Need help with refining gold flakes.

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Grandpa refiner1

Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
8
Good morning.

Over the past 12 months, I have been fortunate to have acquired several ounces of gold flakes of which I am somewhat certain, on average, test to be 18K or, another way to describe their gold content, would be to say that, if melted and assayed, they would be labeled as being 75% pure; yet, I am not certain about the best method would be to refine them to 99.9?? purity. Also, to better describe these gold flakes, they are 25 mesh in size.

With the aforementioned said, I am asking for your assistance ! :) For starters, may I say that I have great respect for our members and the quality of knowledge members of our forum have; yet, sadly, my knowledge is not there yet, but I am trying !

Moving on: :) I have been thinking about placing my gold flakes into a beaker with a 50%-50% mixture of concentrated nitric acid and water whereby the mixture would dissolve the base metals, metals such as silver, copper, and any traces of other elements, either noble or non noble metals. By utilizing this process, once completed, I am hoping to end up with gold that I can then dissolve in aqua regia.

My question is: Would you refine these gold flakes as I have described or would you opt for inquarting by first melting the gold flakes along with mixing in additional silver so as to reduce the gold alloy down to 6K ? Your help and your expertise will be greatly appreciated and if you can offer or suggest any better method, other than the two I have just mentioned, by all means, please reply and tune me in ! :)

Here's thanking you in advance and I send Best regards,
~ Doug ~
 
I have process my placer gold flakes straight thru AR. Ended up with some Ag/Cl sediment; precipitated the gold with SMB.
You can incinerate before processing in order go get rid of any "coatings" present, but be careful in case any mercury is present! Do it outside!

Phil
 
Rusty, thanks for getting back to me. My source for the gold flakes was from a dealer who sells natural gold nuggets of all sizes which also include fine mesh flakes as well and his gold is placer gold from B.C. and from Alaska.
 
Phil, I have tried processing this type of natural placer fine gold flakes previously in AR, but silver oxide had begun covering over the flakes which had prevented the flakes from giving up all of their gold. I suppose that I could have washed them in Ammonium hydroxide or liquid ammonia cleaner from a grocery store, but when I had processed the flakes, it was a year ago when I didn't know that ammonia could be used.
 
Barren Realms 007, Rusty, and Phil. Do you think that my idea of first dissolving the base metals with nitric acid and water, followed by refining in AR is a pretty decent way for me to refine my gold flakes ? I am thinking that it would work and do a pretty decent job, how about you fellows ?
 
Pardon me for having failed to describe what my gold flakes are.. Actually, they are small, fine, placer gold nuggets of sorts and they had been dredged from creeks in British Columbia and or in Alaska. Hope this helps.
 
Grandpa refiner1 said:
Phil, I have tried processing this type of natural placer fine gold flakes previously in AR, but silver oxide had begun covering over the flakes which had prevented the flakes from giving up all of their gold. I suppose that I could have washed them in Ammonium hydroxide or liquid ammonia cleaner from a grocery store, but when I had processed the flakes, it was a year ago when I didn't know that ammonia could be used.
Click to expand...

Ah OK. You might want to get a combination hot plate and stirrer to keep the solution in motion and help to an extent from the formation of the silver oxide barrier on the flakes.
 
Grandpa refiner1 said:
Phil, I have tried processing this type of natural placer fine gold flakes previously in AR, but silver oxide had begun covering over the flakes which had prevented the flakes from giving up all of their gold. I suppose that I could have washed them in Ammonium hydroxide or liquid ammonia cleaner from a grocery store, but when I had processed the flakes, it was a year ago when I didn't know that ammonia could be used.
Click to expand...
If you had problems dissolving all the gold in AR, you'll probably also experience an incomplete leach of the base metals using nitric. Think of it this way; if the 25% or so of base metals was enough to keep all the gold from dissolving, the 75% or so of gold will likely keep the nitric from penetrating to the core of your flakes.

You can always go back and forth between AR and ammonia, but if you have a bit of silver on hand, I'd go ahead and inquart. Then you can proceed with the nitric leach to dissolve the base metals feeling comfortable that you'll enjoy success.

By the way, it's silver chloride (AgCl) that forms the impenetrable crust, not silver oxide.

Another possible solution would be to use a sonicator to blow the crust off as it forms.

Dave
 
Thanks, guys, I am going to take the advice that both of you have given me ! Meaning: I will be ordering a hot plate that offers the stirrer option as well as ammonium hydroxide will be introduced into the equation as well should it's wash be needed.
 
Phil, I like the verbiage or the quotes you have provided and shown down beneath your message box. One line of your verbiage which says ~> "You may say that I'm a dreamer... but I'm not the only one!" are the words of the late John Lennon in his song entitled "Imagine"... Who doesn't love that song ?!!!! Also, hopefully, everyone appreciates your safety advice about no filter cartridge is effective with toxic nitrogen oxide gas. Actually, because of my awareness, before I had begun working with nitric acid, I had purchased a system that has it's own electric powered air compressor that pumps pressurized fresh air into a full face mask/shield and, from a remote location, the pump is connected to a 100' long pressurized air supply hose that constantly supplies fresh air to the mask from which I breathe when I am working with chemicals, etc.

Again, thanks a million for your time and, equally, I thank you for the valuable information you have provided.

~ Doug ~
 
Hi !
I diden't see any mention of shotting or corn flaking the inquarted gold. after you melt and mix in the silver,pour the molten metal drop by drop into cold water. that will give you small expanded pieces with more surface area making it easier for the nitric acid to penetrate all the way thru the pieces. search ! we have videos posted that show the process.
Good luck!
artart47
 
I have two videos of inquartation made by Sam linked from this page.
http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/Inquartation

Göran
 
Hello, Artart and Goran,

Many thanks go out to both of you for your assistance. Yes, my intent is to "cornflake" the molten alloy once after a small amount of silver has been added. It seems as though I had erred when first attempting to describe my thoughts about inquarting the small fine flakes of the placer gold that I have. Also, about a week ago, I had purchased a copy of C.M. Hokes book entitled "Refining Precious Metal Wastes." My intent was to begin reading her book sometime during the Christmas holidays, however; Should Hoke's book have content that addresses my scenario, I may owe you kind members of our gold refining forum an apology for my prematurely posing questions about the subject.

Best regards,
~ Doug ~
 

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