Non-Chemical I have a 1 kilogram of gold oxide. I was told that after melting/refining it will be 1 ounce

[IsaacUS]

I don't have tools to conduct smelting and whatnot.
I did end up with 1 kilogram of gold powder.
Local refine shop told me that my yield could be 1 ounce after melting. I don't know how he cane up with that.
Makes sense that a lot if the powder will just blow off and not melt but to only 1 ounce?

So experts of gold refining. How can I get a really good yield like minimum of 95% of my 1 kilogram gold oxide?
Also worst case scenario is 1 ounce yield correct?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

How did you come across this 1 kilogram of gold oxide? If you tell us that, we may be able to provide better advice. Note: gold is considered a "noble" metal because it is very resistant to being oxidized.

Dave

 

[IsaacUS]

How did you come across this 1 kilogram of gold oxide? If you tell us that, we may be able to provide better advice. Note: gold is considered a "noble" metal because it is very resistant to being oxidized.

Dave

I got it from junk computer, and old jewelry.
I made sure it was dissolved and purified using Aqua Regia and SMB. I got 1 kg after filtering and drying it.

 

[acpeacemaker]

Just gonna throw this out there.....can we see a couple pics of powders what you're calling an oxide?

 

[anachronism]

How did you come across this 1 kilogram of gold oxide? If you tell us that, we may be able to provide better advice. Note: gold is considered a "noble" metal because it is very resistant to being oxidized.

Dave

Let me rephrase Dave's comment. Gold Oxide- - You're kidding right? 8) 8) 8)

 

[IsaacUS]

It's probably not gold oxide. I'm new to the whole world of refining. I thought all gold powder/dirt is gold oxide

 

[denim]

Perhaps you mean gold chloride, AuCl? If that is really gold chloride, which it looks to be, then you should end up with a bar about 1 kg as well. There will be some losses but not much. Are you sure it is 1 kg powder? Can you show that on a scale?

 

[IsaacUS]

Perhaps you mean gold chloride, AuCl? If that is really gold chloride, which it looks to be, then you should end up with a bar about 1 kg as well. There will be some losses but not much. Are you sure it is 1 kg powder? Can you show that on a scale?

I try and get a pic of that on a scale.
I've been collecting since 2016 so it shouldn't be far fetched.
So gold in this form (powder/dirt) will almost always be gold chloride? Is it the color that determines it? What about gold oxide?

 

[anachronism]

I really hope you've got a kilo of Gold powder. Frankly that would be an awesome start to your journey here. 8)

 

[FrugalRefiner]

How did you come across this 1 kilogram of gold oxide? If you tell us that, we may be able to provide better advice. Note: gold is considered a "noble" metal because it is very resistant to being oxidized.

Dave

I got it from junk computer, and old jewelry.
I made sure it was dissolved and purified using Aqua Regia and SMB. I got 1 kg after filtering and drying it.

If that's the case, then the powder should not be gold oxide, or gold chloride. It is gold. If you melt a kilogram of it you should end up with right around a kilogram of gold.

Dave

 

[Dr.xyz]

Must be a troll. I can not see anyone being that ignorant about what they have or do.

 

[AshesoftheUniverse]

First off. Let's settle this issue of Gold Oxide.
I have a small bottle with about 10 g. of Ventron/Alpha Gold Oxide (Au2o3) in front of me.
It's quite handy stuff for making up qualitative test solutions. It's anhydrous fine powder, dissolves readily in HCL and doesn't look like what the pic shows.
One caution, if you get some and try to drive off the Oxygen by heating it. The Oxygen comes off quite readily, somewhat violently, and the Gold powder goes everywhere. This is from first-hand experience. Luckily the crucible had a cover and the loss was minimal.

 

[niks neims]

I don't have tools to conduct smelting and whatnot.
I did end up with 1 kilogram of gold powder.
Local refine shop told me that my yield could be 1 ounce after melting. I don't know how he cane up with that.
Makes sense that a lot if the powder will just blow off and not melt but to only 1 ounce?

So experts of gold refining. How can I get a really good yield like minimum of 95% of my 1 kilogram gold oxide?
Also worst case scenario is 1 ounce yield correct?

In the unlikely event that you are not a troll (or a scammer?) but genuinely are being serious - get a crucible, oxy-propane torch, a bit of borax and melt a few grams of the powder, take a picture of the resulting bead, also take it to someone with xrf (scrap yards, some universities an scientific centers usually have those) and have them test it, maybe a pawn shop, then go from there - if that really is metallic gold powder (it could be from your description and the picture, albeit a bit dirty judging from the color), then the kilo is worth near 40-50 000 $, so in that case the "local refine shop" is trying to take advantage of you... It would be the unique case of someone with nearly a kilo of gold not knowing exactly what he has...

Another quick test - what happens if you drop a few grams in nitric acid?


Edit:
Also, please follow up on this, otherwise I have this sneaking suspicion that you are pretending and using this forum to try and scam someone here to offer to buy from you this "mystery powder"... I apologize in advance if I turn out to be wrong and you follow up on this...

 

[IsaacUS]

I don't have tools to conduct smelting and whatnot.
I did end up with 1 kilogram of gold powder.
Local refine shop told me that my yield could be 1 ounce after melting. I don't know how he cane up with that.
Makes sense that a lot if the powder will just blow off and not melt but to only 1 ounce?

So experts of gold refining. How can I get a really good yield like minimum of 95% of my 1 kilogram gold oxide?
Also worst case scenario is 1 ounce yield correct?

In the unlikely event that you are not a troll (or a scammer?) but genuinely are being serious - get a crucible, oxy-propane torch, a bit of borax and melt a few grams of the powder, take a picture of the resulting bead, also take it to someone with xrf (scrap yards, some universities an scientific centers usually have those) and have them test it, maybe a pawn shop, then go from there - if that really is metallic gold powder (it could be from your description and the picture, albeit a bit dirty judging from the color), then the kilo is worth near 40-50 000 $, so in that case the "local refine shop" is trying to take advantage of you... It would be the unique case of someone with nearly a kilo of gold not knowing exactly what he has...

Another quick test - what happens if you drop a few grams in nitric acid?


Edit:
Also, please follow up on this, otherwise I have this sneaking suspicion that you are pretending and using this forum to try and scam someone here to offer to buy from you this "mystery powder"... I apologize in advance if I turn out to be wrong and you follow up on this...

I'm not planning to give this to anybody on this forum. Not a troll. I get why you're suspicious though.

I'm gonna get this thing tested before I even take it to the refinery. I might even wait a couple weeks and learn to refine myself. I'm a little bit in a state of shock on how much I potentially have. But be for do let myself down in gonna get this tested to make sure.

I will definitely keep you guys posted. Hopefully I can ask more questions if I have any

 

[jimdoc]

Get a proper melting dish and a mapp torch and try to melt a small sample.

Just look on the forum for tips on melting gold powder.

 

[niks neims]

I'm not planning to give this to anybody on this forum. Not a troll. I get why you're suspicious though.

I'm gonna get this thing tested before I even take it to the refinery. I might even wait a couple weeks and learn to refine myself. I'm a little bit in a state of shock on how much I potentially have. But be for do let myself down in gonna get this tested to make sure.

I will definitely keep you guys posted. Hopefully I can ask more questions if I have any

in that case - good luck!

I'd suggest you start with nitric test:

1. if it is real dried gold powder - it will not dissolve (in fact, it will clean it, removing any impurities), then proceed with melting.. it could dramatically improve the state of your powder if you made some mistake with SMB before and precipitate a lot of copper together with some gold...
2. It could form some gold chloride (so be sure to test the liquid before waste treatment)
3. and if by some miracle you do have gold oxide - wikipedia says it dissolves in nitric... not sure what the result would be, though - probably oxide dissolves and metallic gold precipitates... (see 1.)

Just out of curiosity, what did you do with all the waste you must have generated to accumulate this amount of your powder? and how much and what kind of computer junk and jewelry did you use?

by the way, scrapyards xrf (especially one that takes in catalytic converters) work fine enough on powder also, It won't be precise (purity) but it can give you some rough numbers... just so you don't catch gold fever

 

[Johnny5]

I got it from junk computer, and old jewelry.
I made sure it was dissolved and purified using Aqua Regia and SMB. I got 1 kg after filtering and drying it.

Scammers and dishonesty are not tolerated here. It may have taken me a little longer to discover your mistake, but I knew something wasn't right! You've been reported.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Isaac, why have you posted someone else's picture as though it's your own? I expect an answer!

Dave

 

[niks neims]

Busted!

I got it from junk computer, and old jewelry.
I made sure it was dissolved and purified using Aqua Regia and SMB. I got 1 kg after filtering and drying it.

Scammers and dishonesty are not tolerated here. It may have taken me a little longer to discover your mistake, but I knew something wasn't right! You've been reported.

Good job Johnny! Reverse searched his image? I wish I had thought of that, before giving any advice here...

It better be one heck of an explanation

My bet is on "my powder looks exactly the same, but I don't have a camera, what's the big deal?", Mother-loving scammer...

 

[nickton]

I wonder how many tons of Ewaste you'd need for this. Surely someone can come up with a figure using all our yield data postings. Unbelievable. Maybe I'll try to figure it out.