Non-Chemical Help Precipitating

[archfecta]

Hello and thank you for the host of information here. I have been tinkering with the AR with several pounds of pins from computer motherboards. The final washed product is a mostly clear, green (emerald color). That wash was simmered for about two days.. slowly adding muriatic, as I used muriatic acid instead of the concentrated hydrochloric acid, as the mix simmered down. I added 3 to 1 distilled water along with 1 oz of sulfuric acid for the 1 test quart of emerald green liquid. It was triple filtered then, and the clear emerald mix got even more clear and pretty. I have Storm Precipitant and added a teaspoon of the precipitant to the test batch. It quietly fizzed....let off some wonderful gas..smelled like chlorine....and turned the emerald test batch dark brown/black (murky). I let it sit a bit.. stirring... no heat... then added a half teaspoon more... again.. more chlorine gas smell.. a little more fizzing... then I saw formation at the bottom of my test beaker. I decanted the test batch.. so its still doing its thing... and inspected the sludge at the bottom. It appears to be whitish... granular... fairly heavy as when I decanted.. it stuck to the bottom corner. I thought it might be my precipitant at the bottom... but upon testing the precipitant in water... the precipitant totally dissolves and leaves no chlorine gas smell.. leaves the water.. water clear...

Is that whitish powder the precipitated gold? Any thoughts from you wonderful people on this forum? Thank you

 

[Geo]

you are missing a lot of needed information. first of all, i would recommend that you stop trying to refine gold from computer pins until you understand several things. the type of pins you are dissolving. some are brass and some are bronze. a big difference when digesting pins. you should understand how the two reacts with AR solution and what you should expect from the dissolution. there are two main types of pins on a motherboard not only in base metal content but also gold content. one type yields up to 2g gold per pound and the other yields about 0.1g per pound. you should study on this until you know which is which. next, was the dissolution complete? if you do not understand this, study why you need to dissolve all metal in a AR dissolution. did you test the AR solution to determine if gold is in solution. if you dont know how to test for the presence of gold in solution, that should be the next thing to study. add to that how to make gold testing solution. checking for free nitric in solution. if you dont know how to test for free nitric, study how to do this. testing the solution after the addition of SMB. if you did not test after the SMB, see above. using the numbers i supplied above, determine if your solution actually contains enough gold to give a good positive test. see above.
after you have done all of this, break out the solution and see if you can figure it out. if you still cant after all of this, you should at least be able to give an accurate account of what you have done so far.

 

[archfecta]

Understood thank you.

 

[bswartzwelder]

Muriatic acid (HCl) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) are the same thing with different names. Had you done any amount of studying, you should have known this. If you had base metals present, you could have contaminated your AR very easily and made it ineffective. If there was solder or lead present, that would introduce an even bigger problem that you will have to overcome. Without the use of a test solution like stannous chloride, you cannot be sure that you even have values in your solution. You may be chasing a pink elephant.

You only joined the forum on Sept 18, and you are already trying to recover and refine. Most people would agree that you should put your chemicals aside and start reading. IF you have gold in solution, it will still be there waiting for you when you know what you're doing. Until you understand what you are doing, you will continue to make mistakes. These mistakes could be costly or fatal. There are recommended procedures to follow when doing what you are attempting. All the answers are right here on the forum or in C. M. Hokes book (It's free right here on the forum.). Use the search engine. Read the safety section. Look up any posting by Lasersteve and/or Palladium and/or any number of other members and you will find valuable reading material in their signature lines. All the while you are learning, start to get the chemicals you will need and start to save up your precious metal bearing materials.

Don't be in a hurry. For many people, this is a hobby. It is NOT a hobby that will make you rich quickly. For that matter, you'll most likely never get rich from it. Most of us do it because it's fun and makes a great learning experience. You will not learn everything in a week, a month, or even a year. No sense in trying.