Second inquartation?

[MysticColby]

So I'm in the process of my first attempt at refining gold via inquarting with silver.
Some info so far:
It's all jewelry, I tested them to be various karats from 10k to 14k.
I calculated how much gold was present, then how much silver to add to inquart, and used silver I previously refined in a silver cell.
I melted it, swirled it to stir, heated it some more, then slowly poured it into water in a stainless bucket to make corn flakes.
I collected all the gold in a beaker, added water, then incrementally added 70% nitric to a 1:1 nitric:water.
That's where I am now.
The gold has kept it's shape, but the liquid looks black. Not so different from the 'solution after inquart' on http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=17790&p=180821&hilit=inquart#p180821
Anyways, I think things are going well, but I was wondering how normal this is and if this is a sign of high impurities that need a second inquartation. Probably at least rinsing and/or mild dissolving with nitric?

 

[resabed01]

Inquartation isn't a refining step, it's a recovery step. The reason one inquarts is because Nitric acid has little effect on the silver (or other base metals) in karat gold (10k, 14k, 18k) because the gold content is too high and locks up the base metals. On the otherhand, AR has little effect on the gold portion of karat gold because the silver content is too high and locks up the gold. To get around this one inquarts to bring the gold content of the alloy to 25% (one quarter) or 6k. Then nitric can get in and attack all the base metals leaving just the gold behind.
Hoke explains the process a lot better than I can.

Once you finish digesting the base metals with nitric you move onto washes and AR for refining.
So inquaring a second time should never be necessary.

 

[MysticColby]

I get it, thanks.
It also occurred to me driving home that silver would also be an impurity. I'm just so used to the point of view where you're trying to get silver, and I'm used to clear, colorless, solutions indicating higher purity.