Oops, thiolsulphate leaching mistake!

[aussie_noob]

Mistakes were made.

Used thiolsulphate to leach gold plated pins, got a clear solution.
Then added hcl to get to a ph of 3-4 and added smb. And then realised smb doesn't work with thiolsulphate.
The solution turned a yellow murky colour, i suspect the ph caused the thiolsuphate to degrade, fine gold in solution, no longer dissolved.
Dunno how to get the gold now?
High salt from both HCL and NaOH that were added to adjust ph, can't tell ph from high salt.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Mistakes were made.

Used thiolsulphate to leach gold plated pins, got a clear solution.
Then added hcl to get to a ph of 3-4 and added smb. And then realised smb doesn't work with thiolsulphate.
The solution turned a yellow murky colour, i suspect the ph caused the thiolsuphate to degrade, fine gold in solution, no longer dissolved.
Dunno how to get the gold now?
High salt from both HCL and NaOH that were added to adjust ph, can't tell ph from high salt.

Well HCl and NaOH gives NaCl(Table Salt).
Salt is neutral and should not affect the pH to much I believe.

I'm not sure if SMB works with ThioSulfate or not, but it should be more in the range of 2-1 for best effect.
If the Gold are in particle form just add HCl and a little bit of Bleach and it will redissolve
and you can use SMB, Copperas, Ascorbic or what ever your preferences are.

What you do NOT do is start throwing chemicals at it in hope something works.
Ask first.

 

[aussie_noob]

What would happen if you just evaporate to a powder and furnace it? Dumb idea?

 

[Yggdrasil]

What would happen if you just evaporate to a powder and furnace it? Dumb idea?

One of the reasons ThioSulfate is not much used is that it is hard to get the Gold out.
Smelting might be a solution but might be riddled with heavy losses.
Not sure here, but smelting/decomposing salts always poses risks of losses.

The best bet is always to use the most common methods, they are most common for good reasons.