No big deal.
It can be saved, assuming it IS goldfilled stuff you have and not just plated crap.
I did test that much at least, I clipped a few pieces in half, pulled some of the gold off ran through nitric, melted and tested with acid, I only did that with a few of the larger pieces though.
Couple questions first.
1.) What is the brown solution?
--am I understanding this correctly? -You decanted the green solution, removed all the iron stuff, then added more nitric? Is the bubbly brown stuff a wash you did, or is it fresh nitric? Is that where the rest of the material is still? Was the nitric added to the nonmagnetic stuff (and produced no reaction?)
I did decant the green solution and filtered the brown mud like substance, and got a lot of undigested iron/steel filtered out and removed. After that I added fresh non-dilute nitric (70% pure, no distilled water added as I read in this forum that diluting nitric makes iron fall out of solution) the bubbly brown stuff happened before I filtered and added 50/50 Nitric/distilled and after I removed what was left of the magnetics and added 70% pure nitric. And it just looked like no reaction, if I watch closely the whiteish foam at the bottom shoots streaks into the green from time to time, and it has been on a hot plate just under boiling for 2 days now.
2.) How much nitric have you used so far?
--It will take a lot of it to dissolve all the base metal from 1400g of goldfilled. Sometimes, if magnetic stuff slips through, the red/brown iron salt ends up going into solution on its own after subsequent nitric additions. 2nd, 3rd, 4th sometimes (really, that is dependent upon the concentration)
I have used almost 1.5 liters of nitric. I have siphoned and added fresh nitric 3 times now. (After the first time, again I read in this forum that adding distilled water to dilute the nitric causes the iron to drop, so I have only added non-dilute nitric.)
**If it were me, I would add about 50mL of 5-10% H2SO4. It will readily dissolve that rusty brown stuff that the nitric created from the ferrous articles. Add it slowly, even though it is diluted, it can cause a vigorous reaction.
I have some sulfuric for my cell, I don't know the purity though as it's from a battery acid refill kit, I'll do some research and try to make an educated guess as to the concentration and the dilution.
3.) Is there any markings on the iron stuff that you can see? Is it indeed goldfill?
--If yes to 3, then you might as well add it back in. It is going to need processed sometime anyways, might as well finish your trial by fire like a champion.
There were markings some was 1/10 10k and some was 1/20 14k, however all of the gold is off of the iron pieces, everything I pulled out has no gold remaining.
--There is really NO foils that are floating? not even any little baby specs of gold?
I have seen little gold specs through the whole process untill now, I have what looks like a fine white powder a few inches tall, if I stick a Pyrex glass stirrer in, the white "area" doesn't seem to have any density, but about a half an inch from the bottom it feels like I am shoving the stick through mud if that makes sense.
Your green Solution. Let it settle overnight, slowly decant the clear top portion, filter off any sediment/particulates and add them back to the rest of the stuff. Add a piece of copper to the green solution to see if any silver cements to it (doubtful, but do it just in case)
About a half an inch of orange/brown sediment formed at the bottom of the green solution over night. And the green turned from a bright green to an almost black dark emerald green, not sure what that means, but I'll siphon and cement as you recommended, thank you!
Also as pictured overnight the brown liquid (after adding around 500ml of nitric) separated into dark green and white powdery green, I am assuming the nitric is "full" and can't pull any more base metals into solution and it needs to be siphoned and have more nitric added, please let me know if I am right on this.
Also, I am assuming a lot more base metals would go into solution with dilute nitric (70% nitric and distilled water 50/50) but I don't want to risk dropping the iron, if I add the sulfuric (diluted to 5-10% as you had mentioned) will that either, cause iron to drop or drop then digest back into solution? If it digests, could I add the dilute sulphuric, wait for the iron to digest then dilute the solution with distilled water to get more base metals into solution?
And thank you, thank you, thank you for your previous reply! And for just being all around awesome enough to answer my newbie questions!
All is not lost, you can do it!
