Question, I can't find an answer - Red Brown sponge

[grfphil]

Hi, I know this may sound like it was already asked a thousand times, but I did not do the process normally.

Here is what I did.

1. Took broken CPU Ram and a gold plated connector and placed it it 66% Hydrochloric Acid and 34% Hydrogen Peroxide which left me with the nice gold foils.
2. I then removed the majority of the solution but left only a little bit and filled the jar back up with distilled water. Now I have a nice Red Brown Sponge on the bottom of the clear water, my foils are still there. The only thing i can figure out is that could be gold precipitate from the gold connector?

What could this be? Here is a picture.The gold connector is actually inside the big blob of sponge. This solution was greenish before I dilluted it in the distilled water. Please let me know what you think. I did not do anything except the steps above. Thank you in advance, and forgive me if this was a repost someplace.

 

[butcher]

grfphil,
You are using too strong of a hydrogen peroxide solution, you only need 3% peroxide, so you do not put your gold into solution as you dissolve away the copper from under the foils.


I believe you may have dissolved some of your gold in the solution, the HCl and strong peroxide will oxidize and dissolve gold, you must have not have used enough solution to dissolve all of the gold foils, the copper could have cemented out some of your gold from solution onto the copper, I suspect the red brown sponge is copper and some gold, also I hope you tested your solution for values as not all of the gold may have cemented out of solution, also did have any solder involved? Did you see how easy it was to filter the solution, as if there was tin involved, you could have formed gold colloids in solution keeping you from getting the gold back very easily.

Where in the world can you get 66% HCl? I did not think you could concentrate it that High.

 

[grfphil]

Hi, thanks.

I'm sorry, i should correct this. I meant 66% of the solution was HC with 34% of the solution peroxide in the jar, not the actual percentage. I meant 2 parts HC with 1 part peroxide ( the household stuff). Hope this helps.

There was no solder exposed. It was just the tips of the ram I cut off of the actual memory stick to help minimize the non-gold material.

 

[Marcel]

H2O is a precipitant as well. Check the full reavtivity chart (2H2O2 is just below zinc). By adding water to the remaining solution, you have precipitated - copper.

 

[grfphil]

Thanks for helping me. So the gold foils are fine?

Is the copper precipitate pure copper now? I'm wondering where it came from. It was just the solution from those boards.

Could it be gold precipitate from reused solution from other gold foils I retrieved? Sorry to add that piece of the puzzle. I reused the solution.

It could be copper from that connector, I bet that connector was copper with just a gold plating based on what you said. That connector is inside that blob of brown sponge. lol.

However i must say, "WOW - That's cool!" I'm new to all this and very engaged by it.

I can make a copper bullion

 

[butcher]

grfphil,
When we speak of percentage of HCl or peroxide we are normally speaking of the acids concentration, and not how much of each of these we put into the solution we. I think I misunderstood what you have in your leach, how strong was the peroxide?

So did you use 3% hydrogen peroxide? Check the bottle, if so then you would not have put your gold into solution, and the red stuff is just copper, keep water over it or it will turn green from copper oxides, and add back your green solution of copper II chloride leach (acid peroxide leach) to finish dissolving the copper into solution, since you do not have white copper I chloride (but a red sponge copper), I would say You had enough HCl in your copper II chloride solution (acid peroxide solution), but may need more air or 3% hydrogen peroxide, the color of your leach solution will tell you a lot about what you need, when you need more oxidizer or acid, if white salts of copper I chloride precipitate this is an indication you will need to add more acid.


Read the documents on Laser Steve's web site, it explains the copper II chloride leach very well.

Also this is such a small batch of gold foils you should save them, or use it for experimenting with like learning to use stannous chloride testing for gold in solution, that little bit of gold foils would be hard to recover if trying to refine it.

 

[Marcel]

I would expect the copper to come down as Cu(I)Cl in the form of a grey sludge. But since you seem to have used an "unusual" setup of chemicals and HCl that may be the effect. Is the copper of a fluffy consistence? Hard to believe that it really much, rather a foam like consistence which will vanish into a tiny cloud of "nothing" as you poure the water out of the glass. Did you leave the glass outside in the cold overnight?

 

[grfphil]

Thanks Butcher,

Much appreciated. My mistake on terminology.

I was going to honestly save the gold for about a year until i get at least an ounce worth before trying the next step. I'm new to all of this and believe it when I say I am enjoying every minute of this.

What karat are gold foils typically? Will I need to refine it if I get an ounce or could I just smelt the big pile once I save enough. Any suggestion will be great. This is my first time and I would like to learn each process at a time before going to the next step.

Thanks again.

 

[grfphil]

Hi Marcel,

I left it outside in about 50 degree weather. Also I drained it and it stayed fluffy, delicate but fluffy.

 

[grfphil]

Hi Marcel,

I drained it at lunch and looked fluffy when I left. I will post a picture this evening of what it looks like. I'm about to get off work in a bit. Thanks.

 

[Labman]

If there were bits of iron or steel in your scrap, the extra strong peroxide would have oxidized the iron to the trivalent. Trivalent iron precipitates as an orange red sponge of iron (3) oxide hydrate at low pH's (pH 1.7) which explains why it appeared after the dilution with distilled water.

 

[butcher]

grfphil,
The foils are fairly pure gold but would have some copper, melting them that way they would still need to be refined, not to worry, by the time you have an ounce you will have learned how to refine them to high purity of gold, and will be able to make your own beautiful pure gold buttons.

 

[grfphil]

Hi, sorry I didn't grab a picture. I've been redoing floors tonight. The sponge turned green as it was copper. Thanks for helping me figure this out. I will save that for something though. Not sure about what yet. I have to search.

 

[butcher]

Put it in the stock pot, to pick up values from solution.

 

[Marcel]

If there were bits of iron or steel in your scrap, the extra strong peroxide would have oxidized the iron to the trivalent. Trivalent iron precipitates as an orange red sponge of iron (3) oxide hydrate at low pH's (pH 1.7) which explains why it appeared after the dilution with distilled water.

Yes , if he left a spoon or another tool in that glass, would have been this result. Makes even more sense after all...