Left over gold in process

[kmann1969]

Hello!! I buy quite a bit of diamond bearing jewelry and it was a real headache to remove the stones so thats why i Learned from this forum how to refine them out.I dont inquart because it damages the diamonds. I have a question, i always end up with a grey powder left over from the refining and now i probably have a couple pounds of it, its mostly silver, but i have tested it with a xrf and it seams to contain about 1-3% gold. What would be the best way to recover the gold? I know it can be explosive if not done right. Thanks

 

[FrugalRefiner]

When you say explosive, I assume you're referring to using ammonia to dissolve the silver chloride. The important point is to promptly reacidify the silver/ammonia solution. HCl will precipitate the silver chloride again, and you can then treat it by any of the normal methods. Just don't leave the silver/ammonia solution sitting around and NEVER let it dry.

Thiosulfate will also dissolve the silver chloride without the dangers of ammonia. I haven't personally had the chance to try the method, but it's pretty well discussed here as well.

Dave

 

[snoman701]

Sodium thiosulphate. Add to rinsed AgCl and tumble to keep it stirring.

After the thiosulphate dissolves the AgCl, you may have gold remaining in the liquor to be filtered. Add degreased steel wool to thiosulphate leach to cement gold and silver that was dissolved. Melt with nitre and borax. Make sure to assay the silver for gold.

Now that that is done, pay someone like lou to teach you to do stone removal so you are less likely to leave gold in your AgCl. Your customers will appreciate it, if you are offering this service to others.




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[snoman701]

Oh, I hope you didn't let the AgCl dry...never let AgCl dry. You can keep it wet in a bucket indefinitely.


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[Lino1406]

Thiosulfate may join with oxygen and that can also attack gold
2Au + 4S2O3= + 1/2O2 + 2H+ = 2Au(S2O3)2--- +H2O

 

[nickvc]

Do yo do any non stone set jewellery because if you do you could convert all that silver chloride into metallic silver by the method of your choice and use it for inquarting your karat scrap, that way you recover your gold as you process the scrap and the silver can be recovered from the solution by cementing with copper.