Need a little help.

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zeedest

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2021
Messages
12
Location
estonia
I used hydrochloric acid 15% (200ml), nitric acid 65% (2ml) and i had like 100ml d-water in there. I managed dissolve all gold and i filtered the liquid. Then i added urea( all thing was like light green). After that i added iron (II) sulfate. After some heating all liquid turned dark green/brown. And that's it i got very little gold powder. Like to little. I think something went wrong and i accidentally added to much hydrochloric acid in the beginning. I still got the all thing and now i have like gentle white layer on the bottom. So is there anything i can to do get more gold out of it?
 
Dose the gold that dropped look like what you expected even closely (forget the solution color for the moment). It's possible the gold is done dropping out. You can boil it down slowly and start over if you think golds still in the solution.

My thought, I'm not a master by no means.
 
Prepare to be bombarded with questions:

Q1: What was your estimate on how much gold you expected to get out of this reaction?

Q2: Do you have starting weights and what type of gold it was prior to starting the refinement?

Q3: Did your raw stock (whatever gold item you added) fully dissolve into solution? (What did you filter out?)

Q4: How much Urea did you add?

Remark1: It may be possible that you did not fully neutralize the aqua regia and you gold could have still been in solution. (This is why Dave was asking about the stannous chloride test)

Q5: I'm also curious what method you are following? You're mixing quite a few salts together.

Remark2: Some types of gold need to inquarted to ensure that all of the gold is able to be dissolved, not sure if that needed to be applied here.

Good Luck, don't throw anything away or dump any solutions, your gold is still there, you just need to find out where. Post some pictures if you can as well, sometimes those can be helpful. If you need to set this aside until you can buy/make a stannous test kit, do so.

Elemental
 
Dose the gold that dropped look like what you expected even closely (forget the solution color for the moment). It's possible the gold is done dropping out. You can boil it down slowly and start over if you think golds still in the solution.

My thought, I'm not a master by no means.
i mean i had at least 2 shoe boxses of phones and other stuff. And i got like couple gold powder.
 
Prepare to be bombarded with questions:

Q1: What was your estimate on how much gold you expected to get out of this reaction?

Q2: Do you have starting weights and what type of gold it was prior to starting the refinement?

Q3: Did your raw stock (whatever gold item you added) fully dissolve into solution? (What did you filter out?)

Q4: How much Urea did you add?

Remark1: It may be possible that you did not fully neutralize the aqua regia and you gold could have still been in solution. (This is why Dave was asking about the stannous chloride test)

Q5: I'm also curious what method you are following? You're mixing quite a few salts together.

Remark2: Some types of gold need to inquarted to ensure that all of the gold is able to be dissolved, not sure if that needed to be applied here.

Good Luck, don't throw anything away or dump any solutions, your gold is still there, you just need to find out where. Post some pictures if you can as well, sometimes those can be helpful. If you need to set this aside until you can buy/make a stannous test kit, do so.

Elemental
That's my first time making something like that so thats why i dont know nothing and you ask why i use stuff like that is begaus i cant get other stuff in my country. :)
 
Thats an attempt to make you think about what you're to doing, what to expect and weigh / measure whatever you add to the mix. Before you actually go and try things.

So you put a buch of phones in AR? did you take them apart first?
 
Thats an attempt to make you think about what you're to doing, what to expect and weigh / measure whatever you add to the mix. Before you actually go and try things.

So you put a buch of phones in AR? did you take them apart first?
i actually measured everything except urea and iron sulfate. I stopped adding urea when there was no bubbles anymore coming. I was searching lots of info and watched lots of videos what how works and what they do. Because i can't get everything in my country i don't have lots of choices how to make it and there was very little info about that method what i did. I just found out like 2h ago that there are forums about that. I have background with chemicals do something i know how to use them and what are the dangers sides. Put gold recovering is new thing to me. Put i did take all the phones apart and remove gold things and plates and other stuff. I remove all extra stuff what i didn't need(plastic and so on)
 
I hate being the guy that has to rip this band-aid off, but here goes: e-waste doesn’t have nearly as much gold in it as people think. Yes you can see the gold fingers, wires, etc but it’s just a very thin layer, like gold leaf. Two shoeboxes are not going to have more than a tiny bead of gold when melted. Most of the members here seem to avoid e-waste unless you can get metric tons of it for free.

For your next step, buy/make your stannous and test your solutions. Take good notes on what you learned. and welcome to the world of precious metal refining.

Elemental
 
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One question. After i got the gold from plates the gold was in tap water long time(days). Is it possible i lost some gold begaus of that? I know that if recover gold in tap water on some point then some of the gold can disappear.
 
No, you will not loose gold unless you throw it away. Or evaporate chlorides by excessive heat.
Even HCl can not dissolve gold alone, HCl needs help even to dissolve copper.

You make statements that do not make sense, did you get them on youtube? Seeing too much youtube can injure you or even get yourself killed.

It will better for all, if you study Hokes book and the library here.
 
what dosent make sense? Dont have to be dikk. Whats the point of that forum then when i cant ask noob questions?
 
Gold do not go into solution in water.
I tried to explain that it do not even go into solution in HCl alone.
Then I asked where you got that information.
This is the last from me in this thread.
I kind of loose interest when people are swearing.
Goodbye to you sir.
Someone else take over please.
 
Please mind your language here. You will get a ban if you do that.
The fact that you say you know what you said to be true, which is wrong, makes no sense. That's why you get corrected.

Here goes:

Stop what you're doing and set the experiments away until you know what to do and read hoke. You will hurt your self if you perform chemistry you don't understand. Even if you have a chemical background.
This does not help you at all with your current questions, but will save your life. Seriously.

Until you understand the comments given here, you're no where near ready for any hydrometalurgy.

We can analyze your steps and mistakes to teach you if you describe what you have done in more detail.
Do you have pictures of what you put in acid?

Martijn.
 
I have no problem with tellyng me right answer put i dont like when people know more then me and acting smarty pants. That dosent help me.
 
Zeedest,

You asked for advice regarding your refining technique and were informed that you need to conduct a stannous test to determine if you have any gold left in solution. I'm assuming you have not done so yet and until you do, there is no further advice on this topic that anyone can give at this time. So, buy some pure tin metal and hydrochloric acid, use the search feature of this forum and learn how to make a Stannous Test Kit and what the different colors mean. Test your solutions, discover where your gold is and then if you have further questions, ask them. (You also ignored half the questions I and others have asked you about your processes, if you don't provide feedback, we cannot help you.)

ALSO:
This is a professional forum in which novices, such as yourself and myself, come to learn what are for the most part trade secrets about refining, processing, recovering, and selling precious metals. Please be respectful to those here who are teaching and offering advice to you for free. You've already burned a bridge with a seven year member of the forum by simply being rude. Also, I might add, Yggdrasil was not being demeaning in his response. Every day novices come to this forum with a lack of understanding for the processes, procedures, and chemistry of refining. You made a statement that he found incorrect, he corrected you, and then asked about where you were learning your techniques from. This "hobby" can be deadly if done improperly. Noxious gases, high concentration acids, cyanides, platinum salts, etc are nothing to scoff at.

Please show a little bit more decorum in your future posts.

Elemental
 
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