Hello from NC. My name is Dave. I'm a new member bur have been kind of lurking and reading when and where time allows. I recently came across some old circuit boards that I gutted from some old TV sets and some other random stuff. From what I csn tell it has a thin layer of gold. Just trying to find a way to extract using household chemicals. I live in an apartment so I'm kind of limited on what I can do. Any help with these would be greatly appreciated. I've been trying vinegar and hydrogen peroxide (as a low strength way of making acecitic acid) and have had very little luck other then turning it all into a slushy mess. What am I doing wrong? Of course I started with a small piece in a gladden jar just to see what woukd happen. As you can see circuit board has a layer of gold on it. And I have quite a few of those. Need your guys help...thank you in advance
Welcome to us.
You obviously had not been lurking long enough when you broke out your chemicals and started.
Luckily we have what you need to get up to speed on what to do and what not to do.
The first thing to do is to pack down your stuff solutions, chemicals and material put it in a safe place,
hint: not inside a building containing people, pets or structures that may be harmed by corrosive gases.
Household chemical while relatively benign when used as intended,
the moment you dissolve metals into them become toxic and a reason for concern.
Vinegar is low strength acetic acid, but have NO use in recovery and refining.
Another thing is that the circuit boards you show pictures of is Copper plated not Gold plated.
All the values will be inside the components attached to the board.
Her is what you need to study:
We ask our new members to do 3 things.
1. Read C.M. Hokes book on refining jewelers scrap, it gives an easy introduction to the most important chemistry regarding refining.
It is free here on the forum:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=19798
2. Then read the safety section of the forum:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/forums/safety.47/
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/dealing-with-waste.10539/
Suggested reading:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/forums/the-library.101/
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/when-in-doubt-cement-it-out.30236/
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threa...le-read-this-before-you-post-about-ore.33333/
Forum rules is here.
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/gold-refining-forum-rules.31182/