NOOB Ready to roll but have a few questions

[koebeef]

Hi folks sorry to sound dumb but I have purchased all my products (muriatic, clorox, sodium nitrate, urea, SMB, Borax, Peroxide.

I have a few questions before I start. I have read Hoke's book cover to cover and have been studying all your posts for a month or so.

I have 5000g of fingers which I will use the AP method for (small test batch first.

I also have these P1 Ceramic and and 486 which I have taken the gold tops off and exposed the wires by removing the centers on them. These can go directly into AR or is there a better method to process these?

I have a bunch of the black plastic P1 chips as well I have shown in the photo three shots of them. Does anyone know a fast way to remove the center plate on them?

Also these P3 Green plastic chips I have hundreds of them. What is the best method to treat them?

Thanks to you all for your time.

 

[Richard36]

Try a couple of chips in Muriatic. Heat the solution, and see if the Gold will flake off, then filter it to recover the Gold flake. (Harold_V is going to disagree with this next process due to possible base metal contamination of the bullion.) If this does not work, I would suggest dissolving this material in AR, neutralize the solution, boil down the solution to one third its volume to concentrate it if necessary, then drop the Gold with Sulfur dioxide gas, or ferrous sulfate solution.(Refer to the forum handbook volume #1 for the AR recovery process) Recover, rinse, and dry the the precipitate, then smelt with a Gold flux to further remove impurities, and cast as a button. Here is a Gold flux formula. (1prt flux to 3 to 5 prts Gold.) 3 prts Sodium carbonate / 1/2 prt Borax glass / 1 prt silica / 1 prt Manganese dioxide / 1/2 prt Lime-Fluorspar mix (Lime-Fluorspar mix, 1prt Calcium Fluoride / 1 prt Calcium Oxide) This flux formula is supposed to slag off Silver, Iron, Copper, and other impurities within your Gold. Due to the high Sulfur content of the precipitate, it may be necessary to add 1 prt Sodium Nitrate or Potassium Nitrate to burn up the sulfur. The Manganese Dioxide may not be enough to burn it up, and help slag off impurities. Do not fill the crucible any more than 1/3 full, or you will have a boil over in your furnace. When all smoking and boiling stops, and the melt is all molten, as well as uniform in color, it is ready to pour to a mold lightly coated with a release agent, such as motor oil. Wear eye protection and break the slag away from the bullion with a hammer. The slag will fracture as it cools from a molten to a solid state, throwing razor sharp fragments in various directions, so wear eye protection, and do not stand over it watching it cool. I hope that this has been of some help. Sincerely; Rick.

 

[Harold_V]

Direct dissolution of values in AR has a place, and can be the best choice, but it should be reserved for cases where the materials introduced are not metallic. Caution should be exercised to insure that values, once in solution, are not absorbed by the materials, so they are lost instead of recovered. That may involve considerable washing, or even incineration, assuming the material is combustible.

I generally do not suggest gold be cleaned by melting. It can be, and usually is, beyond the ability of most home refiners, and does not perform as may be expected. Gold that has been once precipitated, especially from dirty solutions, is best given a proper washing procedure, then re-dissolved and re-precipitated. The end result should be far superior to relying on melting. The exceptions to that process would be if a person had the ability to do zone refining, or to apply the Miller chlorine process. Both cases are highly unlikely for the home refiner.

In general, AR should be looked upon as a refining process, not a recovery process. Those that choose to ignore that concept tend to introduce problems to their operation, and often have poor results. Remember----if one chooses to use AR for recovery, they are always at risk of losing values to cementation. Unless one is well versed on the application, it is best avoided unless necessary where recovery is concerned.

Harold

 

[mikeinct]

How best to handle these black epoxy topped wonders ?? mike

 

[glorycloud]

Hey Koebeef - try nitric for the green fiber CPU's. I used AP and the pins fell off quick but it took forever for the gold to come off the legs. I finally gave up on the AP, filtered out the gold flakes and finished the batch with a nitric solution and bam - done! I washed the legs and got a good yield and the legs were clean. JUST be very careful when you use the nitric - search under BFRC on the forum and read up!!!!! The fumes are "no bueno"!!

AP works well for the fingers and it's easy to process.

That's all I can share amigo!

 

[oldtimmer]

On the green fiberglass CPUs the only gold is in the pins. For the black plastic ones, the dark black plastic cover actually has the small gold bond wires encased in it. Break it up as small as you can and let then set in silution for several days to a week to leech all of the gold out. Stir the solution once or so a day.

As in previous posts, the AP does not work on the pins. Use Nitric acid for them and it does a great job.