I accidently added aluminum instead of copper.

[swarook]

So im entirely new to everything gold and kinda threw myself in the deep end i think.
I bought a half oz of pure gold and planned on making it into rose gold. I added copper wire and silver and threw it in the furnace.
At the end I had some molten metal and lots of lumpy messy crap.
Turns out I had copper plated aluminum wire and Im an idiot.
I have a half ass lump of what might be purple gold stuck in the bottom of my tiny crucible and a bunch of it in bits with slag i've managed to break out.
How can i get my gold back lol?
I am laughing but that's cause im freaking out LMAO.

 

[olawlor]

Which flux and torch did you use? If you didn't get good fusion, using more and better flux and a hotter torch will often help get there.

If you hit copper with a torch, I've seen the oxides look red, black, green, or somewhere in between. Fine aluminum at gold/copper temperatures often will just turn into aluminum oxide (hard-to-melt slag, best case is a powder, worst case is a cage locking up values), which may require an aggressive fluoride flux.

 

[swarook]

i used borax. it all turned to a powder and slag. some aluminum absorbed into the gold because its purple.

 

[swarook]

Oh and i didnt use a torch i used this
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JX2GNDV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

 

[swarook]

Also Also I dont want to finish fusing the emtal I wanna extract the pure gold back out and try again.

 

[nickvc]

The bad news is you are going to have to refine your gold to remove the aluminum, the good news is you can go straight to AR as there is no silver to cause problems.
If you have no idea of what I’m talking about let us know and we can guide you through what you need to do.

 

[swarook]

I have no idea what you're talking about im so sorry. There is a tiny bit of silver in it tho.
I was trying to make rose gold. The ratio I was using was
58.30% 24k yellow gold, 33.5% copper and 8.20% percent silver
I has 15.5 grams of gold so i did 2.2 grams of silver and 8.9 grams of what i thought was copper.

 

[richiii1]

I just learned so much from you. I didn't even expect

 

[nickvc]

Because you have added aluminum you are going to have to dissolve your now alloyed metal to remove it as it will cause major problems if you try to roll or bend it .
Unfortunately you can’t use just nitric to dissolve the base metals and silver as aluminum will not dissolve in it so you will have to make Aqua Regia which is a mix of HCl and nitric added as required which will dissolve the gold copper and aluminum but leave silver as a chloride, this reaction will fume with toxic gases so do it outside with the wind at your back, you then need to filter the solution to remove the silver and any other debris and precipitate with copperas smb or ascorbic which will drop your gold back out of solution as a fine brown powder which you can rinse and melt back into a metallic bar.
The other way might be to cupel the alloy but I’m no expert on that method maybe those who are can advise.

 

[swarook]

Because you have added aluminum you are going to have to dissolve your now alloyed metal to remove it as it will cause major problems if you try to roll or bend it .
Unfortunately you can’t use just nitric to dissolve the base metals and silver as aluminum will not dissolve in it so you will have to make Aqua Regia which is a mix of HCl and nitric added as required which will dissolve the gold copper and aluminum but leave silver as a chloride, this reaction will fume with toxic gases so do it outside with the wind at your back, you then need to filter the solution to remove the silver and any other debris and precipitate with copperas smb or ascorbic which will drop your gold back out of solution as a fine brown powder which you can rinse and melt back into a metallic bar.
The other way might be to cupel the alloy but I’m no expert on that method maybe those who are can advise.

Thank you!
That is very helpful. I will have to do this.
I also ran into this video yesterday oddly enough.
What do you think about this? Would it be possible to turn the gold into a powder/duct and do this to just remove the aluminum?

 

[aeytr]

As i understand you make 12k gold. You need to remove base metals via nitric acid. But you have to make your gold ~6k.

- Add equal amount of silver or copper. its gonna give you 6k gold. this process called inquartation. Silver is the best option. Then pour your melted metal into water for making granules. It will increase surface area.
- make a dilute nitric acid. 250 ml %67 nitric and 250 ml water. if you cant get distilled water you can use tap water. 500 ml should be enough.
- put your granules into a beaker. add 100 ml dilute nitric acid and give some heat. When fumes disappear add 100 ml nitric again. make this process untill when you add fresh nitric acid into solution and got no fumes.
- pour liquid to temporary container.
- boil remaining residues with dilute nitric acid until you get clear nitric boil.
- Rest of the residues is your gold. You can wash and melt it. But if you want to make pure you need to dissolve your gold in AR and precipitate with smb.
- you can recover your silver from dilute nitric acid with hcl way or cementing with copper.

make this operation in fume hood or outside.

I forgot the mention you can watch sreetips Gold Filled Scrap Refining videos.

 

[Martijn]

Thank you!
That is very helpful. I will have to do this.
I also ran into this video yesterday oddly enough.
What do you think about this? Would it be possible to turn the gold into a powder/duct and do this to just remove the aluminum?

Before you do anything, understand the proper way to handle these chemicals, toxic metal salts in solution and the dangers of the reactions and processes needed to get pure gold back from this.

Not an afternoon backyard project!

This refining buisiness is seriously dangerous and produces toxic waste that needs to be handled with care.

If you do choose to refine it yourself, study hard and discuss here whatever you want to do to get the gold back out.
Before you go and buy chemicals.
Letting someone else do it might be your best option.
Bith options will cost time and money.

As nickvc pointed out you've made quite a mess and needs special treatment that is out of the box for most members here.
We keep aluminum out of the mix whenever we can.

Martijn.

 

[swarook]

Before you do anything, understand the proper way to handle these chemicals, toxic metal salts in solution and the dangers of the reactions and processes needed to get pure gold back from this.

Not an afternoon backyard project!

This refining buisiness is seriously dangerous and produces toxic waste that needs to be handled with care.

If you do choose to refine it yourself, study hard and discuss here whatever you want to do to get the gold back out.
Before you go and buy chemicals.
Letting someone else do it might be your best option.
Bith options will cost time and money.

As nickvc pointed out you've made quite a mess and needs special treatment that is out of the box for most members here.
We keep aluminum out of the mix whenever we can.

Martijn.

Taking caution is always good advice.
Ill get it handled when i have looked into it enough.

 

[olawlor]

If they're still mostly separate chunks of metal, you could also dissolve out the aluminum and alumina with a strong base, like sodium hydroxide. A base solution won't touch the precious metals, which might then be refineable with a simpler approach.

Safety and disposal are definitely still issues with base solutions, just like with acids.

 

[nickvc]

If they're still mostly separate chunks of metal, you could also dissolve out the aluminum and alumina with a strong base, like sodium hydroxide. A base solution won't touch the precious metals, which might then be refineable with a simpler approach.

Safety and disposal are definitely still issues with base solutions, just like with acids.

The material has been melted to form an alloy hence the suggestion to dissolve ball the metals apart from the silver in AR.