How much gold do you think could be extracted from these?

[dlb92]

I'm having some success, I keep putting fresh acid with a little bit of h202 and I had a pure gold flake break off where it had eaten away at the inner metal .

I suppose I should have weighed it before I started this then I could determine exactly what % gold each disc is. I'd have to drive a ways to get to a scale that sensitive though. But I guess I can multiply my results by whatever number of discs I have.

i covered the jar with a latex glove maybe that will prevent the acid from evaporating or it will just eat through the glove..

Seems to need to be around 25-30% HCL for it to start dissolving the metal inside any lower and nothing happens. Overnight the liquid turned from greenish-yellow to a pretty dark gold-yellow (Does this mean its kovar?)

heat should speed this up right? I put it in a hot water bath on my patio guess we'll see..I also found some 10% H202 whitening strips.

 

[maynman1751]

Don't use too much H2O2 or you could dissolve the gold. You want to keep as flakes. Do you have a bubbler?

 

[dlb92]

Don't use too much H2O2 or you could dissolve the gold. You want to keep as flakes. Do you have a bubbler?

No I don't have any equipment. Its on my christmas list now that I'm done with school and can afford it.

Once I'm left with flakes I'll know there is nothing left when the hcl doesn't turn colors right?

 

[maynman1751]

Don't use too much H2O2 or you could dissolve the gold. You want to keep as flakes. Do you have a bubbler?

No I don't have any equipment. Its on my christmas list now that I'm done with school and can afford it.

Once I'm left with flakes I'll know there is nothing left when the hcl doesn't turn colors right?

You can get a pretty cheap aerator at a pet store, but don't use an air stone. Just melt and seal the end of the plastic tubing and poke small holes through the last inch of the tubing.
Not necessarily color change. Just look to see that all of the solids, minus the gold flakes, are dissolved.
Any more questions or doubts, please ask!

 

[dlb92]

Check it out guys!

Anyone wager how much of this I have? Multiply this amount by 2200. If only I had a scale.

It maintained its shape better than what is in the picture i just bent it to see if there was any underlying metal. I had it cut in 3 peices and its still in 3 peices

 

[Geo]

without a scale, it will be a guess. as thick as the foils are, id guess 2 grams per pound. the base metal isnt all that thick and its plated on all surfaces.

 

[dlb92]

without a scale, it will be a guess. as thick as the foils are, id guess 2 grams per pound. the base metal isnt all that thick and its plated on all surfaces.[/quote

Guess seems a little low that's like 5 micro for area that's played

 

[Geo]

millspec pins only yield 4 grams to the pound and they have much more plated area and less base metal. my guess was conservative. i hope for you that im wrong but ive processed a lot of millspec material and i cant see it being more.

always underestimate yields and that way, if its over, you are surprised in a pleasant way instead of the other way around.

 

[dlb92]

Well if the yield is that low would you all advise I process them all this way myself

 

[Geo]

all i can tell you is, if it was mine, i would process them myself. i really couldnt advise you to process anything because i dont know your level of understanding of the processes involved or the environment you would be working in. thats a decision you will have to make yourself. if you are confident that you can handle all the processes of recovery and refining you shouldnt have much of a problem as thats some very straight forward material with no contamination. i cant think of any better material to learn with.

 

[dlb92]

all i can tell you is, if it was mine, i would process them myself. i really couldnt advise you to process anything because i dont know your level of understanding of the processes involved or the environment you would be working in. thats a decision you will have to make yourself. if you are confident that you can handle all the processes of recovery and refining you shouldnt have much of a problem as thats some very straight forward material with no contamination. i cant think of any better material to learn with.

Once I get to foils what do I do with it sell it?

I'm going to do it one more time punch a hole in center so , you can see full foil, the picture
One of the foils bent in half so it looks smaller guess one of my pharmacies has a mg scale I can use

 

[Geo]

weigh out 100 ml's of material. recover the foils and weigh the foils (dry). that will give you a rough average you can expect. keep in mind that foil weight will never match refined weight.

go to lazersteves website and watch his free videos on processing gold foils from fingers. its the same principle. www.goldrecovery.us

username : gold
password : goldm1ner*

he also has a small selection of items in the shopping section that may help you out.

i recommend you also watch the sulfuric stripping cell. that may be a better process for what you have.

 

[dlb92]

I will look up tonight after work, I'm sure website will tell me but if you dissolve core and all that's left is gold playing why wouldn't it be pure, also if it was totally refined what do you do with it (besides keep it cause it's really cool)

 

[Geo]

well, first of all, foils would be considered pure gold. but there will always be contamination. either as salts of the base metal or undissolved solids. as foils are exposed to the environment, it gets contaminated from the air. theres dust, and believe it or not, metal floating in the air, salt,hair,lint,organic matter,skin,poop, anything and everything is attracted to the foils because they are magnetically charged.reclaiming the foils is the first part of the process, the next step is refining. there are several ways to do it by the beginner and again theres a video on steves site that shows you how to dissolve the foils. after they have been dissolved, you will precipitate the gold out as gold powder. follow this with Harolds washes and rinses and you should have a nice quality end product that many here on the forum would buy from you at or near spot price.

 

[dlb92]

If you melted the foils wouldn't that be almost as good? what percent of would the foil themselves be ? I'm not sure I can watch hundreds of dollars dissolve into solution

 

[Geo]

:lol: thats why you dont do it until you know what your doing. if you just melt the foils, it will be contaminated. its impossible to say to what extent. you can clean them as best you can to lessen the contamination but its kind of redundant if you plan to refine it later. if you dont want to refine it at all, i would suggest you make a deal with one of our members that will do it for you. we have a few moderators among the ones you can call on. most everyone here refines in some capacity. the more established members understand that to short change or deceive or cheat another member in a deal made on the open forum would be detrimental to their standing on the forum. many here do business here so it would benefit them to do the best they can do and give you the best percentage they can. word of mouth is a very powerful thing on the forum.

 

[dlb92]

Ok so I have an issue..when I came home the foils were breaking apart floating on top of solution and one of them was turning black, what does that mean?

 

[Barren Realms 007]

You might want to test your solution for vlues if you have stnnous chloride, there is a possability tht with the aamount of solution you are using for your test that some of your gold might get dissolved into your solution. A test of this nature with a smaller amount of solution would work better.

 

[dlb92]

You might want to test your solution for vlues if you have stnnous chloride, there is a possability tht with the aamount of solution you are using for your test that some of your gold might get dissolved into your solution. A test of this nature with a smaller amount of solution would work better.

Since I don't have any tin powder laying around can I put a peice of a tin can into hcl for the stannous chloride?

 

[etack]

when you are on Steve's website check out his de-plating cell videos. This would be done in hours instead of weeks.

fast and simple

Eric