Non-Chemical Pins in AP

[thereisnospoon]

Well, I haven't been around in a while but I still love visiting the site andnseeing others accomplishments. Once such visit about a month ago rekindled my interest and while I don't have the room or safe space for processing on a large scale, I was motivated to process the pile of gold pins I had collected off all the boars, etc. I processed back in the summer of 2007.

I used 1/2 water and 1/2 muratic acid to start (about 2 cups each). It was still a little cold here so I added a little H202 to kick off the process. Then I just let the stuff sit and about once a week I go stir. When I got back to it this week, there seems to have been a breakthrough.

So I have 2 questions:

1. I have nice shiney gold particles floating in the solution and when I stir even more , but there is still a fairly large pile of pins and stuff remaining (about 1/4 of the original volume of pins) in the bottom of the solution. At what point is there a "break even" where the process will start to melt the gold and I'll lose it into the AP?

2. If Some of the gold has gone into solution, can I use the SMB to drop it out of that as well, or is there a BETTER process?

Thanks,
Spoon

 

[lazersteve]

Spoon,

Add an air bubbler, a loose fitting lid, and a cup of HCl and let the reaction continue. Air and HCl won't touch the gold, but HCl and Peroxide will.

Steve

 

[thereisnospoon]

Thanks Steve,

you da man!

SPoon

 

[glorycloud]

Steve,

Can he still drop any gold that has gone into solution because of the AP?

I have some pins from the green fiber CPUs that have been soaking in AP for a long time. The solution was getting a milky grey color because of some IC's that the AP had dissolved (I guess) from the bottom of the CPUs. I filtered off most of the liquid and started a fresh batch of AP. When I added he H2O2 again the solution turned a bright yellow / orange color so I bet I have gold in solution.

I am hoping to filter off the solution away from the remaining pins, process the flakes and use SMB to drop the gold from the solution. Would that be the best way to go??

Thanks!!

 

[lazersteve]

Glory,

I try to avoid adding SMB to AP as it forms a very fine gold powder that frequently redissolves back into the solution before it settles. The best way to get dissolved gold out of AP is to use the AP until it is saturated with copper. The gold will then cement out as brown/black mud.

Steve

 

[thereisnospoon]

I try to avoid adding SMB to AP as it forms a very fine gold powder that frequently redissolves back into the solution before it settles. The best way to get dissolved gold out of AP is to use the AP until it is saturated with copper. The gold will then cement out as brown/black mud.

[slaps forhead] DOH! NO tellin how much gold I trashed...

What is the fine white powder along with the gold from the pins...is it the solver base by chance?

Spoon

 

[lazersteve]

What is the fine white powder along with the gold from the pins...is it the solver base by chance?

It's copper I chloride most likely, especially if it dissolves in HCl to form a deep brown liquid.

Steve

 

[glorycloud]

what do you do about the fine white powder? Just keep using the AP or should you do something else??

 

[lazersteve]

what do you do about the fine white powder? Just keep using the AP or should you do something else??

It gets caught in the filtering process and easily dissolves in the HCl wash if it is CuCl.

Steve

 

[glorycloud]

great - thanks! I may have to yank a few old gray filters back out of the "to be processed later" pile.