Inquarting (sp?) gold with copper for double refining?

[Brett Novak]

HI folks

I have plenty of copper (pounds of pure copper) on hand, about 7 oz of refined / extracted gold in solid form, but limited silver.

I'm wondering, is it possible to use copper instead of silver to inquart (how ever it's spelled?) and then re-dissolve in AR to purify, or is it just too much of a PITA requiring too much AR?

What about lead? I know it has a bad name but I've got 10#'s of that too. Figuring aluminum is not an option

just looking for alternatives before I dig into my heritage jewelry LOL

Thanks in advance!
BN

 

[Akragon]

HI folks

I have plenty of copper (pounds of pure copper) on hand, about 7 oz of refined / extracted gold in solid form, but limited silver.

I'm wondering, is it possible to use copper instead of silver to inquart (how ever it's spelled?) and then re-dissolve in AR to purify, or is it just too much of a PITA requiring too much AR?

What about lead? I know it has a bad name but I've got 10#'s of that too. Figuring aluminum is not an option

just looking for alternatives before I dig into my heritage jewelry LOL

Thanks in advance!
BN

you can totally use copper for inquartation

 

[Brett Novak]

Thanks Akragon - any idea on the %'s ?

 

[Akragon]

Thanks Akragon - any idea on the %'s ?

For 10k gold .63
14k gold 1.265
18k gold 1.9
try to go a little over... never under

 

[Brett Novak]

Ok thanks! I think I'm hovering around 20K, but no matter - I can go 2x without any issues.

But wait - wouldn't I use LESS copper for 18K vs 10K? Or does it not matter and just go 1.26

 

[Akragon]

Ok thanks! I think I'm hovering around 20K, but no matter - I can go 2x without any issues.

But wait - wouldn't I use LESS copper for 18K vs 10K? Or does it not matter and just go 1.26

no you want a lot more.... You're trying to get the karat to about 6%... You'll need almost double the copper compared to gold quantity

 

[Yggdrasil]

HI folks

I have plenty of copper (pounds of pure copper) on hand, about 7 oz of refined / extracted gold in solid form, but limited silver.

I'm wondering, is it possible to use copper instead of silver to inquart (how ever it's spelled?) and then re-dissolve in AR to purify, or is it just too much of a PITA requiring too much AR?

What about lead? I know it has a bad name but I've got 10#'s of that too. Figuring aluminum is not an option

just looking for alternatives before I dig into my heritage jewelry LOL

Thanks in advance!
BN

Copper needs 4 times the amount of Nitric to part it.
And you need to part it before going to AR.

 

[Brett Novak]

Yggdrasil....thank you sir as usuall...but

Sorry not following you but that's not hard

so 1oz gold to 4oz copper? Sorry to sound dumb. inquart 4oz copper to 1oz gold, so in my case let's say 24oz copper to 6oz gold. No problem there.

But it'm really following you, I don't remember the nitric acid to copper vs silver...sorry.. it will take 4x the nitric?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Yggdrasil....thank you sir as usuall...but

Sorry not following you but that's not hard

so 1oz gold to 4oz copper? Sorry to sound dumb. inquart 4oz copper to 1oz gold, so in my case let's say 24oz copper to 6oz gold. No problem there.

But it'm really following you, I don't remember the nitric acid to copper vs silver...sorry.. it will take 4x the nitric?

No, you need to calculate so the Gokd is about 25% ie 6 karat, then you can part that in Nitric which dissolve all bade metals si the Gold is left.
Then you refine the Gold.
This is over simplified of course.
1 g of Silver needs one ml of Nitric to dissolve, Copper needs 4 ml.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Yggdrasil....thank you sir as usuall...but

Sorry not following you but that's not hard

so 1oz gold to 4oz copper? Sorry to sound dumb. inquart 4oz copper to 1oz gold, so in my case let's say 24oz copper to 6oz gold. No problem there.

But it'm really following you, I don't remember the nitric acid to copper vs silver...sorry.. it will take 4x the nitric?

6 karat needs nothing
9 karats need a little and so on.
There are calculators for this on the forum.

 

[Brett Novak]

Thank you sir!

 

[billgold]

If I recall correctly Kadriver (sreetips on youtube) has a video where he inquarted his karat gold with copper.

 

[FigiMon]

Ok thanks! I think I'm hovering around 20K, but no matter - I can go 2x without any issues.

But wait - wouldn't I use LESS copper for 18K vs 10K? Or does it not matter and just go 1.26

If you have 20K gold you can skip the inquarting and go straight to aqua regia. Just roll the pieces as flat as you can and use excess HCl. I do it with 18K scrap all the time.

 

[4metals]

While copper is a viable option for inquarting, it eats up a lot of nitric in the process.(as has been pointed out already on this thread) After years of hearing what a lot of members here pay for nitric acid and how difficult it may be to obtain, Silver becomes a better choice. Plus the Silver is 100% recoverable and re-usable for future inquartation.

As mentioned (and to use even less nitric) if the Silver content of the alloy is under 7%, the use of straight aqua regia will dissolve the material effectively as the Silver Chloride will not be thick enough to coat over the Gold to the point where it stops the reaction. Agitation helps as well, as the soft Silver Chloride will break off exposing the encrusted gold (reactors that tumble claim effective dissolution with Silver content as high as 10%).