how to recover my gold foils after ap?

[artart47]

Hey Claudie!
No, the button 21 grams is not from the small bach of fingers. It's from the origonal fingers and stuff I began when I first came here and started learning! (when I began this thread. It was like 15lbs of fingers, a little from AP'ing small cable ends, flash from some cell boards and processing thewaste bucket.
I was so excited finally holding my gold from all that early effort I had to post it!
I put in the post that I was taking a "one post departure" from the finger project.
feels great
artart47

 

[Claudie]

Ah, got my hopes all up thinking there may be 20 grams of Gold in a pound of fingers. This may take me a while to recoup from.
All joking aside, it looks like you did a great job on that Gold. It always feels good to hold that Gold in your hand, knowing that you got it a spec at a time from junk other people throw away, but let it cool first! :shock:

 

[artart47]

For sure!

 

[artart47]

Hey everyone!
Juat had the guy at the computer store take a better picture that you can actually see!

 

[maynman1751]

That's a $1000+ piece of shine you got there! Sweeet! :mrgreen:

 

[Barren Realms 007]

You can see the pipe in the picture, that speaks volumes. Good job.

 

[Geo]

very nice. is that small drops of borax on the bottom? if it is, drop it in some diluted sulfuric acid and give it a quick boil. it will do nothing to the gold and wont dull the shine a bit but it will take off the excess borax.

 

[artart47]

Hey Geo!
Thanks everyone for the compliments! It's been along time comming . I can't stop this grin.
Yeah! there are a few beads of borax on the bottom. there are two holes on the bottom and the light from inside is like fire red! is that from the gold or is there something in there?
And, man! I can't thank everyone enough!
artart47

 

[Geo]

nothing in there but more gold. the luster and the pipe is a good indicator of high purity gold.

 

[Harold_V]

there are two holes on the bottom and the light from inside is like fire red! is that from the gold or is there something in there?

There's nothing quite as pretty as light bouncing from one gold surface to another. That's all you're seeing. The color is enhanced.

Very well done, artart.

Not being critical of your accomplishment, but the traces of borax indicate you had some copper present when you melted the gold. A little better washing might help in the future.

One piece of advice I would like to offer when washing gold. Do not wash by the clock. The notion that you can wash for a given period of time is not true. Some batches will be well washed in a couple minutes, while others may require 15 minutes of hard boiling, and even that may not be totally effective. It is the washing process that will eliminate traces of unwanted base metals. When melting your gold, the flux coating in the dish, and any that may adhere to the button, should be absent of color. The only exception is if the color is purple or pink, obvious signs of colloidal gold.

Harold

 

[artart47]

Hi Herold!
Thanks! You're right, I could increase the amount of time that it boils, they were short. From your experience, are there things you use to determine if it needs to boil longer or not?
Color... There is a purple stain in the borax coating of the melting dish ( dish is new) and the beads in the bottom of the gold have a bluish toward lavender color.
Thancks for everything, Herold.
artart47

 

[kuma]

Hi Artart , how are tricks?
I hope you're well!
If I may , just to make a couple of things clear to any other *noobs reading this , :roll:

The fingers are a fiberglass or resin board that has copper laid over it and the gold foils are plated onto the copper.

Even though it's probably not too too relevant , I feel the need to point out that Nickel was also present.
As you may already know but may have forgotten about , Nickel is present as a thin barrier to prevent gold from migrating into the copper surface underneath.
I think it's worth knowing this as nickel can affect the colour of solutions , this could help in identifying base metal contaminants in solution.
For refference (Wiki) ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_chemicals#Ions_in_aqueous_solution

There is gold and only one other base metal.

Gold is a Noble Metal , and not a base metal.
I would like to finish by saying that your button is simply stunning , very nice work chief! 8)
All the best for now , and kind regards ,
Chris :mrgreen:

 

[Harold_V]

Hi Herold!
Thanks! You're right, I could increase the amount of time that it boils, they were short. From your experience, are there things you use to determine if it needs to boil longer or not?

Yes! Two things. The first one is the constantly darkening of the solution, along with the lightening color of the gold. (Typically the gold is quite dark after precipitation, and gets lighter in color as it is well washed).

The other is how it clumps up, but that can be deceiving, too. I had batches that simply would not clump up, in spite of careful washing. They usually came from dirty solutions, and precipitated in very fine particles. Never when re-refining, however.

When I had batches that were questionable, the final wash told the tale. Often, the second wash (ammonium hydroxide) would liberate substances that had refused to wash out. You could see a distinct color change in both the gold and the solution. The follow-up wash in HCl (the third wash) would yield a little color once again. If you have doubts, wash until the addition of a little HCl after the previous rinse (with water) doesn't result in a color change of the solution. Then, and only then, can you be assured that you have removed everything that can be washed out. If you wash by the clock, guaranteed, you won't achieve that goal in many cases.

Note, too, that because nothing more washes out doesn't mean the gold is pure. It simply means that everything that is easy to remove has been removed. Often, when you re-dissolve the gold, you'll see contamination remaining in the barren solution (after precipitation). It is for that reason I started double refining all of my gold. The improvement in quality was quite noticeable. My gold would melt without oxides forming on the surface, so it remained bright when it cooled. If it does not, it's contaminated.

Harold

 

[artart47]

Hi everyone!
Had one of those times where life just snows you under with work, things that must be done,responsibilities etc... There's five of us. They depend on me! I gotta make it happen! Not enough hours in the week! (swimming pool season) One of the jobs I do.
I'll be back soon! The foils are sitting in HCl on a shelf where they can watch Simpsons & Family Guy!
Just wanted to let everyone know I'm ok and miss being involved!
Later! My friends.
artart47

 

[Geo]

hurry back. 8)