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J

jbhz_finisher

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
Messages
10
Location
bentonville, ar
Hello, Im a soon-to-be gold refiner.. I hope. I have been looking and reading forums for 2 days now, and this is great! very good information.

My question is.. Instead of striping all the component's from pc boards and other e-scrap for gold recovery, can i dump all of my e-scrap into one big bath to seperate the gold and dissolve the silver and other pm's into solution?

thanks in advance
 
The cost of the chemicals to put everything into solution in would subtract from any value you would recover. The resulting complex solution would be difficult to recover your values from. It would also be a great deal of hazardous waste solution to deal with.

Kind of like finding a finely divided needle in a huge haystack.

Just as a mine that follows the high grade ore vein is is more efficient than tearing the whole mountain apart. Picking the best pieces keep the cost of what you recover down.
 
Thanks for the reply, After my last post I read further and found simular questions in regards. It makes perfect sense to me.

I just have one more question, How much weight of striped fingers/pins/cpu gold would you recommend I gather before i dissolve my first batch? and how much gold can i expect to get out of it?
 
It is often useful to run small test batches to become familiar with your chosen process or to try different processes. Test tubes small beakers or jars are good for this. After the learning is out of the way batch size is a wide open subject. After you know what to expect from a process bigger is better. The labor it takes to recover a half gram is about the same as several ounces. So it depends on whether it is for fun or profit.
 
Ok guys, Im running my first ap batch... I have 400 grams of fingers, the ap solution has same color simularity as steves video, and It seems to be stripping the fingers fast. Steve mentioned in his video that after the reaction is done and solution is filtered that there may be some desolved gold in ap solution. Do I percipitate the gold from ap solution the same as I would with AR (acid and clorox) using SMB ?
 
AR is aquaregia, and acid clorox are not the same thing and precipitation techniques differ.
SMB will precipitate gold from either one, and will also precipitate gold frop acid peroxide. too much SMB will precipitate some copper.
 
jbhz_finisher said:
Ok guys, Im running my first ap batch... I have 400 grams of fingers, the ap solution has same color similarity as steves video, and It seems to be stripping the fingers fast. Steve mentioned in his video that after the reaction is done and solution is filtered that there may be some dissolved gold in ap solution. Do I precipitate the gold from ap solution the same as I would with AR (acid and Clorox) using SMB ?
Click to expand...

It has been noted in past posts that unless you have used 30% peroxide solution (store bought peroxide is 3%) the gold dissolved into solution should be minimal, usually not enough to warrant dropping the gold with SMB and destroying your AP solution. This way you can re-use your AP solution over and over again reducing your chemical usage and costs.

Re-use your AP and the build up of Copper Chloride in you AP should drop the gold as a black sediment that can be filtered out in your next reaction.

If you decide that your AP is finished it's usefulness then test your AP solution with Stannous Chloride (tin and hydrochloric acid). If the test is positive for gold drop with SMB (Sodium Meta Bisulfite).
 
How can I reuse my ap solution for my next batch? Just ad more perixode? Also I know there has been much talk about where to get smb online. dose anyone know where one might look locally to buy?

Thanks for all your help.
 
If you get an aquarium bubbler and place it in your used AP solution that has been filtered, the color will go from dark opaque green or dark coffee brown even to a clear emerald or light green. Once you get it back to this light green color it's ready to re-use.

You can rush this process by adding peroxide just before you do your next batch. The peroxide in solution will break down in a few days so use it when your ready to use your solution or its effects will dissipate.

Go to Lazersteves website and read the CuCl (Copper Chloride) essay he has. It explains the best criteria for keeping your AP solution banging on all cylinders.

I am still reading it over and over each time I get another tid bit of great info.
 
Ok , I just dissolved my first batch of fingers using muratic acid and clorox. Im quiet happy with how it's turned out so far. The solution is a rich golden color. I just ordered some smb from ebay so it might be a few days before i can drop any gold. I hope this will not affect the solution. (as in sitting a few days). I guess I should have waited for smb before dissolving foils... lol
 
Ok, I think I messed up!! I diluted my Au CL3 solution with water 4 times over, And then I added some smb that i mixed up in warm water. I mixed up 65 grams of smb into 100ml of warm water. Than I added smb mix to Au CL3. The solution turned clear and stayed clear, it did not turn brown at all. it is now 24 hours later and it looks like there is some gold precipitation (very little) in the bottom. I Think I added too much smb? I cant beleave this is all the gold in the solution..... I thought there would be more.. dose this look normal? Here is a picture of what it looks like now 24 hours later.
 

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jbhz,

The yield appears to be less than 1 gram.

If your 400 grams of fingers were not closely trimmed, had thick circuit boards, single sided, or were missing gold contacts on either side this yield is normal. Also newer low yields boards have a much thinner plating on the contacts that do not strip as a foil, but as a fine gold colored 'dust'.

All the exceptions I listed above will lower your yield.

High grade fingers are very closely trimmed, full of contacts on both sides of the finger, and on normal thickness boards. Higher grade fingers will yield upwards of 3 grams of 24kt gold per pound.

Steve
 
The finger foils did result in a bottle of mostly dust, I suppose this is why the Au CL3 solution did not turn a brown color, when I added smb? Also was 65 grams of smb per 100ml of water too much?
 
I know your feeling of "you might be missing something...". I felt it big time my 1st two batches. The ONLY way you will feel better is to test your solution with Stannious Chloride.

Hydrchloric Acid with a piece of pure tin. Heat the Hydrochloric acid to help disolve the tin. This is called stannious chloride. There are many posts on this forum on the best way to make this testing solution and sources of pure tin that you will need to use.

Use a Q-Tip to dip in your solution that may contain gold then drop a small amount of stannious chloride on the Q-tip. (Cotton Swab). If the cotton swab changes color there is gold or PGM's still in your solution.

The Stannious Chloride test is very sensitive, if there is not a color change then your solution is barren of any further gold.

This will be the ONLY way you will feel confident you have harvested all possible assets from the solution in question. To my knowledge this test will work even if your solution is saturated with SMB. Having your solution saturated with SMB will not hamper the precipitation of gold from solution. Quite the opposite.

If you get a positive result from your Stannious test post results with a picture of the color of the Q-Tip. The guru's here as long as you show results an throw nothing away can generally get you out of trouble, but if you don't test or if you throw something away, generally your screwed.
 
Download the gold refining forum handbook vol. 1 and also Hoke's book for info on the stannous test. Lead free solder that is 95% tin and 5% antimony can be used for the tin.

Both of the above books have good info about the testing solution and the colors and what they mean.

Hoke's book http://tinyurl.com/hokesbook

Gold refining forum handbook vol. 1 http://tinyurl.com/yshc4v

general reaction list http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=562&highlight=making+stannous+tin has info on making stannous chloride and also has pictures of the results. This one is a good one. Thank lazersteve for this one.


Her's another good post with directions http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=1692&highlight=making+stannous+tin

Also lazersteve's site http://www.goldrecovery.us/ has a video that shows the stannous chloride test. He also has a lot of PDF files that are helpful. The CuCl2 as an etchant one tells about using air to regenerate the etchant (I think). It sounds, to me, like this would work to dissolve the copper and free the gold foils from gold plated circuit board fingers.
 

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