Newbie with a question

[Anonymous]

I would like to ask and question ,but I feel stupid,what kind of mineral is gold colored and has a red tint,it is not pyrites that is changing, I had a friend who boiled some in aqua rega and then boiled off the nitric, filtered ,than added sodium hydoroxide and let it sit over night,next day he added hydrochloric acid and a heavy yellow precipitate came down? Ok shoot me I want to learn hehehe.

 

[butcher]

welcome there are no stupid questions if you learn, but there are stupid answers. saying that Im gonna say pyrite, and sulfur can be yellow.
not that that is your Ore, but that would be my guess, did you try a pocket knife on you gold colored red stuff to see if it crushed under pressure?
tell your friend he is doing some very dangerous things disolving the rock in acids, they can be sulfides or arsenics or other compounds, this is not only a waste of acid, but can be vary dangerous, welcome to the forum you have come to the right place to learn.


edit: also chalcopyrite a copper ore, most gold can be associated with pyrites but you will not get to it the way your friend showed you.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know much about it,but I know a pocket knife will just barely scratch it. And it is heavy. Of course I know description will not say what it is,it is under snow now,but soon I will get a sample and send it in to be assayed/ Thank you for the replies.

 

[Lino1406]

And not ammonium hydroxide (before HCl)?

 

[Anonymous]

He crushed the ore,boiled it in aqua regia then he added ammonium hydroxide to bring down ph,then he filtered,then he added oxlic acid, he then boiled this and nothing come done so he sit it aside over night,he checked it next day and nothing so he thought he put too much ammonium hydroxide,so he added hydrocloric acid ,and very fast a lot of yellow precipitate come down.

 

[lazersteve]

Hoke mentions that Palladium ammonium chloride can be purified by dissolving it in ammonium hydroxide then adding HCl to precipitate the yellow palladium compound.

Ask your friend to dissolve a small amount of the yellow precipitate in water and test it with DMG or stannous chloride. DMG will form a yellow precipitate and stannous will turn blue-green.

I demonstrate both of these test on my website http://www,goldrecovery.us .

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Steve thank you,I will pursue this,the friend has disposed of all that now,and no more ore to check until I can get there after the snow melts,it is a yellow looking ore and has a red tint,not cubic,that I can see. Thrhere is a lot of it scattered in looks like serpentine in a old rock quarry used for logging. Thanks again.