Oh god help.....

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spacedude98

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2019
Messages
10
Ok so I have been puttering about with this for the last couple weeks. Working on refining a technique and the quality of where I get my gold metal plated scrap shit jewellery.... and so I did the following.

Nitric acid to remove everything. Dilution and filtered to catch every piece of undiluted gold. Multiple nitric baths to remove material till it didn't react. Using water between steps. I get left with what looks like a spoonful of gold flakes and organic matter. I create a solution of aqua regia and bam it all dissolves. I filter it off. Nice golden yellow. And the inorganic dissolvable crap is left. Little peices of random glass base particles. Exactly what I expected. So I add potassium metabisulfite and bam... nothing. Goes dark then back to yellow ish pale fluid... no precipitate... do I keep adding more? I feel like I've added too much by now. Or what do i do......
 
Sounds like you used too much nitric acid. You need to deNOX You can do that in multiple ways, including classic evaporation, adding more gold to the solution to use up the excess, adding sulfamic acid, etc.

Dave
 
Ok wasnt sure about evaporation as I didnt know if I would lose my gold that is in there. But from reading the forum I should do a low heat and let sit.... hope that works.

Wasnt sure if using potassium metabisulfite was the error as all I see around here is sodium metabisulfite
 
What made you decide to use Potassium metabisulfite ? Have you used it before ?

Evaporating a solution down to get rid of excess Nitric is painfully slow and creates a lot of corrosive acid fumes. Sulfamic acid or urea is a way better solution. Failing that I would likely cement on Copper before I went through with the evaporation plan (again).
 
Urea seems to be a faux pas here... should it be ok since I refined it to just gold?

I have some on order from amazon so I can wait
 
Hey there! It sounds like you've been working really hard on refining your technique. I've been through a similar situation before, and I know how frustrating it can be when things don't go as expected. It's possible that you over-diluted or there might be an issue with the concentration of the aqua regia solution. To precipitate gold, you need to make sure that you have the correct concentrations and temperatures. Instead of continuing to add potassium metabisulfite, maybe take a step back, double-check your calculations, and try again. Sometimes it's just a matter of trial and error, but with persistence, you'll get it right. During the process, it can be tough, but it might be helpful to relax and refocus. Good luck!

Edited to remove religious reference and link FrugalRefiner
 
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Hey there! It sounds like you've been working really hard on refining your technique. I've been through a similar situation before, and I know how frustrating it can be when things don't go as expected. It's possible that you over-diluted or there might be an issue with the concentration of the aqua regia solution. To precipitate gold, you need to make sure that you have the correct concentrations and temperatures. Instead of continuing to add potassium metabisulfite, maybe take a step back, double-check your calculations, and try again. Sometimes it's just a matter of trial and error, but with persistence, you'll get it right. During the process, it can be tough, but it might be helpful to xxx or find other ways to relax and refocus. Good luck!
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