I wanted to begin refining some trimmed gold fingers. Got the HCl, and got the wrong peroxide… I used vitality Creme peroxide 6%. Now I’ve got a nice orange sludge foam mess and some dirty HCl. What should I do next and what is this sludge and how should I deal with it.
I messed up duhhh
- Thread starter DJPGold
- Start date
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Martijn
Well-known member
Welcome to the forum.
Assuming you know how to safely deal with chemistry and the waste produced,
Rinse the acid orange sludge from the gold fingers in a strainer. See how much plating is left on them. Decide if it's worth going after the gold in the sludge.
Treat the sludge as waste.
Maybe you can filter and incinerate the creme parts out before going to cementing on copper. Try a little bit first before you light the whole filter! First rinse well to get the acid and metal salts out.
You don't need H2O2 to make AP!
File some copper and let that oxidize well in a wet beaker. Add HCL & done. The first CuCl1 is formed and ready to start the AP process.
Without the risk of dissolving gold in the first stage.
Martijn.
Assuming you know how to safely deal with chemistry and the waste produced,
Rinse the acid orange sludge from the gold fingers in a strainer. See how much plating is left on them. Decide if it's worth going after the gold in the sludge.
Treat the sludge as waste.
Maybe you can filter and incinerate the creme parts out before going to cementing on copper. Try a little bit first before you light the whole filter! First rinse well to get the acid and metal salts out.
You don't need H2O2 to make AP!
File some copper and let that oxidize well in a wet beaker. Add HCL & done. The first CuCl1 is formed and ready to start the AP process.
Without the risk of dissolving gold in the first stage.
Martijn.
I’ll give that a shot. I had a look this morning, some of the gold foils have already been liberated so the solution is still working despite using the wrong peroxide. About 80% of the solution has turned a dark red/orange colour and there’s about an inch of solid orange foam on top.
I’ll probably try and pour off the orange foam and treat it separately from the rest of the gold foils I can isolate. I’m not sure what caused the foam but if anyone knows or wants to know the ingredients in the peroxide let me know please
I’ll probably try and pour off the orange foam and treat it separately from the rest of the gold foils I can isolate. I’m not sure what caused the foam but if anyone knows or wants to know the ingredients in the peroxide let me know please
glorycloud
Well-known member
Try adding some HCL. That may dissolve some of the orange sludge.
