Refining problems

[cytek]

Ok I have been dealing with Steve on this but thought i would put it out for the community. Here are the processes i followed.
1. Stripped just fingers from Pentium II and III CPU's using AP.
2. Rinsed and washed, Yield 7 grams or foils. BTW 50 fingers yielded 1.2 grams of foils.
3. Dissolved using HCL-CL, no problem looked like thick gold water, filtered again.
4. Added 8 oz or SMB, just turned clear, I then added more SMB and got a cloudy dark color like Steve's video. Great. I then let it drop and syphoned off the liquid. Washed the Gold mud but used 1500ml of water, Steve said too much water, so he recommended boiling it down. I did no problem. nothing but brown mud.
5. I washed in little water 3x and then in HCL 3x . Heated slowly to evaporate the water and HCL both times.
6. Now i have a nice light brown dirt. Great ready for the MELT>
7. One problem i weighed the dirt now i have 28 grams when i started out with 7 grams of gold. confused a little? So i tried to melt a few grams.
8. Performed the melt with a mapp gas torch added borax and melted.
9 NO gold. just some white/ grey substance. See first photo "after melt".
10. Now i have taken the rest of the brown dirt and have re-dissolved in HCL and Cl. Nww i am really confused i get a little dark sludge in the middle and a whole lot of white powder.
Question: what is the white powder? See other photo "white powder". I am now going to percipitate with more SMB and see what happens.

Thanks for you input
Cytek

 

[lazersteve]

2. Rinsed and washed, Yield 7 grams or foils. BTW 50 fingers yielded 1.2 grams of foils.
3. Dissolved using HCL-CL, no problem looked like thick gold water, filtered again.
4. Added 8 oz or SMB, just turned clear, I then added more SMB and got a cloudy dark color like Steve's video. Great. I then let it drop and syphoned off the liquid. Washed the Gold mud but used 1500ml of water, Steve said too much water, so he recommended boiling it down. I did no problem. nothing but brown mud.
5. I washed in little water 3x and then in HCL 3x . Heated slowly to evaporate the water and HCL both times.

That yield is way out there. Did you weigh the foils dirty and wet? Always weigh your material after washed and 24 hours of drying.

SMB needed for 7 grams of Au would be no more than 14 grams dry, typically just 7 grams.

I said to use less water, not to boil down the excess water.

You don't need to heat the mud between washes, just heat the wash liquid while it's in the wash. The mud stays wet until you are done with all the washes.

The increase in weight, the color change, and the odd results could indicate salt. Does the white material dissolve in water?

I just posted a new washing tutorial in the tutorials section.

Steve

 

[cytek]

The foil yield was dry and weiged on a digital scale. Perhaps too much SMB. The only reason i boiled down the water is because i didn't think i could filter it. I am on a well so i wonder if the well water added something? I will try dissolve the white power, the white/grey chucks that i melted down , i will try soak them but the are very hard.

Also, are you saying i should have only used 7grams of SMB? The only reason i used more was because the solution stayed clear and didn't turn dark.


I will go to your site and check out your washing techniques.
Thanks again Steve.

 

[lazersteve]

The washing tutorial was posted to the forum Sunday. It's in the tutorials section at the top.

Steve

 

[markqf1]

Cytek,
In my experience the well water can definetly add something.
Stick to distilled water for you're experiments.

Mark

 

[OMG]

I had a somewhat similar situation. The brown powder I got was dirty sulfur (with a bit of gold I think).
I was using electrolytic methods but it sounds very similar. The precipitation method I was using pulled the sulfur out from the SMB.
I washed the brown powder in HCl and it did not dissolve........ actually it did a little bit I found out later, but only with a lot of heat - and it formed H2S gas. (very faint smell of rotten eggs)
Sulfur also will dissolve easily in HCl-Cl to give a bright yellow liquid. (S2Cl2 or something). The difference with [S2Cl2] is that when you add water it turns clear - not just a lighter yellow like you would think.
Also when you burn the sulfur powder it smells like matches being lit.

Hope my follies help you. Good luck.

 

[cytek]

I haven't had time to experiement with the white poweder but i will try tonight. After pouring off the yellow liquid i do believe it's gold still ( i did have 7 grams when i started) . So the gold water was 500 Ml and i diluted 3 x and unfortunately i added WELL water again. Added SMB and evertthing went clear and then dark like Steve's video. Let it stand over night and check this morning, light brown powder again at the bottom so i poured it off. Will wash 3x with Distilled then with HCL and then 3x with distilled again and follow Steve's washing proceedure and try a small melt again and see what i get.
Worse case i could dissolve again with HCL-CL and use distilled water next time and drop with SMB and wash wash wash and try again. The solution definately tests for gold.

Thanks for you reply's.
Cytek

 

[viacin]

"BTW 50 fingers yielded 1.2 grams of foils"

I've always wondered if socket size = pin count.
Help me expand my refining lingo a bit. by fingers do you mean each pin on the cpu? Or are you referring to the older style cpu's on a PCB with gold fingers? My guess would have to be the later, or you would have almost 23g of gold on one socket 939 cpu.

 

[lazersteve]

He's talking about slotted PII and PIII Cpu card edges.

Steve

 

[butcher]

white powder cold be sodium cloride(table salt) copper chloride and your gold dont discard it. try disolving it in boiling water, maybe adding Hcl if needed, I have noticed SMB seems to work better warmed(this helps me to not get too much)too much SMB will drop copper chloride salts,also save liquids decanted test them for gold.

 

[Anonymous]

4. Added 8 oz or SMB, just turned clear, I then added more SMB and got a cloudy dark color like Steve's video.

More of a question than actually sorting out a solution to the currant problem being discussed here.

My understanding of an oz is 28grams unless we are talking Troy oz which I believe is 31.1035 grams ( I do understand that US measures can differ from UK measures) so that would mean on the first attempt at precipitation more than 32 times the amount of SMB was used and then some more ( Xgrams) was added, surely the unused residue of this is going to contribute towards the extra weight recorded in the precipitate and complicate matters when melting.
Harold used to use S2 gas to precipitate gold from solution, I remember one of his posts explaining he did this so as not to add anything to the solution, so would I be correct in assuming that this problem stems from overuse of SMB rather than the way the precipitate has been washed and handled ?

I ask so I and others can avoid this same problem

Marty

 

[jsargent]

Ok I have been dealing with Steve on this but thought i would put it out for the community. Here are the processes i followed.
1. Stripped just fingers from Pentium II and III CPU's using AP.
2. Rinsed and washed, Yield 7 grams or foils. BTW 50 fingers yielded 1.2 grams of foils.
3. Dissolved using HCL-CL, no problem looked like thick gold water, filtered again.
4. Added 8 oz or SMB, just turned clear, I then added more SMB and got a cloudy dark color like Steve's video. Great. I then let it drop and syphoned off the liquid. Washed the Gold mud but used 1500ml of water, Steve said too much water, so he recommended boiling it down. I did no problem. nothing but brown mud.
5. I washed in little water 3x and then in HCL 3x . Heated slowly to evaporate the water and HCL both times.
6. Now i have a nice light brown dirt. Great ready for the MELT>
7. One problem i weighed the dirt now i have 28 grams when i started out with 7 grams of gold. confused a little? So i tried to melt a few grams.
8. Performed the melt with a mapp gas torch added borax and melted.
9 NO gold. just some white/ grey substance. See first photo "after melt".
10. Now i have taken the rest of the brown dirt and have re-dissolved in HCL and Cl. Nww i am really confused i get a little dark sludge in the middle and a whole lot of white powder.
Question: what is the white powder? See other photo "white powder". I am now going to percipitate with more SMB and see what happens.

Thanks for you input
Cytek

FWIW I bet there was enough salt in the precipitate to cause the gold to vaporize as gold chloride during the melt, hence the white residue and zero gold. I had a similar thing happen when I failed to rinse ion exchange residue of residual salt. Poof went the gold much to my embarrasment.