Layers of sludge

[Goldmember123]

Hello Gold refining forum ! i have 3 containers of solution with sludge i let set to the bottom. Now i know im gonna get schooled in this forum because there are some bright minds in here and im an amateur at this ! so i took a pyrex dish set 2 heavy duty beakers inside the pyrex dish, and filled them half way with my gold plated, and karat scrap items but mostly pins from different kinds of electronic devices, and i poored about one cup of hydrochloric acid in each beaker then i slowly added a half cup of nitric acid in both beakers let it cook for about 15 minutes or untill i seen there was no more gold on the pins. I processed about 12 pounds of pins. Then after that i poored the stripped pins out of the beakers into the pyrex dish and diluted it with filtered water.Then i took some tongs and grabbed the pins bunch by bunch and rinsing then off in another pyrex dish with water in it. Then i poored the solution into the containers you see in the pics, and let it settle for a couple days. Now i figured i would carefully scoop the water off with a ladle but now what do i do with my sludge ? and the picture with the red lines on it can someone please tell me what those 4 different layers in the sludge are ?

 

[Goldmember123]

oh hay i forgot i threw about a quarter of smb in each batch to ! now dont ask me why all i can tell you is im really amateur at this, and i just wanted to see what would happen ! I was very careful with each step though, and safety was my top priority !

 

[Goldmember123]

Somebody please respond !!

 

[jimdoc]

Maybe if your top post wasn't one giant paragraph, then maybe someone would take the time to read it. I didn't.

You should be studying the forum while you wait for an answer, and should have been doing so since you joined, to know what you are doing, before you do it.

 

[etack]

You need to put a chunk of Cu in each one set them off to the side for a few months and read this forum.

Eric

 

[galenrog]

Eric’s advice to s the first step in fixing the mess you made.

Here is my bit more of advice: Before beginning any process, write down each step you will take to achieve the desired results, plus the known reactions and expected results are of each step. If known, possible reactions and results from inaction, errors, etc. Add images as appropriate.

If you do not know what is supposed to happen, how can you possibly know when a problem occurs. Oh, and experimenting to see what happens is a good way to die, or worse.

The more you plan ahead, the fewer the problems.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Somebody please respond !!

You made your first post less than 24 hours ago. Many members don't visit the forum every day. I'd recommend a bit of patience. Demanding a response won't get you very far.

Now to your problem. You jumped in too soon, without understanding what process to use for which type of scrap and how the process works.

i took a pyrex dish set 2 heavy duty beakers inside the pyrex dish, and filled them half way with my gold plated, and karat scrap items but mostly pins from different kinds of electronic devices

By combining different types of scrap you complicated the process. Different types of scrap need to be processed by different methods.

i poored about one cup of hydrochloric acid in each beaker then i slowly added a half cup of nitric acid in both beakers let it cook for about 15 minutes or untill i seen there was no more gold on the pins. I processed about 12 pounds of pins.

So you used 2 cups of hydrochloric acid and one cup of nitric acid for 12 pounds of scrap? With the acids you used, you need to dissolve all the metals. That would be a lot of acid. When the visible, shiny gold disappeared off your pins, it was at the same time cementing out on all of the base metals of the pins. Trying to dissolve the gold off the surface of pins just doesn't work. And what happened to the karat scrap?

Then after that i poored the stripped pins out of the beakers into the pyrex dish and diluted it with filtered water.Then i took some tongs and grabbed the pins bunch by bunch and rinsing then off in another pyrex dish with water in it.

Rather than trying to use tongs, it would probably be easier to pour everything through a filter.

Then i poored the solution into the containers you see in the pics, and let it settle for a couple days. Now i figured i would carefully scoop the water off with a ladle but now what do i do with my sludge ? and the picture with the red lines on it can someone please tell me what those 4 different layers in the sludge are ?

I'm sorry, there are so many errors here, and I'm just too tired this evening to try to list them all.

Your gold is probably somewhere with the pins you pulled out, or the sludge.

Dave

 

[nickvc]

As has been pointed out by several members and fully explained by Dave you have made several silly rookie mistakes and created a big toxic mess, you are not the first and unlikely to be the last.
The advice to cement your solutions and place safely away is a good one, also keep all the so called stripped scrap, and spend the time needed to do some reading and research here on the forum to understand what you did wrong and also how to recover any values you had, this may sound harsh but in honesty it’s not, you need to understand any advice we could give and be able to start the processes with full understanding of what’s likely to occur to be able to recover this mess.

 

[Goldmember123]

Thank you guys for all your advice and no i dont think its harsh because i know im a rookie just like i know my punctuation and grammer suck ! Thats why i said i knew i was gonna get schooled the truth is i was anxious to get it done and i rushed in i know mistake and ok read all the ins and outs as far as reading everything there is about the safety of handling nitric hydrochloric and smb i just got impatient and im already learning more thanks to you great guys and i appreciate it ! And to Mr. etack what is Cu ? You said throw Cu in each of them and set them off to the side for a few months ? Please more detail ?

 

[Goldmember123]

Oh one other thing does somebody have a pic of what it looks like when your gold cements back onto base metals im a visual person and im special so i need pictures if nobody has any no big deal everybody have a blessed morning !!!

 

[nickvc]

Cu is the chemical symbol for copper, this should remove any values from your solutions.
Cemented gold can look black to dark brown and can also get covered with other metals so a picture probably won’t help as there can be many variables.
If you have no gold in your solutions then you can be fairly certain it’s cemented onto anything that didn’t dissolve, I’m not sure how much gold you expected or can expect but I’d bet that some if not all is still in that scrap.

 

[Martijn]

If any gold is in solution, filter it first before adding a piece of copper. That way you separate the sludge from any gold instead of mixing it back together.
That was the goal after all.

If there is any black powder on the pins left, that's probably gold. Some of it can stay stuck to the metal pins after rinsing.
What did you do with the rinse water?

A copper chloride leach could clean the brass pins and make the traces of gold powder fall off.

After you've studied the AP process and discussed your intended steps here.

Study dealing with waste, recovery methods and test small samples with known processes to see what problems you encounter.
Once your process is tuned in to your material, process the lot.
Refining is easy if you do your recovery properly. That's the hard part.
The sludge can be tested for gold. Again, small amounts, test tube size. And get stannous chloride to test your solutions.

Martijn.

 

[etack]

If any gold is in solution, filter it first before adding a piece of copper. That way you separate the sludge from any gold instead of mixing it back together.
That was the goal after all.

If there is any black powder on the pins left, that's probably gold. Some of it can stay stuck to the metal pins after rinsing.
What did you do with the rinse water?

A copper chloride leach could clean the brass pins and make the traces of gold powder fall off.

After you've studied the AP process and discussed your intended steps here.

Study dealing with waste, recovery methods and test small samples with known processes to see what problems you encounter.
Once your process is tuned in to your material, process the lot.
Refining is easy if you do your recovery properly. That's the hard part.
The sludge can be tested for gold. Again, small amounts, test tube size. And get stannous chloride to test your solutions.

Martijn.

This might work if he knew all the gold is still in solution. From his description I'm not 100% that is the case.

Eric