I make a simple comment about someone being condescending about me asking for help, and this is the response I get. Interesting...
I understand the dangers of the use of ammonia in this solution, which is why I stated I used a SMALL amount of ammonia in a small amount of the AR solution. I filtered the gold out, washed the gold thoroughly, and neutralized, diluted, and disposed of the remaining liquid in order to prevent a hazardous condition. Like I said, I know it can create dangerous biproducts which is why I limited the amount I produced and disposed of it immediately following the test. It is not something I am planning on doing long term, I was simply attempting to see if I were able to neutralize the acid with a material which did not contain any metal element if it would precipitate the gold given the SMB had already been added. It did, but since it can create dangerous biproducts I was not going to utilize that method on a large scale - hence the reason I came here for advise.
For those that are trying to help and asking questions about my process - thank you for taking the time to assist, and I will do my best to answer those questions. The gold I had precipitate came out a muddy orange color. I am utilizing electronic components (primarily from cell phones as I found a large quantity of old ones that were cheap). That (along with the SMB, AR and urea) is the only thing I have in my solution typically (except the times I tested other things, but I didn't plan on using them long term). I'm not looking to do this on a large scale or make money from it - doing chemistry experiments is just a hobby of mine and this seemed like an interesting one to undertake.
I understand the dangers of what I was mixing and new the potential biproducts. This is why I only made a small amount and disposed of it properly afterwards. I know enough about chemicals to know not to mix things when I don't have an idea of what the result may be. I thought about adding a copper bar (or zinc) in order to precipitate out the gold, but I figured it may have the same issue as the SMB had in that it would have to react with the HCl to neutralize the AR before it would precipitate anything out. I may be wrong about that, but since the SMB seemed to have that problem, I figured utilizing any metal replacement might as well.
To Pantherlikher - the urea idea was not from Hoke's book. That was simply a method I saw during my research from other books/websites that came up often. I know it does not neutralize HCl, it only neutralizes HNO3. That is why I came on there, to find out if I needed to neutralize the HCl prior to SMB addition since the SMB seemed to only react with the HCl if the HCl was not neutralized. Secondly, I know I have much to learn about PM recovery - that is why I am asking the questions and why I have been researching. I never claimed to know everything about it. If I did, I would not need to ask the questions. And yes, FrugalRefiner has every right to say whatever he'd like to say (just as anyone does). I was simply asking for help though, and did not see the need to answer in the way he did. If someone doesn't want to help, they obviously don't have too. I was just asking that he tell me that as opposed to jumping on me for not researching the topic (which I have done). I am also attempting several experiments. I only mentioned the ammonia one because that is the only one that has worked to this point. As for the going to Youtube comment, as I have stated, I knew what I was doing, which is why I took all of the precausions necessary to ensure safety (I have a fume hood with ballistic glass and only was using a very small amount of anything that would have created hazardous chemicals so if something went wrong it would not blow out my setup). As for the "problems" you saw - I actually did mean silver azide, not oxide. Silver azide can be obtained by crystallization from aqueous ammonia solution obtainable by double decomposition of silver nitrate and sodium azide in aqueous ammonia solution. And if you read my post, I actually said ammonium nitrate, not ammonia nitrate. So yes, I guess I "be a good chemist". Again, I'm not sure where the hostility is coming from. Although, if you are going to be hostile and make fun of me, it would probably be better if you were doing so about actual errors I have made. Neither of your examples fall into that category.
As I stated, I'm not looking to start a fight, not saying I know everything, etc. I simply am asking for help concerning a process that I have researched and attempted extensively but am having some problems with. I am more than happy to explain everything I have done, what materials I have used, etc. if someone is actually willing to help. I am not looking for people to berate me for asking a simple question. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone as that was not my intention. I was simply looking for help - and not looking for people to attempt to make personal attacks towards me for asking for said help.
