Little help with my AR Nitric brew

[Cursed]

Ok can anyone tell me how to proceed with my AR Nitric mix. I am sure this is not the normal mix but i have an AR solution which has about 2 gallons of HCL and Sodium nitrate which i used to desolve about 2 pounds of assorted gold pins. These were just a mix of left over pins from chiseling boards clean and not worth the time of trying to sort them given that all the plastic and garbage was already removed. With that solution I also have about a half a dozen ceramic CPU's which had been completely pulverized with the crowns still attached that have been croak potted on high over night in AR and Sodium nitrate. To that i added about 7 grams of not very cleaned gold foils and such from run of boards and fingers i did some time back and i felt still had wo much green flakes and junk in with it as it probably soaked for 6 months before it was filtered. To make it simple on everyone what i have is a nitric acid mix of AR brews. Any suggestions on what to do or not do next now that i have basically have 3 gallons of a nasty solution which for the most part should have a fair amount of gold in it as well as a bunch of stuff i dont want.

 

[nickvc]

Cursed I'll assume all the metals have dissolved in your mix so I think your best option is to heat your solution to remove the excess nitric and then cement your values out on copper sheet,if heating isn't possible urea will probably be your next option. When you have cemented the values out it isn't to hard to then process your values through any of the processes commonly used here on the Forum.

 

[goldenchild]

I will build on what nickvc said. I have a feeling alot of the values already cemented out of your solution and there are plastics and other junk that cant be attacked by acids so... Remove all nitric out of solution preferably by heating. Then FILTER the solution before cementing with copper. Take whats left over in the filters and refine as usual.

Good luck

 

[qst42know]

I suspect the copper bar will eliminate any remaining nitric.

 

[Harold_V]

I suspect the copper bar will eliminate any remaining nitric.

I suspect you're right! 8)

The idea of filtering such material is not good. Rarely will such crap go through a filter without a fight. My personal approach would be to, first, avoid getting in such a position.

Assuming one finds themselves where this reader is, recovering the values should become the primary objective, with no consideration to any remaining solids.

Reason?

Most likely, they have absorbed some of the values, which can be recovered, assuming they are not discarded prematurely.

I would cement the values, then allow everything to settle well. Only then would I begin the process of eliminating the solution, which most likely will not filter. I would decant, then rinse, using tap water, and repeat the process until the rinse water was relatively clear. It would NOT be necessary to eliminate all traces of color at this point, for the material would be subject to further acid washing, which will accomplish the task.

Once the material was reasonably well rinsed, I would then capture all of the solids in a filter. Once filtered, I would then incinerate the material to a red heat, but avoiding melting. That would eliminate any carbonaceous matter, and oxidize base metals that may be present. I would then screen the remaining solids, removing anything that was magnetic, placing such removed matter in the stock pot, to recover any traces of values that may have hitched a ride. The screened solids would then be given a boil in HCl, rinsed, then processed for values by dissolution with the solvent of choice. Mine would have been AR. This solution will filter exceedingly well, thanks to the HCl wash.

Harold