Welcome to the forum KentuckyCol.
This topic has been discussed many times on the forum, Not much new.
Nontoxic chemicals, when mixed can become very toxic.
Vinegar is an organic acid which provides the hydrogen (same as HCl acid), the salt provides the chloride (and sodium ions), the copper provides the copper ions, and you made copper chloride.
You state not using dangerous acids, well in my mind using vinegar is not any safer than the use of HCl acid, the dangers are the same both make toxic solutions and gases...
The process and chemistry are almost the same, except for the use of a weaker acid and carbon compound of the vinegar, you are making copper II chloride to dissolve copper.
You do not have as much hydrogen from the acid with vinegar, so some of your copper II chloride is forming copper I chloride (the white powder), you could add HCl to dissolve it, or try a whole lot more vinegar and salt, to oxidize the CuCl to CuCl2.
It is the oxidizer in solution that makes dissolving gold possible, the process is not much different, use too much or too strong of an oxidizer and you could put some gold into solution vinegar is not a very potent acid or a very strong acid, it is also an organic acid (carbon-based) basically something I would not use to dissolve gold.
Will it dissolve gold if mixed with other chemicals, yes it can also dissolve many other metals.
we could probably make hundreds of different chemical concoctions to dissolve gold or other metals, but just because we can create chemical reactions in them does not make them a good candidate to recover or refine our metals in, especially our valuable metals like gold.
some else may argue with me and say that it works so why not use it, well just because we can make something work somewhat does not necessarily make it a good idea or effective.
I will go a step beyond and say to try and recover or even refine metals using vinegar is not just a bad idea, but a stupid idea, and a dangerous one at that.
Not only are you messing with an organic acid something I would not want to be mixed with gold, but you have a very good potential of losing gold in the carbon-based solution as a gold compound.
You also have the potential of making some very toxic metal solutions, and even the possibility of making some dangerous metal salts or compounds, unknowingly in some of your processes.
HCl is easy to get and cheap, it can also be made at home fairly easily.
Why anyone in their right mind that had any idea of what they were doing would use vinegar to dissolve gold is beyond me, all I can think is they read it, from someone who did not know what they were doing, and were just following them, like dumb sheep following each other off the side of a cliff.
We can dissolve gold with several different chemicals or acids, the hard part is oxidizing the gold.
We can make chlorine gas, hypochlorite or hypochlorous acid with many different combinations of chemical or salts, and acids, but just because we can oxidize gold and get it to go into solution, does not necessarily mean it is a good idea or something we should be using, especially if you do not understand the chemistry of what your trying to do or know or have any idea of what kinds of other chemical reactions could occur.
Just because vinegar has hydrogen in its compound which makes it acidic, does not make it a good acid to use to dissolve gold or other metals.
Vinegar and salt can make a carbon-based solution which contains HCl acid, So what, we can make HCl several other ways, just because we can generate a little HCl does not make it good to use for gold.
Bleach and vinegar will generate some hypochlorous acid (chlorine gas dissolved in water), chlorine gas Cl2, and sodium acetate, acetic acid, sodium chloride, oxygen, along with others in an organic carbon-based compound. this does not mean just because we have chemicals or compounds that can oxidize gold that it is a good idea to do so with them.
Some reactions of bleach and vinegar:
4NaOCl + 4 CH3COOH --> 2Cl2 + + O2 + 4CH3COONa + 2H2O
Chlorine gas, and oxygen can oxidize the gold in the sodium acetate solution.
Any lead in this solution dissolves into a very toxic compound.
What are you doing with these deadly gases and poisons you are making?
Are you destroying your health and poisoning your children or your neighbors with it unknowingly?
Another reaction with bleach and vinegar:
NaClO + CH3COOH --> CH3COONa + HOCl
Again sodium acetate and this time with Hypochlorous acid
Yes, an oxidizer for gold in an organic compound. So what?
2NaOCl + 2CH3COOH --> 2CH3COOH + 2NaCl +O2
acetic acid salt and oxygen, which can also be used in combination with the other reactions above to oxidize or put gold into solution. but also with other metals also becomes some dangerous compounds...
