Hello All! I am a new member, however this forum was very important to my month long reading/research before doing actual processes.
Background: was given a sack of Sim cards a year ago or so- only a couple months ago I decided not to throw them away and to start researching/reading up on gold recovery. So I am currently working with Sim cards only. I understand the yield isn't much from the sims but am willing to experiment on them before going into more heavy gold bearing items or items where I actually buy to process.
My first test last week was about 50 grams of sims, 200ml of HCl, 10ml of distilled water and 20ml of nitric acid. Learned then that too much nitric was used as no gold precipitated from SMB. I then heated the beaker and precipitation of gold was successful. However my Test 2 was somewhat different (was careful on adding nitric so as not to use to much).........
From my Notes:
Test 2 on 16 Nov 2017, 8:45pm
150grams of Sim cards
HCl = 250ml
Distilled H20 = 50ml
HNO3 = 10ml added at 8:45pm
10ml added at 9:10 pm
HCl = 10ml added at 9:20 pm
HNO3 = 6ml added at 9:20 pm
Left the solution for 24 hours. Not all the gold dissolved in the solution. Filtered the AR solution into a funnel and transferred into a 1L beaker. Solution color = very dark green
The photo below is after adding around 300-350ml of distilled water in hopes to dilute the solution to lighter green. However the solution just filled and is still very dark green.
Photo below is against the light in my fume hood showing that the solution is green and not black.
I am not quite sure how to proceed from here. Further research regarding this issue didn't come up with much, however there was a thread stating that the dark color could be results in using up the oxygen in the solution- but the thread was on HCl and H2O2, not sure if it applies to this AR solution. Any help and/or suggestion would help. Thank you all ahead.
My second solution on a different process is as goes:
This is the second leach from the original 150g sims from Test 2
From notes:
Test 3 on 17 Nov 2017 9:00 pm
150g of sim cards from Test 2
HCL = 400ml
H2O = 50ml
Solution heated on low
HNO3 = 6ml added at 9:15 pm
3ml added at 9:20 pm
2ml added at 9:40 pm
9:50 pm taken off heat to leave for 24 hours.
18 Nov 2017 at 9:00 pm. Gold has been dissolved. Solution is light green but smokey.
Tried the smokey solution on a fresh sim = no reaction on fresh sim, gold is intact on sim. = Possible no nitric in solution.
Filtered solution into funnel.
Washed the sims with distilled water, added the washed sim water ( very light green) to funnel as well = water and solution seem to be separating, Like water and oil with the green solution settling at the bottom and the water at the top.
Stirred the solution and the mix turns lime green.
The photo below is after 350-400ml of distilled water has been added to solution in hopes to dilute. But only filled the funnel and solution is still lime green.
Photo below is against the light.
Like with my other solution, not sure where to go from here. I haven't seen a thread with this type of outcome. My conclusion at the time was not to heat up the sim cards again as it produced a yellowy sticky substance which was hard to remove when cleaning the beaker (no photos).
***Please note that description from Notes, some are thoughts at the time. I am documenting each step I take. Thank you all ahead. Looking forward to your suggestions and hopefully light on how I proceed.
Background: was given a sack of Sim cards a year ago or so- only a couple months ago I decided not to throw them away and to start researching/reading up on gold recovery. So I am currently working with Sim cards only. I understand the yield isn't much from the sims but am willing to experiment on them before going into more heavy gold bearing items or items where I actually buy to process.
My first test last week was about 50 grams of sims, 200ml of HCl, 10ml of distilled water and 20ml of nitric acid. Learned then that too much nitric was used as no gold precipitated from SMB. I then heated the beaker and precipitation of gold was successful. However my Test 2 was somewhat different (was careful on adding nitric so as not to use to much).........
From my Notes:
Test 2 on 16 Nov 2017, 8:45pm
150grams of Sim cards
HCl = 250ml
Distilled H20 = 50ml
HNO3 = 10ml added at 8:45pm
10ml added at 9:10 pm
HCl = 10ml added at 9:20 pm
HNO3 = 6ml added at 9:20 pm
Left the solution for 24 hours. Not all the gold dissolved in the solution. Filtered the AR solution into a funnel and transferred into a 1L beaker. Solution color = very dark green
The photo below is after adding around 300-350ml of distilled water in hopes to dilute the solution to lighter green. However the solution just filled and is still very dark green.
Photo below is against the light in my fume hood showing that the solution is green and not black.
I am not quite sure how to proceed from here. Further research regarding this issue didn't come up with much, however there was a thread stating that the dark color could be results in using up the oxygen in the solution- but the thread was on HCl and H2O2, not sure if it applies to this AR solution. Any help and/or suggestion would help. Thank you all ahead.
My second solution on a different process is as goes:
This is the second leach from the original 150g sims from Test 2
From notes:
Test 3 on 17 Nov 2017 9:00 pm
150g of sim cards from Test 2
HCL = 400ml
H2O = 50ml
Solution heated on low
HNO3 = 6ml added at 9:15 pm
3ml added at 9:20 pm
2ml added at 9:40 pm
9:50 pm taken off heat to leave for 24 hours.
18 Nov 2017 at 9:00 pm. Gold has been dissolved. Solution is light green but smokey.
Tried the smokey solution on a fresh sim = no reaction on fresh sim, gold is intact on sim. = Possible no nitric in solution.
Filtered solution into funnel.
Washed the sims with distilled water, added the washed sim water ( very light green) to funnel as well = water and solution seem to be separating, Like water and oil with the green solution settling at the bottom and the water at the top.
Stirred the solution and the mix turns lime green.
The photo below is after 350-400ml of distilled water has been added to solution in hopes to dilute. But only filled the funnel and solution is still lime green.
Photo below is against the light.
Like with my other solution, not sure where to go from here. I haven't seen a thread with this type of outcome. My conclusion at the time was not to heat up the sim cards again as it produced a yellowy sticky substance which was hard to remove when cleaning the beaker (no photos).
***Please note that description from Notes, some are thoughts at the time. I am documenting each step I take. Thank you all ahead. Looking forward to your suggestions and hopefully light on how I proceed.
