recovering dissolved gold in AP solution

[Geo]

i tried the water and it didnt do anything till i was rinsing the foils out of the bucket go figure then it turned white

The copper chloride (the bad kind) is readily soluble in even very dilute HCl. When most of the HCl is rinsed away, you have only water & copper chloride, which is insoluble in water & immediately precipitates as white mud.

If you remember from lazersteve's video the first rinses were with HCl, for that reason. Try adding a little HCl to the foils/white residue - the solution should clear immediately. You're not going to harm the foils with just HCl & add your rinses to the stock pot.

I use water now, with copper based materials only after several rinses with HCl. And we're not talking gallons at a time - just enough to cover the foils, and remember to give them a good stir to expose any that is trapped between foils.

ok good looking out.i tried a small batch of pins in AP just to see how it would turn out and after the foils released from the pins i rinsed the pins in tap water and got ALOT of white precipitate as mud.it mixed with the foils and i was going to try heated HCI before reading this now i know im on the right path.the white mud wont dissovle in water.i came to realize before i made a blunder about using HCI after sulf cell and nitric wash.i would have been scratching my head wondering where my gold went lol

 

[Obsessed]

I have been doing this for quite some time and due to my extreme impatience I have ended up with A LOT of various jars and containers with different combinations of a/p, acid/bleach, some with SMB. When I test the solutions most of them turn VERY bright blue immediately. Considering I can't remember EXACTLY what is in each jar is there a way I can pull the gold out of these solutions. I KNOW that there is probably a few ounces in all the containers combined. Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

 

[Grelko]

I have been doing this for quite some time and due to my extreme impatience I have ended up with A LOT of various jars and containers with different combinations of a/p, acid/bleach, some with SMB. When I test the solutions most of them turn VERY bright blue immediately. Considering I can't remember EXACTLY what is in each jar is there a way I can pull the gold out of these solutions. I KNOW that there is probably a few ounces in all the containers combined. Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Welcome to the forum,

PLEASE, BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, put everything aside for now, trust me your gold isn't going anywhere, I've messed up before also.

This link has a download for the book by C.M. Hoke that you really need to read, before you accidently hurt yourself or others. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=19798 It tells you everything you need to know about the basics for learning how to recover and refine gold properly.

The safety section of the forum here http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=47 It has the information you should learn and use, so that you can do this without injuring anyone.

This link, has alot of information regarding the Acid/Peroxide method http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=12914

The library has tons of great information that will help you along the way. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=85

When I first came here, these links helped me very much, ESPECIALLY the book by C.M. Hokes Guide To Refining Precious Metals and the Safety section.

Without reading this book, and without learning the proper safety, it's like getting on an airplane. The plane is your material, the book and safety section combined is your parachute, if you jump before you exactly what to do, or accidently forget something, the ground will hurt you alot.

There are many dangerous, even deadly fumes that some of these chemicals can make when combined, so please trust me when I say to stop what you are doing and read as much as you can before you jump into anything farther.

Edit - reworded/spelling, added link to Library.

 

[butcher]

Obsessed,
Grelko has given you the best advice possible, if followed you gain the understanding needed to become proficient at recovering and refining gold, and do it without harming yourself or others, this is a field of work that takes a lot of studying to get good at, and in fact the more you learn the better, and more you will be able to do in this field of work, like any profession, precious metal recovery and refining is not a simple matter, and can be something you will learn more of, the more you study and practice the profession, a profession in which you can learn more of your whole life and never know it all.

The answer to your original question is very simple, you will find it in Hokes book, and in the forum in hundreds of posts, but if you look for the answer there, you will also find answers to your next thousands of questions, and many more you would not even think of to ask. the real wealth is not in that batch of gold you seek, but in the education that gives you the understanding to get that gold and the gold you did not even know about that may have been right under your nose and you walked right past it, or threw it out with the trash...

Your answer is even in the safety section with dealing with waste, the one topic which is more valuable than the metals you have in your colored solutions.

 

[Brainbomb]

I have dissolved all metals from circuit boards in muriatic acid. I now have a sludge. What should be my next step? I have read that I need to now soak it in Aqua Regia to dissolve the gold. I am mainly after the gold right now, but I want to be able to recover the other nobles. Please help!

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I have dissolved all metals from circuit boards in muriatic acid. I now have a sludge. What should be my next step?

I suggest a lot of study. Here are some links to get you going:
Tips for Navigating and Posting on the Forum
Acid Peroxide Process Information Thread Q & A's

There are many other discussions of the processes you're using, but those will get you started.

Dave

 

[rhwhite67]

What is the best way to get Palladium dissolved in AP out. I am guessing that just as with Gold sticking a sheet of copper in it will do the job as it would cement out on the copper or eventually would precipitate as the AP solution became endpoint saturated with copper but just wondered if there might be a faster way. Ron

 

[jason_recliner]

Cementing palladium on copper will work very well. Agitating the solution will greatly hasten the process. Got an air bubbler?
If possible, use a solid copper bar rather than thin sheet material. Sheet may break down into flakes.

 

[Geo]

You also need to raise the PH by adding a base or by diluting the solution. If not, the cemented Pd will just go back into solution. If the solution is too acidic, it just chews up the copper. So, it's either dilute, raise the PH or saturate the solution with copper.

 

[Charlesncharg]

Oz is right. I have been referencing this forum since the day i discovered it, maybe 6+ months ago, and only until this last month i havent had the need to post anything at all. Because if you actually read through the literature provided by the forum for free and the other posts to this forum virtually ever question you could ever think of has been asked and thoroughly answered. Just takes a little reading time and patience. I'm just saying.

 

[Radu]

Hello everyone
I am dealing with some issues with the AP process. I read a lot on this forum but cannot find a solution to my mistakes and cannot find a way recover my gold.
This was the firs process I ever did 6 months ago and I want to repair it
First mistake: Pins and fingers in the same solution
Second: Did not process through HCL to remove base metals
Used Muriatic 33% with small increments of hydrogen peroxide 35%
After 3 hours almost every metal dissolved and ended up with a grey sludge with gold foils inside.

If the gray sludge is mostly copper how could I dissolve it so I can filter out the gold foils?

 

[butcher]

With the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide, some of the gold also dissolved and may still be in solution, or cemented back out of solution as black powders...

Add a clean bar of copper to cement any gold from the solution, separate the solid sludge from the solution.

HCl alone will dissolve much of the powders forming soluble metal chlorides, so you can put much of the tin, nickel, and copper back into solution, leaving your gold and the more insoluble lead chloride, the lead chloride is soluble in boiling hot water...

After dissolving as much as you can test all of your solutions for dissolved gold, and use copper to cement any from solution.
After removing as much base metals from the powders as you can from the gold by washing, you can then redissolve the gold, and precipitate it from the solution...

 

[Radu]

Thanks a lot.
Most of the gold precipitate out of the solution and keeps precipitating as black powder. I even tried sinking a copper bar into the solution but it seems there are no powders to attract.

So i guess there is no hope if i just try HCL and Bleach to get only the gold out of the solution?

 

[anachronism]

Thanks a lot.
Most of the gold precipitate out of the solution and keeps precipitating as black powder. I even tried sinking a copper bar into the solution but it seems there are no powders to attract.

So i guess there is no hope if i just try HCL and Bleach to get only the gold out of the solution?

You could always test the solution for gold before adding a copper bar. If there is none, there's no need to add the bar and waste your valuable time.

Test test test. 8) 8)

Jon

 

[g_axelsson]

Circuit boards are made from pure copper, nickel plating and then gold plating. Tin and lead can be included too if the board was soldered or having a coating of HASL (Hot Air Solder Levelling).
Pins on the other hand is seldom made from pure copper as a base, it's often an alloy so there might be zinc, tin, phosphorus, silicon, ... and that can easily form a grey sludge of unknown content. The peroxide could easily oxidize any tin and now you have metastannic acid too.

And I agree with Jon, test, test and to be sure... test again. :mrgreen:

Göran

 

[Geo]

From your post, when you said "almost all metal dissolved". In the future, ensure all metal dissolves. it would have been much easier.

 

[Radu]

Thanks a lot everyone. I am now working clean but this is an old mistake and had to recover something from this disaster )

 

[Radu]

Also I want to atach an image showing a golden button from a previous process, but after melting these pieces also showed up :?:

 

[Radu]

Hello guys,

I almost processed all the fingers in AP solution. Gold foils coming out just fine, but also some gray sludge decanted with the foils. Is it gonna dissolve in fresh hcl to separate from the foils? Or what method should I use to separate them?

Thanks

 

[glorycloud]

Fresh HCL should dissolve the grey sludge.