Goldenrod757
Active member
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2012
- Messages
- 26
Hi let me say a big hello to all the refiners out there. This is my first post.
I have been visiting the forum occasionally and picked up a few very useful tips. i was led here while doing other searches for info. This forum is obviously a huge resource that will take much time to utilise.
Im a new refiner working with jeweler's scrap so far. Polishings and sometimes floor sweepings. Im just completing only my third one. I found that floor sweepings appear too create some complications but iv recovered a fair amount of stuff each time.
Ive been using nitric bath to remove silver and copper, followed by water wash, second nitric bath and then AR. My second refining contained a sizable amt of gravel/dirt and it treated it with NaOH first followed by the aforementioned process. My 3 attempt i omitted the NaOH step.
From experimentation with my first batch i split the majority of the dissolved metals in two and neutralized half with urea and the other i boiled to almosts dryness which caused some of the gold to appear. Both were precipitated with SMB sol. The urea step was very indistinct and produced slightly less gold and came out somewhat dirty with a chocolate coating on one side of the stuff. Later i got the missing 4 grams that i expected with came out on the container i left the soloution in . The dried down portion produced a light brown powder with gold showing also. Iv concluded i prefer the boiling step. I the urea probably created some contamination as it was fertilizer grade.
The last two refinements both contained a reddish brown residue that spat and accumulated on the side of the beaker as the liquid got thick. I tried to separate it from the yellow stuff where possible. I have not tested it but think it may be palladium or rhodium chloride. It is soluble in HCL.I will attempt to post a pic of it. Can anyone say what that is? Where iv found white insoluble crystals (11grams collected and stored) i suspect silver chloride. But i see a white soluble powder in the third refining . If the dark brown/black stuff is not gold chloride decomposing, how should i separate this impurity.
Btw my first recovery was 5 grams of wonderful soft hi purity gold.
I have been visiting the forum occasionally and picked up a few very useful tips. i was led here while doing other searches for info. This forum is obviously a huge resource that will take much time to utilise.
Im a new refiner working with jeweler's scrap so far. Polishings and sometimes floor sweepings. Im just completing only my third one. I found that floor sweepings appear too create some complications but iv recovered a fair amount of stuff each time.
Ive been using nitric bath to remove silver and copper, followed by water wash, second nitric bath and then AR. My second refining contained a sizable amt of gravel/dirt and it treated it with NaOH first followed by the aforementioned process. My 3 attempt i omitted the NaOH step.
From experimentation with my first batch i split the majority of the dissolved metals in two and neutralized half with urea and the other i boiled to almosts dryness which caused some of the gold to appear. Both were precipitated with SMB sol. The urea step was very indistinct and produced slightly less gold and came out somewhat dirty with a chocolate coating on one side of the stuff. Later i got the missing 4 grams that i expected with came out on the container i left the soloution in . The dried down portion produced a light brown powder with gold showing also. Iv concluded i prefer the boiling step. I the urea probably created some contamination as it was fertilizer grade.
The last two refinements both contained a reddish brown residue that spat and accumulated on the side of the beaker as the liquid got thick. I tried to separate it from the yellow stuff where possible. I have not tested it but think it may be palladium or rhodium chloride. It is soluble in HCL.I will attempt to post a pic of it. Can anyone say what that is? Where iv found white insoluble crystals (11grams collected and stored) i suspect silver chloride. But i see a white soluble powder in the third refining . If the dark brown/black stuff is not gold chloride decomposing, how should i separate this impurity.
Btw my first recovery was 5 grams of wonderful soft hi purity gold.
