Wrighty2000
New member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2021
- Messages
- 1
Hi Everyone,
I could really do with some help / advice.
I recently decided to get into gold refining because I work in IT and come across a lot of computer scrap which I thought I could put to better use.
I also foolishly thought this would be easy to do lol.
So I purchased Hydrochloric Acid 4.0M (4.0N) Solution, Hydrogen Peroxide 12% Food Grade, Sodium Metabisulphite & all tools / equipment needed.
I scavenged some PCBs and scrap from about 10 old phones & a monitor and cut off all the parts with gold on.
I then mixed Hydrochloric Acid & Hydrogen Peroxide 3:1 to cover the pieces.
I left this for about 5 days, stirring every morning, lunch & evening.
I then filtered the solution out into a waste tub, washing the PCB parts and sieving through the smaller pieces with water into another container to get any flakes of gold off the scraps.
After collecting all of the gold flakes & some other pieces of scrap on the filter paper I then submerged each filter paper one by one in Hydrochloric acid & slowly added very small amounts of bleach and vigorously stirred in between each bleach add. This gave off some gas and dissolved the Gold flakes down and produced a yellowy green liquid which I then filtered out again, leaving just this liquid in a plastic container.
I then washed the cups I used to do this out & washed the filters I used to make sure I got all of the Gold Chloride out and added this to the plastic container with the rest.
I then read I needed to add some tsp of the Sodium Metabisulphite to this Gold Chloride solution & mix, which will then produce a clear liquid and brownish gold dust within as well as some gas. Well I added the powder and could definitely smell some gaseous odour but the solution did not change at all.
Please can someone provide some advise / help on my situation,
this is my first time attempting this & i'm a complete beginner in chemistry so go easy lol
Kind regards,
Jack.
I could really do with some help / advice.
I recently decided to get into gold refining because I work in IT and come across a lot of computer scrap which I thought I could put to better use.
I also foolishly thought this would be easy to do lol.
So I purchased Hydrochloric Acid 4.0M (4.0N) Solution, Hydrogen Peroxide 12% Food Grade, Sodium Metabisulphite & all tools / equipment needed.
I scavenged some PCBs and scrap from about 10 old phones & a monitor and cut off all the parts with gold on.
I then mixed Hydrochloric Acid & Hydrogen Peroxide 3:1 to cover the pieces.
I left this for about 5 days, stirring every morning, lunch & evening.
I then filtered the solution out into a waste tub, washing the PCB parts and sieving through the smaller pieces with water into another container to get any flakes of gold off the scraps.
After collecting all of the gold flakes & some other pieces of scrap on the filter paper I then submerged each filter paper one by one in Hydrochloric acid & slowly added very small amounts of bleach and vigorously stirred in between each bleach add. This gave off some gas and dissolved the Gold flakes down and produced a yellowy green liquid which I then filtered out again, leaving just this liquid in a plastic container.
I then washed the cups I used to do this out & washed the filters I used to make sure I got all of the Gold Chloride out and added this to the plastic container with the rest.
I then read I needed to add some tsp of the Sodium Metabisulphite to this Gold Chloride solution & mix, which will then produce a clear liquid and brownish gold dust within as well as some gas. Well I added the powder and could definitely smell some gaseous odour but the solution did not change at all.
Please can someone provide some advise / help on my situation,
this is my first time attempting this & i'm a complete beginner in chemistry so go easy lol
Kind regards,
Jack.