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[Watcher]

Evening all, I have accumulated 10 plus grams of dirty gold from the AP process and I'm itching to move onto my first AR.
I believe I now have all the required chemicals, torch, melt dishes even a homemade fume hood.
My initial question is... Is 10 grams too small an amount? my gold is mainly foils and gold dust, secondly should I incinerate prior to AR, I watched a vid from Sreetips and he incenerated his scrap gold prior to AR.
What y'all think?
Cheers
Steve.

 

[nickvc]

Steve with the material you have you can use several alternative methods to dissolve your gold HCl and hydrogen peroxide or HCl and bleach.
As to the quantity the only downside of refining smaller quantities is the loss percentage is greater the smaller the amount, you should get it back at a later date.

 

[Marcel]

Remove any base metals if left. That could be a bath in warm (not hot or boiling) HCL for several hours for example. If the solution turns green you know they were still some copper and/or nickel residue left in there. Check with SC test before decanting solution for presence of Gold. I would then wash it with demineralized water 2-3 times to ensure as little salts as possible remain. After that try to remove organic residues like grease, plastic etc. by heating it up to around 400C°-600°C.
Just a general approach. It all depends on the material you have and to which degree and which type it is polluted with non-PM residues.

 

[Watcher]

Remove any base metals if left. That could be a bath in warm (not hot or boiling) HCL for several hours for example. If the solution turns green you know they were still some copper and/or nickel residue left in there. Check with SC test before decanting solution for presence of Gold. I would then wash it with demineralized water 2-3 times to ensure as little salts as possible remain. After that try to remove organic residues like grease, plastic etc. by heating it up to around 400C°-600°C.
Just a general approach. It all depends on the material you have and to which degree and which type it is polluted with non-PM residues.

Thanks, I think I will go for a second bath in AP, maybe even a third...

 

[Martijn]

Thanks, I think I will go for a second bath in AP, maybe even a third...

I would give it one long hot hcl bath, and depending on the color, decant and repeat or decant and go straigt for AR. Or another gold dissolving bath as suggested. For that ten grams every step will add to losses. Recoverable but still.
A good cold filter before, and a good wash after precipitation will help remove any impuities.

 

[Watcher]

I would give it one long hot hcl bath, and depending on the color, decant and repeat or decant and go straigt for AR. Or another gold dissolving bath as suggested. For that ten grams every step will add to losses. Recoverable but still.
A good cold filter before, and a good wash after precipitation will help remove any impuities.

I actually meant HCL, cheers mate

 

[Yggdrasil]

I actually meant HCL, cheers mate

There is no such thing as HCL, it is HCl as in H Hydrogen and Cl Chlorine.
HCL would be H Hydrogen C Carbon and something unknown L

 

[Watcher]

There is no such thing as HCL, it is HCl as in H Hydrogen and Cl Chlorine.
HCL would be H Hydrogen C Carbon and something unknown L

Ahhhh, thank you I always wondered why it was a lowercase L
I wonder how many times you've corrected people on that

 

[galenrog]

Ahhhh, thank you I always wondered why it was a lowercase L
I wonder how many times you've corrected people on that

Too many for me to count.

Time for more coffee.

 

[Shark]

I still struggle at times with the various symbols and abbreviations. Often it is easier for me to spell the names out than remember the correct abbreviations, other times they are no problem at all.

 

[Watcher]

But I still can't find a recipe for AR using potassium nitrate...
I'm gonna have google it

 

[galenrog]

But I still can't find a recipe for AR using potassium nitrate...
I'm gonna have google it

I used the Forum search for “Poor Man’s AR”, and had 10 pages of results. Your answer is among the many threads in those 10 pages.

Have fun.

Time for more coffee.

 

[Watcher]

and now I'll need more coffee lol

 

[Shark]

What is the exact recipe for AR?

That question was answered recently and is along the same line of questioning your at now. If you think about it the potassium nitrate is the replacement for the nitric acid.

How much nitric do you use to make AR??? How do we keep from needing to neutralize excess nitric acid?

I would bet a wooden nickle you have ran across the answer when reading the forum or searching the forum about AR even if by accident.

 

[Watcher]

A horse a horse, my kingdom for a horse!