Dear All,
I have been reading the Gold refining handbook (vol. 1) and the more I read the more nervous I get.
Instead of giving a long explanation, I thought it is better to write down what I did and let you comment on it.
The last couple of weeks have not been very good to me. First I had the problem with the crucibles and second, I have an apprentice (for three weeks) who studied jewellery making for three years but does not seem to know what he is doing.
I had to refine gold, so this is what I did so far - I stopped because I do not have enough sodium meta bisulphate to precipitate everything.
The gold is appr. 18 karat (750), containing copper and silver for the rest, nothing else. I inquartated it with copper (I know that silver is better), and made ‘cornflakes’ by casting the alloy in a bucket of water.
I put the flakes in a jar with nitric acid, which I did not dilute (the nitric is 69-70 % pure). I let it work overnight and then I poured the nitric acid of (I saved it because there is some silver in it), I cleaned the brownish mud with distilled water (no boiling, just spraying). I then took a flask, put the mud into it, covered it HCL and added nitric acid (undiluted), until there was a vigorous reaction. I then let the flask stand overnight. The following day, I filtered the solution, using a Buchner funnel, Whatman paper and a vacuum. I then started the precipitation by adding sodium meta bisulphate to the solution - this process was interrupted because I ran out of sodium meta bisulphate. Reading the handbook, I realise that I made a mistake. To begin with, I am pretty sure that I used too much nitric acid to begin with. I also did not neutralise it. I didn’t know one had to neutralise the nitric acid with urea or by heating.
At the moment, all the gold is in one flask. Some of it dropped already. Some of it is still in the solution. How should I proceed now? Should I ignore the nitric acid problem and just go on precipitating with sodium meta bisulphate or should I do something else? If so, what should I do?
Thank you for reading and with best regards,
Will
I have been reading the Gold refining handbook (vol. 1) and the more I read the more nervous I get.
Instead of giving a long explanation, I thought it is better to write down what I did and let you comment on it.
The last couple of weeks have not been very good to me. First I had the problem with the crucibles and second, I have an apprentice (for three weeks) who studied jewellery making for three years but does not seem to know what he is doing.
I had to refine gold, so this is what I did so far - I stopped because I do not have enough sodium meta bisulphate to precipitate everything.
The gold is appr. 18 karat (750), containing copper and silver for the rest, nothing else. I inquartated it with copper (I know that silver is better), and made ‘cornflakes’ by casting the alloy in a bucket of water.
I put the flakes in a jar with nitric acid, which I did not dilute (the nitric is 69-70 % pure). I let it work overnight and then I poured the nitric acid of (I saved it because there is some silver in it), I cleaned the brownish mud with distilled water (no boiling, just spraying). I then took a flask, put the mud into it, covered it HCL and added nitric acid (undiluted), until there was a vigorous reaction. I then let the flask stand overnight. The following day, I filtered the solution, using a Buchner funnel, Whatman paper and a vacuum. I then started the precipitation by adding sodium meta bisulphate to the solution - this process was interrupted because I ran out of sodium meta bisulphate. Reading the handbook, I realise that I made a mistake. To begin with, I am pretty sure that I used too much nitric acid to begin with. I also did not neutralise it. I didn’t know one had to neutralise the nitric acid with urea or by heating.
At the moment, all the gold is in one flask. Some of it dropped already. Some of it is still in the solution. How should I proceed now? Should I ignore the nitric acid problem and just go on precipitating with sodium meta bisulphate or should I do something else? If so, what should I do?
Thank you for reading and with best regards,
Will