Im new to gold refining

[dark_yami1]

Im new to doing this, but so far i got the gold plating off the phones and off some contacts on motheroard. And some "black stuff" formed. I attached the Gold plated stuff to the anode and from reading different stuff, i decided to attach some stainless still to the cathode. All the gold plating turned black and left the metal it was on, which seem like cooper, and went to the cathode. now there is alot of build up there, with the black stuff, which i would assume is gold from reading different post. My now is, what steps do i take to remove the gold from this black stuff?

The materials i used were:

Vinegar,

Salt,

18.5 volt, 3,5 Amp laptop chager

different gold plated things on motherboard that connected components.

All advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[butcher]

First you should search forum in book section or under some of members posts for HOKE'S book, read it for an understanding of how to deal with these metals and most any problem you may run into.

I would depending if any solder was involved (if solder in this case incinerate powders first wash in hot HCl, rinse with water allowing powder to settle each time test solutions for gold with stannous chloride, incinerate powders to remove chlorides for nitric step ),

if no solder
35% nitric acid will clean the powders of silver and base metals, let settle, decant solution, now you can use aqua regia, to dissolve the powders, using evaporation technique to remove nitric from solution then precipitate the gold,

there are other ways to do this also.

If this was just a small amount of powders just save them dry in a jar, until you get enough to process, gold has a way of looking like there is more there than there is in reality.

reading Hoke's book should be your number one priority, it will give you much more than you can get from messing around with tiny amounts of messy solutions wondering where your gold is at. Hoke's book will be the map to that lost gold mine you are seeking.