Hello, I'm new on this website. I wanted to learn how to recover gold from cell phones. I added 65% nitric acid on a kilogram of boards. I managed to separate the gold foils. I tried to melt them but they wouldn't. I dissolved the foils in HCL-chlorox and tried to precipitate the gold using sodium bi-sulfate. I tried to melt the precipitate but it wouldn't. I would appreciate any help i could get because I have a very high amount of cellphone boards.
Hi...
- Thread starter abenezer
- Start date
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I got good results following lasersteve's free video from his website. You can find him using the member's page link at the top right hand of this forum. It will list his site. Just follow his log on instructions then watch the videos. I would love to see a picture of your first button. Good luck!
Pantherlikher
Well-known member
abenezer said:
Hello, I'm B.S.
So you put the whole boards into Nitric acid, then tried to disolve the gold in HCL - CL... Unless you "depopulated" the boards first, you made a mess. But then you, unless you incinerated, used the ingredients to make AR which will disolve almost everything. Making the mess worse.
Best advice anyone can give is to cover the solution with a wet rag and store it. Then use the search box for the forum to find "mess" should be good to search. This will explain what to do right now. Then find "Hoke". This is a very informative book to explain all the basics you need to begin the learning curve on how to properly do what you wish.
Good Luck and this is the only way you can extract gold, as well as alot of other PMs, from cell phones.
B.S.
I watched a guy once... is "NEVER" and great way to learn all by itself...
Geo
Well-known member
do you still have the solution? if you tossed the solution you precipitated the gold with sodium "bi-sulfate", then you threw your gold away. sodium bisulfate will not precipitate gold, it only makes a mess. if you had used sodium metabisulfite or even sodium sulfite, you may have gotten some gold out of it. i suggest you stop trying to process until you study Hoke's book and read the forum on the process you are trying to do. it may take months of study before you have enough understanding to actually and successfully precipitate gold from a dirty AR solution.
View attachment cm Hokes.pdf
View attachment cm Hokes.pdf
bswartzwelder
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2011
- Messages
- 660
Geo is dead on right with his advice. Read Hoke. When you are finished, read Hoke again. Read the forum. I purchased the Shor system and became an overnight expert on refining. Unfortunately, that last statement is the biggest lie I could think of. I did purchase the Shor system, but because of it, I lost all the values I was trying to process. Then I found this forum. That was almost 2 years ago. While I still consider myself a newbie, I nkow where I made mistakes, and hopefully will not repeat them.
Yoy will be working with very dangerous chemicals. Any mistake could cause you pain and suffering for the rest of your life. It could also kill you, your neighbors, friends, pets, or anyone else who wanders too close to what you're doing. Please stop. Wait until you have a good understanding of the chemical processes. Purchase safety equipment and use it. I was wearing a new pair of sneakers when I tried to remove solder mask from circuit boards. A couple of DROPS landed on my new shoes. several days later, they got wet and had huge holes in them. That could have been my feet if I had been wearing flip-flops like so many people wear nowadays.
You say you have a lot of escrap. How much do you consider a lot? Presently, I have about 6 or 8 five gallon buckets filled with stripped down cell phones just waiting for warmer weather so I can depopulate them outside. BE SAFE. and if I didn't mention it earlier, sit down with your favorite beverage and read Hoke. If you still have the stuff you started out with, the gold is most likely still there, It just may be a lot more difficult to retrieve. No one on this forum is going to hold your hand and walk you through the process step by step. You have to take the first step(s) by studying the material presented here.
Good luck and best wishes for your journey into recovery and refining.
Yoy will be working with very dangerous chemicals. Any mistake could cause you pain and suffering for the rest of your life. It could also kill you, your neighbors, friends, pets, or anyone else who wanders too close to what you're doing. Please stop. Wait until you have a good understanding of the chemical processes. Purchase safety equipment and use it. I was wearing a new pair of sneakers when I tried to remove solder mask from circuit boards. A couple of DROPS landed on my new shoes. several days later, they got wet and had huge holes in them. That could have been my feet if I had been wearing flip-flops like so many people wear nowadays.
You say you have a lot of escrap. How much do you consider a lot? Presently, I have about 6 or 8 five gallon buckets filled with stripped down cell phones just waiting for warmer weather so I can depopulate them outside. BE SAFE. and if I didn't mention it earlier, sit down with your favorite beverage and read Hoke. If you still have the stuff you started out with, the gold is most likely still there, It just may be a lot more difficult to retrieve. No one on this forum is going to hold your hand and walk you through the process step by step. You have to take the first step(s) by studying the material presented here.
Good luck and best wishes for your journey into recovery and refining.
