't have the same make up even though two pieces may be marked as the same karat. There must be a million things that can vary from lot to lot of electronic scrap. (I am pretty sure I have found about that many my self ) No matter how smart a person is, there is always room to learn, especially from the people who have "been there, done that". All one needs to do is open their mind and let that extra knowledge soak in.

Good Luck, I hope everything goes well for you.

 

[solar_plasma]

Many aspects taught by Hoke I first understood after reading the senior refiner's posts about those. Harold has done a great job translating those to us noobs in his powerfully eloquent words.

And still, even we read this over and over we get exited each time we try this in practice and first, doing it exactly that way, then we understand the wisdom for real.

Washing is not the same as washing and to perform and to read a stannous test from the complexity of variables of a dirty solution is an art of its own.

School books do cast a light on simplified and isolated systems. In reality nothing is simple.