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Nighthawk

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
21
Hello,

Was wondering if anyone can help me, I desolved computer parts (about 2 1/2 lbs) everything seemed fine, parts where desolved in a solution of aqua regia. Once complete I ended up with about 1 litre of black liquid. I incorporated about 50 grams of Sodium bisulfite to precipitate it but nothing seemed to hqappen, I was expecting powder to form in the bottom, but did not see anything, I have stored it overnight to rule out a time delay, will find out tomorow but I was under the assuuption that it would be very quick?

any help would be appreciated..

thanks
 
The circumstances you have developed are, in part, the result of following instructions you should have never read. Certainly, you didn't get the information from this forum, did you?

Until you understand what's wrong with the procedure you have chosen to pursue, not much good is going to come from your experience. What I suggest you do is stop where you are and start reading Hoke's book, so you'll have a basic understanding of the importance of eliminating base metals. Right now, you may not have anything of value in solution. I read no reference to testing with stannous chloride----so you may or may not have anything--even if you started with values.

One of the readers may wish to hold your hand while you recover the assumed values, but until you know where they are, that may be a tall order.

I'm not trying to give you a bad time, so don't assume that's the case. I'm simply trying to point you in a direction that will teach you the things you need to know to be successful in refining.

If you do not have a copy of Hoke's book, do a search for Palladium. He has the link in his sig line. Read the book until you understand what it teaches you-----and don't try anything in the way of refining until you have stannous chloride. Without a means to test, you have no idea what you have.

Harold
 
No I did not read the info on this site, cause I did not realy find any explanation on the process here, (maybe I just missed it ) but did get it from many different ones, and they seemed to have roughly the same explanation ??


21/2 lbs of conector pins, RAM foils, CPU etc,
 
Nighthawk said:
No I did not read the info on this site, cause I did not really find any explanation on the process here
Click to expand...

I don't think you looked hard enough then. Maybe not at all. This topic has been gone over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over..... and over again. So you can see why some have disinterest in replying to your question(s)

Here are a few threads you may find some answers in. It took me about 2 minutes to find them using the forums search box. It generated 102 pages of results. Notice how they all begin. I bet there are about 100 more threads like these.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=10364&p=99992&hilit=aqua+regia#p99992

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=10191&p=98287&hilit=aqua+regia#p98287

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=10176&p=98188&hilit=aqua+regia#p98188

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10137&p=97753&hilit=aqua+regia#p97753

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=9778&p=94098&hilit=aqua+regia#p94098

Please read Hoke.
 
Nighthawk said:
No I did not read the info on this site, cause I did not realy find any explanation on the process here, (maybe I just missed it ) but did get it from many different ones, and they seemed to have roughly the same explanation ??
Click to expand...
Yes---other sites-----with contributions from people that don't have a clue, and likely never will.
These people have taken a page from a system that is known to work, and ignored everything that goes with that page that makes it work as it should. Until you understand the ramifications of ignoring the full system, you'll struggle and wonder what went wrong.

Be enlightened. Read Hoke.

Harold
 
Nighthawk said:
Thanks for the info, I got a copy of the book, I will see where I went wrong,..

Frank
Click to expand...
I could give you instructions, as could others, but what you'll learn from reading Hoke is going to apply across the board, helping you in almost all instances. That's the reason I'm directing you there. It's the most help anyone can offer you aside form coming to live with you and showing you each and every thing in person.

I wish you well! I really do! :)

Harold
 
Thanks harold,

So many things to look at...been reading the book, and from the looks of it, I was not too far off the mark, but still a peice away, From what I got so far is that I should have maybe soaked my material in Nitric acid to remove some of the base materials first, but it also states that some of the lower grade gold could be "flaked" off, and since I am dealing with mostly plated electronic parts around 10K most of the gold would need to be sorted out from the sludge ? is this a corect deduction? and can I skip this process? With the gold prices being what it is, I am determined to make this work, but one thing that I found is that the products are very expensive. I live in Canada and nitric acid is not easally accesible and restricted(anything above 67% concentrate is restricted to Labs, schools, or companys that have legitimate use for it) , i was lucky to be able to get some from Fisher Labs at a 50% concentrate but it cost me 140$ for 1 Litre!! does anyone have info on getting this product at a more reasonable price?
 
Gulp $140 a litre.....
I know that nitric is hard to come by and expensive across the pond but that's extortionate!

I won't tell you what I pay as it will make you sick but try using the search function and look up how some members have made their own using sulphuric and various nitrates.
You should be able to produce an acceptable nitric acid and one hell of a lot cheaper.
 
Yea I know, well the container was 66$, what was the killer was all the other charges , shipping fees, minimum order surcharge, extra fuel charge, etc etc etc ... extra fees never stop adding
 
Nighthawk said:
Thanks harold,

So many things to look at...been reading the book, and from the looks of it, I was not too far off the mark, but still a peice away, From what I got so far is that I should have maybe soaked my material in Nitric acid to remove some of the base materials first, but it also states that some of the lower grade gold could be "flaked" off, and since I am dealing with mostly plated electronic parts around 10K most of the gold would need to be sorted out from the sludge ? is this a corect deduction? and can I skip this process? With the gold prices being what it is, I am determined to make this work, but one thing that I found is that the products are very expensive. I live in Canada and nitric acid is not easally accesible and restricted(anything above 67% concentrate is restricted to Labs, schools, or companys that have legitimate use for it) , i was lucky to be able to get some from Fisher Labs at a 50% concentrate but it cost me 140$ for 1 Litre!! does anyone have info on getting this product at a more reasonable price?
Click to expand...

Electronics are never plated with 10k or 14k.... From what I know it is pure gold. When you dissolve base metals in nitric that sludge is where your gold is. That is why you decant and filter spent nitric. If you will pay for nitric what you pay right now, you are going to spend more money than you get gold from refining pins.
 
As you've been advised, when you eliminate base metals with nitric, the values are in the material you reference as sludge. That's the whole idea. Once you have eliminated the base metals, you can then process the greatly reduced in volume materials by various methods---depending on what they are. Incineration is often a good ploy--as is a digest in HCl (after incineration), before dissolving the values. All of this will make more sense when you understand how to refine, which is why you should read Hoke. Once you understand, you'll notice that most of the processes are very similar.

Mean time, I think you need to read the forum, doing research on alternate methods for dealing with base metals. You have other options beyond paying astronomical prices for nitric. They're all on the forum---including stripping with a sulfuric cell, and the acid peroxide process. No one way is perfect---each of them have definite advantages, so try to study each method, and become familiar with its application.

Harold
 
Ahhh ok, the bath of Nitric acid before desolving the gold in Aqua Regia makes more sence now,

thanks

frank
 
Ok,

I'm starting to see the errors of my ways in starting the whole process, but I can't find how to correct my initial problem, as I posted in my first post, I screwed up, i desolved everything in Aqua Regia and now I know I should not have, but what do I do with the 1 litre of liquid that I do have now, obviously I did not nutralize my Nitric acid before adding Sodium Metabisulphite, I get that, I did not desolve the tin, or other metals with nitric acid before desolving the gold, got that. future reference that I need to incorporate in my next attempt, but my question is, what do I do with that 1 litre to recover the gold that I desolved? there is a lot of info in Hocks book, maybe I am just missing the solution, does anyone have a answer, obviously there is gold in there, it did not evaporate ,and i know to test it with stannous chloride, but how do I get the gold out at this point of my screw up ?
 
I did not do a stannous chloride test yet, need to find the product and learn how to use it.... baby steps people..baby steps lol I don't pretebd to know ll yet :)
 
no offence, but even if I do a stannous chloride test, that will tell me if there is gold left in the solution, obviously there is gold it was deluted in that solution , once I do the test I am still left with the inicial problem, what do I do with that solution that I have...of course the test will come back possitive, the gold did not dissapear, I have to figure out what to do with it...i understand the idea behind the test, but after the 2 minute test, then what, ??
 

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