I used concentrated citric acid and boiled contaminated flux crucibles. It produced a clear yellow fluid. Is it the gold

[Mountain Man]

I used concentrated citric acid and boiled contaminated flux crucibles. It produced a clear yellow fluid. Is it the gold? If it is, how can I precipitate it out?

 

[anachronism]

The first question I would ask is whether you have Stannous Chloride to test the solution. That will tell you in 5 seconds whether you have gold or not.

Welcome to the forum.

Jon

 

[Mountain Man]

Thank You Jon, I am happy to be here. I am going to test it right now. I will let you know what I find. Thanks again.

 

[Mountain Man]

Hey Jon,

I did the test and it is showing small amounts of gold. Should I now precipitate the gold like I would out of Aqua Regia or is there a different method since it is concentrated Citric Acid and water? Thanks for your help.

 

[kernels]

It would be quite interesting to see some pics of the SC test result, beware that SC is very sensitive, and what looks like a positive result may be practically no Gold once precipitated. Lino is a user that seems to be quite knowledgeable about getting Gold out of various solutions, he may be able to advise.

 

[nickvc]

Why on earth would citric acid alone dissolve gold, chances are that the color comes from the dissolved flux and base metal oxides, any gold encapsulated in the flux should be in the bottom of the beaker if all the flux has been dissolved or dislodged.

 

[Mountain Man]

That's what I thought too. I redid the SC test and if there is any dissolved gold it is in trace amounts only. There was gold trapped in the flux and is likely still there in the bottom of the container waiting to be recovered. That brings me to my next question. I have 3 batches with considerable gold in them. I did small text melting on each and they all came up contaminated. One is brown, one is berry red, and one is green. I know the green must be copper, or likely. The brown I would guess is base metals. The berry red is a mystery to me. My thoughts are to redissolve the batches in AR and remove the base metals and copper again but I am not sure what to do on the berry red one. I also am wondering if the borax will be a problem when I redissolve. Any suggestions from you pro's? I bought the Hoke book and have been studying my butt off but this is not as easy as it would seem. Eager to learn and have been paying lots of due's. Ready to have some success.

 

[Lino1406]

Red is copper or iron. Get rid of the borax with methods presented in the forum. Mix with HNO3, then rinse well, then boil in HCl

 

[Mountain Man]

Thank You for the help. It is greatly appreciated.

 

[goldsilverpro]

I have doubts that the citric acid dissolved any gold at all. What on earth compelled you to use citric acid in the first place? Did the test show purple or black (actually, very dark purple)?