How to recover gold from large pieces of metal?

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US Plastics has several poly tank choices not just on this page. You should be able to find one that just fits.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23689&catid=835
 
The plating looks extremly thin to me. Sorry, dont want to upset you.
So one "quick and dirty" though that came to my mind was to passivate the parts that have no gold plating by painting them with an acid resistant paint, then paint the golden areas with HCl and rinse them with Chlorox. I know that hurts in they eyes and minds of a solid refinder, but if you are lucky and the rinse is fast enough you may get the plating down and recover it in a large plastic box etc.
While dripping down the solution may cement back, so you should hold the piece upright and go from top down to bottom. No need to say it has to be done outside and it will cause ugly fumes that need to be avoided, but if I am not wrong this plating is way to thin to be processed in a conventional way at an economic scale.
Just my two cents...
Marcel
 
qst42know said:
US Plastics has several poly tank choices not just on this page. You should be able to find one that just fits.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23689&catid=835
Click to expand...

You're in Toledo? Ironically, that's where all this came from.
 
Marcel said:
The plating looks extremly thin to me. Sorry, dont want to upset you.
So one "quick and dirty" though that came to my mind was to passivate the parts that have no gold plating by painting them with an acid resistant paint, then paint the golden areas with HCl and rinse them with Chlorox. I know that hurts in they eyes and minds of a solid refinder, but if you are lucky and the rinse is fast enough you may get the plating down and recover it in a large plastic box etc.
While dripping down the solution may cement back, so you should hold the piece upright and go from top down to bottom. No need to say it has to be done outside and it will cause ugly fumes that need to be avoided, but if I am not wrong this plating is way to thin to be processed in a conventional way at an economic scale.
Just my two cents...
Marcel
Click to expand...

Everything was covered to varying degrees of thickness. Others have already scraped off anything big, now I have the chore of getting what's left. Over 150 ounces has already been recovered. Surely there's an ounce or two left.
 
JustRandy said:
Marcel said:
Just grind the gold down and process the powder. Why all the trouble?
Click to expand...

Yes I just thought of that last night. So that was my next question... Can I sand it with sandpaper and use my gold pan and some water?
Click to expand...
You could do that to recover the gold, but it will still be mixed with various base metals and needs to be refined. I wouldn't use a gold pan as the dust from grinding would be very fine. You could possibly remove plastic and other dust that might be mixed in with the metal in the pan but you can't separate the gold from the base metals.
I recommend incineration and then refining via some of the methods on the forum.

/Göran
 

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