wonderscrap1
Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2014
- Messages
- 6
How to Process ?
- Thread starter wonderscrap1
- Start date
Help Support Gold Refining Forum:
The biggest problem is going to be the cadmium it's not the nicest material to deal with and is extremely toxic. This might well be beyond the hobbyist refiner to work with safely, I could be wrong as I'm not an expert with ores so wait till one of our mining experts comments.
Beware of the cadmium! Do NOT try to melt it!
Everything but the gold should go into solution in nitric acid. You can cement the silver out of solution with copper. Then be sure the waste is handled appropriately. The gold will be left as an undissolved, fine mud. Use the solvent and reducing agent of your choice.
Dave
Everything but the gold should go into solution in nitric acid. You can cement the silver out of solution with copper. Then be sure the waste is handled appropriately. The gold will be left as an undissolved, fine mud. Use the solvent and reducing agent of your choice.
Dave
Please don't double post! It's against forum rules because now you have two different answers in two different threads.
Dave
Dave
wonderscrap1 said:
That can't be correct, I can see rocks with some sulfides in them. There should be a lot of Si, O, Fe, Al, Ca, Mg, .... and so on that makes up the non-metallic part of the rocks, the sulfides should contain S too. Your numbers add up to 98.88% and that would be a large piece of metal.
If you want to treat rocks with precious metals in them chemically then you would need to know what the chemistry of the whole rock is.
My best advice is to pulverize it and pan it to get a concentrate.
Göran
rickbb
Well-known member
Cadmium = danger!
You will some expert advise and maybe even send it to someone with the proper setup to process this.
You will some expert advise and maybe even send it to someone with the proper setup to process this.
It may not be rocks. It may be some sludge or other material that has been dried. Maybe wonderscrap1 can answer this question.g_axelsson said:
You are correct, maybe it isn't rocks.goldsilverpro said:
Theoretically, if the analyze is correct I would treat it with nitric acid first to get everything but the gold out and filter.
The liquid goes to cementing out the silver with copper.
The solids goes to treatment with AR and then after filtering precipitate the gold any standard way.
The biggest problem though is the toxicity of the cadmium and that has to be solved before any experimentation. There is a reason there are high penalties from refineries when the source material contains cadmium. Cadmium nitrate is really nasty, it can be absorbed through the skin and attacks the kidneys among other thing. In higher doses it's lethal. If it becomes air born it is dangerous to life at a concentration of 9 mg/m3 and it accumulates in the body. As for ingestion, 10-20 mg might be fatal!.
http://www.anachemia.com/msds/english/1917.pdf
Any acid digestion would create small bubbles that breaks and creates air borne particles.
I think I would pass this material if I was offered it. At least until I have a proper lab built to deal with nasty stuff like this.
Göran
NobleMetalWorks
Well-known member
HNO3, and then precipitate the Cadmium as an insoluble salt, for example Cadmium Hydroxide. In this way you can filter off the cadmium, and retain in a form that is safer. But there is far more you should consider prior to attempting any processing of material like this. Things like what metals you should precipitate, in what order using what precipitants. How to prevent drag-down or co-precipitation, etc.
You might want to familiarize yourself with "precipitation reactions", "metal cations", "cadmium nitrate" etc. Before attempting any reaction that involves cadmium, you would be well served understanding the chemistry behind it, conducting familiarity tests on a small scale prior to attempting actual processing.
There is no way to tell how much you do or do not know. So giving too much information in these types of situations could lead someone to attempt something they should not, and end very badly indeed.
As everyone else has stated, do not attempt to melt the cadmium. And if I were you, I would send it in to someone for processing, who can handle the cadmium appropriately as has already been suggested.
Scott
You might want to familiarize yourself with "precipitation reactions", "metal cations", "cadmium nitrate" etc. Before attempting any reaction that involves cadmium, you would be well served understanding the chemistry behind it, conducting familiarity tests on a small scale prior to attempting actual processing.
There is no way to tell how much you do or do not know. So giving too much information in these types of situations could lead someone to attempt something they should not, and end very badly indeed.
As everyone else has stated, do not attempt to melt the cadmium. And if I were you, I would send it in to someone for processing, who can handle the cadmium appropriately as has already been suggested.
Scott
