Newbie

[Chris]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the extraction game. I've been studying for a few months while collecting old electronics to strip. I've done a trial run to work out some kinks and now I'm doing my first large ish batch. Thanks for accepting me to the group, I look forward to trawling through the forums for more info.

 

[Martijn]

Welcome to the forum Chris.
What are you processing now, how are you processing it, and have you processed anything on a small scale before going 'big' with this one?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the extraction game. I've been studying for a few months while collecting old electronics to strip. I've done a trial run to work out some kinks and now I'm doing my first large ish batch. Thanks for accepting me to the group, I look forward to trawling through the forums for more info.

As Martijn already has welcomed you, I'm just going to lob some links your way and let you have some fun with them.

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: Screen Readable Copy of Hoke's Book
2. Then read the safety section of the forum: Safety
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum: Dealing with Waste

Suggested reading: The Library

Forum rules : https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/board-policy-this-should-be-read-by-everyone.4646/

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the welcome, and the reading material, I'll be jumping straight into that! I've been using AP solution for base metal removal, HCl and bleech for dissolving the gold and sodium metabisulfite for precipitation. I did a small batch of pins and fingers to test the process, had a slight hiccup at precipitation stage, overflow as I didn't know when to stop adding! I know now that when it's fully foaming I'm to stop. I did end up with a really small button! I could do with asking how long I'm supposed to wait before adding water after the foaming? I'm also running some IC's separate this time, I've burned, crushed and soaked in HCL ready to pull the gold with my bigger batch of pins and fingers.

 

[Martijn]

Sounds like you're on the right track and know the basics to some level. Good to hear.

I'm not sure why you want to add water to a precipitated solution.
You usually add it before filtering and adding SMB to push out silver chloride. This is also when you add some sulfuric if you have not denoxed with sulfamic to push out any lead.
Chill/dilute, then filter until clear and then drop.

Do you treat your waste solutions before disposal?

 

[Chris]

Sounds like you're on the right track and know the basics to some level. Good to hear.

I'm not sure why you want to add water to a precipitated solution.
You usually add it before filtering and adding SMB to push out silver chloride. This is also when you add some sulfuric if you have not denoxed with sulfamic to push out any lead.
Chill/dilute, then filter until clear and then drop.

Do you treat your waste solutions before disposal?

I haven't disposed of my solutions, I have kept the waste from the drop until I figure out what to do with it, and I've reused the ap, just topped it up. Everything I've seen so far had water added after SMB, before the gold precipitates. Videos aren't the most reliable source. Seems I've got more learning to do before I finish this batch, thank you for the info my friend.

 

[Martijn]

Before you finish this batch describe your intended steps for it and let us comment on them to correct any assumed steps needed or add some forgotten ones.
The more detail the better.

 

[Chris]

That would be great! I intend to read through the info I've been given, then I'll replan and run it by you.

 

[Martijn]

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