Not sure whats going on.

[rvdboy1993]

Hey guys, so I got some 14k gold plated things as a birthday present. I acid tested and use 1 of those electronic gold testing machines. Both told me I do have 14k gold plating on all of the pieces there were 2 necklaces and I believe like 10 or 12 sets of bigger hoop earrings. So I was expecting maybe a gram or so of gold. I've ran through the aqua regea and smb steps at least 5 times with different pieces with different amounts but no matter what I do I can't get my stannous solution to change color. I can physically see some small pieces of gold and/or silver in the solution but it always stays clear. My stannous formula is 25ml distilled water 30 drops of hcl 1 gram of stannous crystals and 1 gram of tin metal. Regardless if I heat it or if I don't nothing changes.. any help would be appreciated.

 

[rvdboy1993]

So everytime I try 2 refine some of my plated gold things I'll start with giving it a deep scratch and then putting it in concentrated nitric acid to desolve away as much base metals as possible and leave it there for atleast 5mins at minimum or until it stops reacting to new fresh acid. I then raise off what Is left beside with distilled water a couple times then proceed to make up some aqua regea and everything goes extremely dark green. I know it's becuz of the copper but if that's the case then why didn't the bath in nitric desolve any of it before I put it in the aq?? Also, in the 2nd picture is my recovery. It's all silver colored but it doesn't test as silver nor does it appear that any of my gold came out of solution.. what happened to the gold that was plated on there, why did it not come back out??

 

[eaglekeeper]

Hey guys, so I got some 14k gold plated things as a birthday present. I acid tested and use 1 of those electronic gold testing machines. Both told me I do have 14k gold plating on all of the pieces there were 2 necklaces and I believe like 10 or 12 sets of bigger hoop earrings. So I was expecting maybe a gram or so of gold. I've ran through the aqua regea and smb steps at least 5 times with different pieces with different amounts but no matter what I do I can't get my stannous solution to change color. I can physically see some small pieces of gold and/or silver in the solution but it always stays clear. My stannous formula is 25ml distilled water 30 drops of hcl 1 gram of stannous crystals and 1 gram of tin metal. Regardless if I heat it or if I don't nothing changes.. any help would be appreciated.

Couple questions:
1. After AR was there any metal left over at the bottom of the beaker?
2. How much nitric did you use?

As a side note, there is going to be very little gold to recover. So, don't be surprised by the terrible yield. I think Sreetips did a video where he ran 15Lbs of plated jewelry in a sulfuric cell and only recovered +/-1g....If I remember correctly.

Any gold plated jewelry I get will generally get thrown into my stock pot....I'll get the gold later.

 

[Shark]

5 minutes in nitric won’t even start to remove the base metals. Gold plated materials does not work well with nitric or AR. Please study the forum a bit more before trying again. Look for C.M. Hoke’s book, it can be found several places on the forum, but the one edited by Frugalrefiner is the one you want.

 

[rvdboy1993]

Couple questions:
1. After AR was there any metal left over at the bottom of the beaker?
2. How much nitric did you use?

As a side note, there is going to be very little gold to recover. So, don't be surprised by the terrible yield. I think Sreetips did a video where he ran 15Lbs of plated jewelry in a sulfuric cell and only recovered +/-1g....If I remember correctly.

Any gold plated jewelry I get will generally get thrown into my stock pot....I'll get the gold later.

Answer 1: no, everything desolves away just fine.
Answer 2: just a splash. At a maximum maybe 5-10ml of nitric I use as little as possible to get everything 2 desolve.

I was just informed by a buddy of mine that works at an electronics repair shop and he told me the owner may be willing to sell me whole laptops and phones and other electronic components. Should I buy his scrap items and if so what should be my maximum I should pay to ensure I still gain a profit? I've found some places say no more than $4 some say no more than $10 per item.

 

[rvdboy1993]

5 minutes in nitric won’t even start to remove the base metals. Gold plated materials does not work well with nitric or AR. Please study the forum a bit more before trying again. Look for C.M. Hoke’s book, it can be found several places on the forum, but the one edited by Frugalrefiner is the one you want.

When you say please study the forum a bit before trying again, what forum are you referring 2?

 

[galenrog]

Gold Refining Forum. When I joined, I was encouraged to read every thread in every section.

Time for more coffee.

 

[rvdboy1993]

Gold Refining Forum. When I joined, I was encouraged to read every thread in every section.

Time for more coffee.

Uhhhh.. if I'm not mistaken there's literally thousands of posts though isn't there?? Lol

 

[eaglekeeper]

Uhhhh.. if I'm not mistaken there's literally thousands of posts though isn't there?? Lol

You can kind of narrow your searches with the "Search" option at the top.

 

[Shark]

I have been reading it for over 10 years now. If I missed a post, I would like to find it on the second time around, or is it the third time…. Whatever it is it has been worth the time invested.

Plated material works best in a sulfuric cell, very dangerous due to the high strength sulfuric acid it requires. Or drop it in your waste bucket and wait for it to dissolve.

 

[eaglekeeper]

If I have a bag full of plated jewelry or a quantity of gold plated pins....etc. Then yes I'll break out and set up my stripping cell, but for a small handful of plated jewelry I just throw in the stock pot.

I like using the sulfuric cell, but I hate the set up and clean out part.

 

[Dreamer]

Answer 1: no, everything desolves away just fine.
Answer 2: just a splash. At a maximum maybe 5-10ml of nitric I use as little as possible to get everything 2 desolve.

I was just informed by a buddy of mine that works at an electronics repair shop and he told me the owner may be willing to sell me whole laptops and phones and other electronic components. Should I buy his scrap items and if so what should be my maximum I should pay to ensure I still gain a profit? I've found some places say no more than $4 some say no more than $10 per item.

I'm 7 months in on 200 laptops that were given to me. I've accumulated 2+ kg of trimmed gold pins, 150 gms of foil fingers, a couple kg of memory BGA's and IC chips along with the CPU's. My yeild has been about 22 grams of unrefined gold. Unless you get the material for free and don't assign a value to your time, there's no profitable way to do this type of work for the vast majority of us.

The large refiners capture everything and have optimized the process. They are able to isolate all the values; the copper, aluminum and steel along with the PM's. Most Youtubers demonstrating thier process are from very impovershed areas, there's a reson for that. Most of us do it for the love of the journey, very few, as far as I can tell, make any money at it. I often suspect that the real pros are making more money off youtube, eBay, thier equiipment and CD's then they are from the actual PMs they are reclaiming ( I'm grateful that they are preserving the art).

Getting the electronics, pulling the CPU's, pins, gold foils, memory cards, hard drives, Gold corner BGA's and MLCC's and selling them on eBay to hopeful backyard chemists is a different story. You'll make 5-10x more than refining.

Just my limited experience and my opinion for what its worth.

 

[Yggdrasil]

So everytime I try 2 refine some of my plated gold things I'll start with giving it a deep scratch and then putting it in concentrated nitric acid to desolve away as much base metals as possible and leave it there for atleast 5mins at minimum or until it stops reacting to new fresh acid. I then raise off what Is left beside with distilled water a couple times then proceed to make up some aqua regea and everything goes extremely dark green. I know it's becuz of the copper but if that's the case then why didn't the bath in nitric desolve any of it before I put it in the aq?? Also, in the 2nd picture is my recovery. It's all silver colored but it doesn't test as silver nor does it appear that any of my gold came out of solution.. what happened to the gold that was plated on there, why did it not come back out??

Welcome to us.
Patience is your friend.
For dissolving metals Nitric need to be diluted 50/50 ish and hot.
And it needs maybe hours of dissolving before the plating comes loose.
All the advice you are given is good and the part of reading and studying the forum might seem like a tall order.

Here are some links to get you started:

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

https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/gold-refining-forum-rules.31182/

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hey guys, so I got some 14k gold plated things as a birthday present. I acid tested and use 1 of those electronic gold testing machines. Both told me I do have 14k gold plating on all of the pieces there were 2 necklaces and I believe like 10 or 12 sets of bigger hoop earrings. So I was expecting maybe a gram or so of gold. I've ran through the aqua regea and smb steps at least 5 times with different pieces with different amounts but no matter what I do I can't get my stannous solution to change color. I can physically see some small pieces of gold and/or silver in the solution but it always stays clear. My stannous formula is 25ml distilled water 30 drops of hcl 1 gram of stannous crystals and 1 gram of tin metal. Regardless if I heat it or if I don't nothing changes.. any help would be appreciated.

I have moved and merged your posts here since it is the same topic, do not spread similar posts around the forum please.

 

[nickton]

One should not waste nitric this way.

 

[kurtak]

One should not waste nitric this way

That kind of depends on what you pay for nitric doesn't it

When I was full time refining I bought 53% nitric in 55 gallon drums for which I paid "less" then $1 per gallon

One gallon of nitric will dissolve "about" (plus/minus) 2 pound of copper/brass --- so it would only cost me less then $2 to recover the gold foils from 2 pounds of gold plated pins & with nitric I would have those foils recovered in a day (compared to weeks using AP)

Soooo - 2 pounds of run of the mill "modern" pins would recover 3-4 grams of gold (foils) in one day at a cost of (about) $2 --- the copper was then recovered by cementing with iron - so the copper value was not lost ether (the copper was ether melted & poured to bars & sold to scrap yard - or used as collector metal in smelting)

My point is - not everyone on this forum is a "hobby" refiner paying $40 per liter for nitric - some here are (were) actual refiners making a living refining - buying chems in bulk & getting them MUCH cheaper

Some people pay $40 per liter for nitric - some people pay $40 per gallon for nitric - some people pay even MUCH less

So though your statement may be true for you does not make it true for everyone --- Nitric was my friend - it allowed me to recover foils from "large" batches of pins/fingers (10 - 30 pound batches) in a day rather then weeks using AP

Kurt

 

[Shark]

The first time I bought nitric I paid $85 for one liter, shipped. The second time I bought nitric I saved the shipping by picking it up, I got one liter for $50. The last time I bought nitric I bought a 15 gallon keg, with my own keg, for $75, picked up. By upgrading my permits I could save even more by getting 50 gallon drums, which I never plan to do at this point in time.

Even at those prices, I still do the “work around” stuff just because I learned how at times. Refining is often more than just getting to the gold, even though a shiny return is a nice way to reach that end.