Info on Cell solution

[heirloomreplacement]

Hello All
First I must say being a newbe to the recovery game, I am very happy to have found this site.
I have spent a lot of time over the past year trying to learn about recovery and refining and never came acrossed this site until tonight> LOL

anyway> My question tonight is this> I have a crude cell using sulfuric acid ( Virgin drain cleaner) and Glycerin ( laxitive)
and after stripping My plated parts ( ring, pins, etc)>
I smelted a good size bead of gold 3.2 grams>
after this I made a Nitric solution from battery acid ( new clean) and Potasium Nitrate( saltpetra) and heated it to 150
I hammered My Bead flat and dropped it the Nitric solution for 2 hours.
The good news is when finnished it was still 3.2 grams ( smile)

So I think I got all that going correctly????

Now what I need to know is can I drop anything else out of the sulfuric acid? I still have the solution as I used filters to gather the gold.

Or is it junk to be boiled down or neutralized?

Thanks and I'm sure I will have many more questions

Jim

 

[lazersteve]

Jim,

Welcome to the forum.

The black powder from the cell is much easier to clean before it is melted. My original videos didn't mention this as I was not redissolving the black powder before melting it back then. Just redissolve the powder in HCl-Cl and drop with SMB, then wash as usual. It will surprise you what remains undissolved after this process.

Your nitric method may be flawed in that the gold percentage is high enough that the gold is actually protecting the base metals and silver in the alloy from being attacked by the nitric. The accuracy of your scales can also deceive you if the amount of weight change is small.

I'm glad the cell is working for you.

Steve

 

[aflacglobal]

Now what I need to know is can I drop anything else out of the sulfuric acid?

Sit the sulfuric acid cell (with the lid on) in the fridge or outside where the temp is cold 40-50 deg. Anything left in the acid should drop out. You will probaly be left with about 5-6 % base metals in the acid most likely copper.[/quote]

 

[heirloomreplacement]

At the risk of sound very ignorant, which of course I am> (smile)

I am very willing to work with perfecting method, However I have no clue what I am making > HCL + CL
I don't read that as a weak AR or is it?
Ok so I Have Muriatic and Bleach> and if I read this right that's what I need?

But at this point My eyes are burning trying to find proper mix ratios Nor do I seem to find out what I am making.

so at this point a link or more info would be very welcome> (smile)

also I believe SMB = Sodium metabisulfite? and is used to drop out gold from AR
I don't have this > can I use something else or can I get this at Home depot or someplace without ordering it?

My goal here is to be able to Kitchen cook what I need using common products I can aquire with ease.


I know for the pro's in this field this may sound a bit off.
But I am in the learning stage and trying to keep costs down and safety minded at the same time.

any info on the above mix ratios and solutions to gather the products would be very welcome

Thanks for the info
Jim

 

[lazersteve]

Jim,

Here's the 1 cent guided tour:

Guided Tour

The answers to all of your questions and more are in there.

The point of mixing Muriatic Acid and Bleach is to produce Chlorine gas in solution which will dissolve gold foils and powder into a nice yellow auric chloride solution. Add the bleach in small doses until all of the gold foils are dissolved. Too much bleach too fast and you will make more chlorine gas than the liquid can hold which defeats the purpose: to dissolve the gold. When the gold is all dissolved the reaction is done, stop adding bleach. Several videos on my web site http://www.goldrecovery.us detail this process.

If your eyes are burning you need to setup outside and add your bleach in smaller doses and slower. You are not trying to make a cloud of chlorine gas, but a solution of chlorine dissolved in muriatic acid. The chlorine dissolved in the liquid in turn changes the gold from a foil/powder into a liquid.

SMB is easily purchased from http://www.thechemistrystore.com .

Steve

 

[heirloomreplacement]

Steve

Please accept a warm Thanks from this humble Newbe

The link to the 1 cent tour is Priceless to a Guy like me ( smile)
and thanks for the info you supplied.

I found the mix ratios and all the insite I needed to continue my mission. :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

with winter bearing down on me> I also found some great info on hoods for me to have inside space to work.

I'm ever thankfull for all the advise
JIM