I am new to refining. I have a friend that does it and I wanted to learn. I have a lot of gold plated telecom boards. I ran a few of the through AP solution after I cleaned the boards of components. T he AP solution did a great job clearing the gold and silver. My friend says to put the filter and everything in AR solution and drop the gold with SMB. But my question is how do I get the silver out of it? Should soak the filtered material in nitric acid first then drop out with copper or will it drop out with the HCL then filter again?
Silver from AP
- Thread starter Reggy
- Start date
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There is no Silver in the AP.
Any Chloride forms Silver Chloride immediately, Silver Chloride is not soluble in water nor acid.
Even Aqua Regia will not touch Silver.
What ever the AP dissolved is not Silver, but most likely Tin solder.
It is obvious you need some studying and this is the place to do it.
Here is what you need:
1. Read C.M. Hokes book on refining jewelers scrap, it gives an easy introduction to the most important chemistry regarding refining.
It is free here on the forum: Screen Readable Copy of Hoke's Book
2. Then read the safety section of the forum: Safety
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum: Dealing with Waste
Suggested reading: The Library
Forum rules : https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/board-policy-this-should-be-read-by-everyone.4646/
Martijn
Well-known member
Why do you think there is silver on these boards in the first place?
And did the AP loosen the gold foils or dissolve them? What happened to the presumed silver parts?
And did the AP loosen the gold foils or dissolve them? What happened to the presumed silver parts?
Yes the gold dropped off quite easily. My supplier said they contained silver in the soldering, I do not know for a fact. They are very high end boards with gold layering on both sides, one side full layer.
The gold did not dissolve as far as I know. But like I said there is a white powder when filtered, definitely a chloride unsure if silver or not.
The gold did not dissolve as far as I know. But like I said there is a white powder when filtered, definitely a chloride unsure if silver or not.
If there is some silver in the solder, it may have become silver chloride. But there are many other metals on boards, and some will create solid oxychlorides under the right conditions.
Try putting the white goo in bright sunlight, if it turns dark black/grey on the surface after an hour or so, it's at least partly made up of silver. The surface silver chloride, when exposed to sunlight, decomposes into silver and chlorine gas. If it doesn't change after a few hours in the sun, it's trash.
