Orange powder after drop? possible contaminants?

[whsnare]

I have what i know is some very rich gold bearing ore. I have preformed the drop and would like to know what my possible contaminants are if you guys could help. The powder has a orangish color too it. working on pics if i can find the camera cable.

1. Blended then baked the ore
2. Washed with HCL (overnight)
3. Ran through AR process
4. and dropped with Sodium Sulfite

My AR solution with the ore was about the same color as maple syrup if thats any help.


any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[whsnare]

This is the closest color of my Gold powder that I can find.

 

[samuel-a]

You are at the point of creating your own experience.

It's hard to tell what and if any contaminates are in your dropped gold powder without seeing it.

First, check initial solution with stannous chloride for any presence of PGM's .

Wash your powder well with water and then add full strength HCL, heat and notice if a color change occurs, notice for any greenish/yellowish hue. (remember that fine gold particles may dissolve in straight HCL as well, so test it with stannous)

you can always dry the powder, incinerate (heat to dull red) and notice if oxides are formed (usually black), if contaminates are present move on to washing with with favorite agent (either HCL or nitric)

And finally, notice the melt quality, see references in the gallery section of how clean melted gold should look like.

Good Luck.
Sam

 

[Harold_V]

This is the closest color of my Gold powder that I can find.

I'm not sure what the problem is. Did you expect the precipitated gold to look yellow?

Because precipitated gold is finely divided, it reflects light in all directions. It won't appear yellow, regardless of how pure it may be---but if you abrade it, aligning the particles and flattening the surface, it often takes on a yellow luster. I commonly made reference to precipitated gold as having the appearance of ground cinnamon.

Be certain to wash the gold you recover, using acid.

Harold

 

[whsnare]

Thanks guys, for the most part I think i expected to have screwed up. I will try out the above mentioned and check the results. thanks again.

 

[lazersteve]

I would not advise the use of nitric acid for washing gold. HCl will remove the common contaminates.

Proper cooling and filtering prior to precipitation will remove silver chloride.

Steve