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Anonymous

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Hi all.
I am new in this forum and new in refining. I read most parts of the forum and deciced to try some thing. I put 2 cpu and put some 20 % hcl and some 3 % H2O2. ıts been nearly 2 hours. The liquid is now yellow. All the pins are staying on cpus. And i can see little bubbles around them. as i read the liquid should turn to green aor something. Can anyone teel me whats wrong ???

Thx for help.
 
First problem I see is the % of Hcl you are using.We use muratic which should be 32%-34%.Second is the time frame.Depending on the thickness of the base metals,it can take days for the base metals to completely dissolve.it takes a lot of agitation and make sure you add the correct amount of peroxide,too little and it will take longer,too much,and it will dissolve some or all of the gold.Check out steves videos on finger processing http://www.goldrecovery.us/ and use that ratio.It is more in depth and very user friendly.
Johnny
 
Thanks for your response. I know I need to use 32-34% HCl. But this is the best I can find now. I've checked Steve's website and watched almost all of the videos. I think I need to put some more H2O2. Is there any effect of using 20 % HCl other then slowing down the reactions?

As I understand for now its ok but it will take longer to dissolve the base metals. And I have one more question. Why is the liquid yellow now? Is it about the dissolved base metals or something else?
 
Often times at the beginning of a batch some gold will dissolve first, giving the yellow color you described, then the copper will start to dissolve giving you the green color you're expecting. If you use too much H2O2 you'll dissolve more gold yet. As the copper starts to go into solution the gold will drop back out. Steve suggests using the same batch of AP over and over again with an air bubbler which will add the needed oxygen to rejuvenate the bath. You can recover your gold foils each batch as you go and then recover the dropped brown gold powder when the liquid has become saturated with copper. I'm on my eighth batch of fingers using the same solution and it still works great with no additions of H2O2 since the very first batch. It can take several days to complete a batch. Just check on it once or twice a day, give a good agitation, and let it go. The air bubbler will assist with the agitation as well.
 
Nice post mike.

Make sure you always test your solution before discarding.And the percentage problem can be fix by boiling it down 3 to 2 that will give you about 30%,just watch those fumes they can be really nasty.
Johnny
 
Thx for the helping posts.

After reading these post I left the batch to stay for night. When I checked it in the morning the liquid was clean and colorless and some of the gold in the pins were dissolved. I added a little H2O2 then the liquid color changed to yellow immediately. I would be greatful if someone can tellme where the mistake is?

Ehtelmec
 
I would say, you have too much peroxide in solution.

If you are using the 20% HCl, and still using the recommended amounts of H2O2 for the 31% HCL, you are putting the balance out of whack.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, that you are trying to compensate for the slower reaction time with more peroxide, when you need to accept the limitations of your HCL.

Sorry to discourage, as I hate doing it, however I feel if you keep doing what you are doing, you may end up "mis-placeing" the gold from your materials into solution, possibly cementing out onto any copper in solution. The gold may also precipitate out as more base metals dissolve into solution, and mix with other base metals already precipitated. That is the reason why you just try to keep enough H202 in solution to dissolve the base metals only.

Ok now for possible solutions, if you are using 20% HCL, say a 3 quarts worth. "Hypothetical". It is like using 2 quarts of 31% HCL. So your addition of H202 should be calculated accordingly to the use of 2 quarts 31%.So approximately 1 quart addition. Following? I hope I'm helping. Then your just gonna have to give it time, don't rush things. I would probably recommend aeration by agitation like LeaveMeAlone said, or possibly an air boubler, as opposed to further H2O2 additions, unless the solution gets saturated with copper.

Good Luck,

Nick
 
After reading these post I left the batch to stay for night. When I checked it in the morning the liquid was clean and colorless and some of the gold in the pins were dissolved. I added a little H2O2 then the liquid color changed to yellow immediately.
Click to expand...
Hey guys,sounds to me like the pins were nickel or tin.That would explain the clearing overnight.However there should be a very thin black "residue" on the chips or in the bottom.If not then you may not have enough base metal in your solution yet to force out the gold.Just test the solution to see if it has any gold in it.You may be running into the same problem tryplecash is having if you dont see any visible gold on your pins.Keep us posted and we'll help accordingly.
One quick question,what kind of chips are you processing?And you said you put 2 in correct?
Johnny
 
As I said before the liquid was colorless and when I add H2O2 it turned to yellow. When I came back from work it was again colorless and turned yellow when I add H2O2 again. Here are some pics of my batch and CPUs.

Image1-2.jpg

Image2.jpg

Image3.jpg

Image4.jpg

Image5.jpg


As you can see some of the gold on the pins are dissolved. And i can see some black precipitates especially on last pic. Do you think they are gold. And there is some black rresidue on the pins.
I will try to find some tin for making a solution to test my batch.

Thanks for helping posts.
 
As long as it's bubbling its working. Let it do it's work.

Don't bother adding peroxide as these chip legs likely don't have any copper. AP is for copper based metals.

Nitric or poormans nitric would have been the preferred soak for these.
 
From the pictures it appears that you have added entirely too much peroxide.No problem,lets wait until the chips are completely stripped before proceding.Also the next time make sure you take the "cap" off of the center of the cpu....good gold inside.
Johnny
 
Actually, I tried a few experiments with different mixtures of AP, being careful not to add too much H2O2 and dissolve the gold. Soaking the whole CPU over night, the metal holding the lid is dissolved and can be removed easily with a small tap of a screw driver to break the glue seal. A lot easier than the torch and less damaging if you want to see the inside in detail.
 
So I will wait to se what happens.

Leavemealone I know there is more gold under the lid. Actually I learned it from the posts on this forum :lol: But I am just trying to get some experience so the gold under the lid is not important for me now. But thanks for reminding me.
 
Ahhh sorry.Harold posted a response a while back(and the same goes for me),I never ever intend to make anyone feel unintelligent,nor do I assume they don't know what they are doing.I usually write my resonses in great detail,not only to help the author of the thread,but any readers that may not have experience in the situation at hand.I never intend to insult or belittle anyone,If It does then I am very sorry that is not my intentions.
TIme for me to start a pot of coffee.Jack its 9:30..you're late!lol
Johnny
 
No I never think about something like that. Your posts are really helpful for me. Thanks again.
 
After ten days every thing is ok with my batch. Or i think like that here are some pics.

Image1-3.jpg

Image2-1.jpg

Image3-1.jpg


As you can see in the first photo the color of the solution is emerald green. And the lid of the cpu is opened itself. In the second photo you can see the foil that comes from the center of the cpu in the first photo.I just want to know is there any gold under the lid of the other cpu (the one in the second photo).
On the third photo the gold coatings of the pins and some black pins can be seen. Is the black thing the gold that dissolved and precipitated after the solution is saturated by copper?

And is there anything that I should do before filtering now?

Thanks for your help.
 
ehtelmec said:
On the third photo the gold coatings of the pins and some black pins can be seen. Is the black thing the gold that dissolved and precipitated after the solution is saturated by copper?
Click to expand...
Not sure what 'black thing' you are talking about. Gold that gets precipitated from solution by copper is a fine black powder and settles to the bottom of the bucket.

ehtelmec said:
And is there anything that I should do before filtering now?
Click to expand...
Let the foils settle, siphon/pour off the excess liquid. Rinse with HCl then water until the HCl is no longer discolored and any fine grains of copper I chloride are all dissolved. Copper I chloride is a a salt that forms in saturated solutions. It varies in color from gray, to off-white, or lime green once exposed to air.

Edit: Also, use a wooden stick or plastic tweezers to scrub the last of the gold traces out of the cpu housings. Most of the time the remaining foils on the ceramic cores is barely attached and the scrubbing easily removes them.

Steve
 
Hi,

Is there any issue with leaving the lids on the CPU. I read they are tungsten. Will this cause issues with the purity of the gold, later in the process?

thank you.
 
I remove all the bottom lids from any cpus I process. The lids contain iron which can slow the AP process.

The gold top lids are a copper tungsten alloy and create a yellow green powder when treated with acid and an oxidizer.

Steve
 

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