Non-Chemical Lesson's Learned

[Damon]

Completed my first gold recovery/refining process of gold fingers using AP and Muriatic/Clorox.

When filtering after precipitation I used two coffee filters. Bad idea. I didn't realize how fine the gold power would be so some of it went right through the filters. I was able to recover it but I'm sure I lost some too.

On melting the powder I used a melting dish and map gas. Should have been OK but after 20 min and the gold not coming together into a button I had to stop and figure out what was going on. After reading some posts I realized that the problem was one of insulation. It's cold out and I just had the melting dish so I ended up with a few scattered flakes rather than a button.

All in all, it was an interesting first run and I look forward to the next.

Damon

 

[Geo]

Where did you learn to filter precipitated gold powder? Filtering the precipitated gold just locks your gold up in the filter. Since gold is 19 times heavier than water, it's really easy to just let the powder settle and decant (pour) the spent solution from the powder without disturbing the fine gold. Normally, once I have precipitated the gold, it never leave the beaker until it has been rinsed and dried and ready to melt. Every time you move gold, either in a liquid or in a solid, you leave some behind. Just the simple act of holding a bar or button leaves gold on your fingers. It's not as dramatic as leaving gold in a filter paper but it does happen.