question regarding substance in solution

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Igigi

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2012
Messages
7
good afternoon everyone I am attempting to clean up anold batch of hcl_clorox its full of all metals, the material was mixed, pins, cpus, foils and other random gold plate, it is my understanding that the precipitate was extracted then redissolved due to the presence of base metals. i added a little of each,both clorox and hcl then added a tad more hcl when the reactions settled to redissolve visible white to grey particulates and then to re acidify. i chose to cement out the copper first by means of iron leads. what i found was a black sludge or foam caked on the surface and on each lead as well....what is this black foam?

thank you.
 
if more informastion is necessary or if it will help you better understand my situation, please don't hesitate to ask.

Igigi
 
With a dirty solution like you had I would have dissolved more copper which would have cause the gold to drop out of solution. I'm not certain what to advise you with what you have. If you had added copper to drop the gold. You could have then filtered that and re-dissolved it for a cleaner solution then drop with SMB.

Rusty
 
thank you sir,
yes i have been reading about forcing the gold out with copper, i agree seems like a better idea i dont have a lot of research time with the electro...
the sludge,could be copper right?
do you think its copper?
whatever it is, is it carrying a significant amount of my gold with it?
i will start over i believe...
 
I think the sludge could be everything you had in solution if you just stuck iron leads in it. You didn't say if you applied voltage or not to those leads. Even then...

You cannot selectively precipitate copper with iron if that is what you meant. Unless copper is the only thing in solution.
 
The lead you used, could have dropped everything that was in there. The sludge, depending on your source material, should be primarily copper and gold. But it could be anything really depending on your material. I'd filter it all, incinerate it and then start off with HCl and redissolve it.

Rusty
 
UncleBenBen said:
I think the sludge could be everything you had in solution if you just stuck iron leads in it. You didn't say if you applied voltage or not to those leads. Even then...

You cannot selectively precipitate copper with iron if that is what you meant. Unless copper is the only thing in solution.
Click to expand...

yes they were hot and thank you i did not know that was the case



rewalston said:
The lead you used, could have dropped everything that was in there. The sludge, depending on your source material, should be primarily copper and gold. But it could be anything really depending on your material. I'd filter it all, incinerate it and then start off with HCl and redissolve it.

Rusty
Click to expand...

well rusty i read your advice a lil late....but i was able to get all material back into solution, so now, if im not mistaken, i should force the gold to drop with excess copper then create a clean solution to drop with smb, correct?

anything else you guys would reccomend?

also, thank you both for your responses
 
When you cement your values remove them from the solution by filtering your solution then put the filter paper and the residue into a clean beaker and dissolve, it sounds like you may well have to refine this material twice to achieve decent purity.
 
When you say "cement my values" do you mean when i force my gold down with excess copper? or when i precipitate?

or is forcing the gold down with copper considered cementing?

thank you for joining in

john
 
Cementing. It's a pretty strange word to describe the process.
Its etymology is in silver, which when similarly forced from solution, looks rather like Portland Cement. It's a well entrenched term here and I don't have a better one. Though your "forcing out/down" with a more reactive material is just as descriptive to my mind.
 

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