SPILLED GOLD SOLUTION

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B

BRC1

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2022
Messages
18
Location
Usa
Okay so finally had my first big spill. I caught the Vacuum hose on the Buchner as i was filtering my gold bearing solution (GBS) and the Filtering flask tipped over. Only about a third of the solution came out so not a total loss but still frustrating. I soaked up the GBS best i could with paper towels before neutralizing the area with a basic solution. My question is: can i just disolve the paper towels in nitric with my next batch of gold filled material or should i just chalk it up as a loss?

thanks in advance for any help!
- B
 
I believe the proper thing to do is to save the paper towels and add them to your filter papers to incinerate for further recovery/refining.
 
Thanks for the reply! i did put them with my filter papers. but wouldn't the step be just to incinerate the towels then add to nitric and just go through the normal gold recovery steps (nitric, filter, AR filtrate, MBS etc)
 
I'm sure you COULD get SOME gold doing it that way, but following the established techniques allows you the best chance of getting the MOST. Depending on what else got wiped up on the paper towels, you could be introducing a bunch of junk into the mix. Incineration is meant to remove as much "garbage" from the equation.

Edited for spelling.
 
O yea i would def incinerate, but what i was trying to say was is there any other extra steps after incarnating that I'd need to add on top of the regular gold refining process using nitric and AR?
 
Just filtration and housekeeping ;). I highly recommend you do some reading on the matter though. I am still learning myself friend.
 
i appreciate it! and i def will. and yea this is looking like to be my best yield yet and of course i go and spill a third of the solution. O well... i def learn something new EVERY time i refine THATS FOR SURE
 
BRC1 said:
Okay so finally had my first big spill. I caught the Vacuum hose on the Buchner as i was filtering my gold bearing solution (GBS) and the Filtering flask tipped over. Only about a third of the solution came out so not a total loss but still frustrating. I soaked up the GBS best i could with paper towels before neutralizing the area with a basic solution. My question is: can i just disolve the paper towels in nitric with my next batch of gold filled material or should i just chalk it up as a loss?

thanks in advance for any help!
- B
Click to expand...
Lots of paper in the nitric isn´t the greatest thing. As you heat it, paper will disintegrate and filtration is somewhat painful. And so is rinsing the "cake" :)
I usually extracted the towel few times in water, squeeze it good, and after third squeeze, i just didn´t bother with it and throw it to the waste.
As Martijn said, SMB treatment with subsequent incineration is probably much more viable route.

Always use some sort of catching pan. Basic plastic crate will be good enough. You can cut the sides to the approximately half of the height, so you can work more comfortably inside it.
Save your values, time and also if doing something toxic/hazardous - saves some nasty cleaning operation.

Everybody experienced some kind of spillage... hopefully it will be your last :)
 
orvi said:
Lots of paper in the nitric isn´t the greatest thing. As you heat it, paper will disintegrate and filtration is somewhat painful. And so is rinsing the "cake" :)
I usually extracted the towel few times in water, squeeze it good, and after third squeeze, i just didn´t bother with it and throw it to the waste.
As Martijn said, SMB treatment with subsequent incineration is probably much more viable route.

Always use some sort of catching pan. Basic plastic crate will be good enough. You can cut the sides to the approximately half of the height, so you can work more comfortably inside it.
Save your values, time and also if doing something toxic/hazardous - saves some nasty cleaning operation.

Everybody experienced some kind of spillage... hopefully it will be your last :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input ! And yea I have a catch pan on my hot plate but of course forgot to put one under my filtration funnel, but you live and you learn.
 
Please consider "secondary containment" for all of your precious metal reactions. I may be the odd duck here, but I also have secondary containment for when I do my melts as well. A large flat plastic tray with a small lip shouldn't run you more than $20. Just do your mixing, filtering, and reactions over it. A small investment considering you may be handling thousands of dollars of precious metals. Accidents happen to even the most meticulous chemists and refiners.

Best of luck with your recovery, as others have pointed out, squeeze out as much of the load-bearing liquid as you can, then toss the paper towels into your filters bucket for processing that way.

Elemental

Edit: The melt containment’s is just a sheet of stainless steel with the edges folded up.
 
Last edited:
Yup hindsight is 20/20. Learned a valuable lesson that I need a catch pan under my funnel and not just my beakers
 
E91C1C5F-B13C-4EBB-A459-0344729C1A85.jpeg
Okay so I took everyone’s advise and rinsed the paper towels with distilled and then wrung them out and the above pic is the result. I did get a medium positive stan test but I believe it would be stronger if it wasn’t so diluted. My question is what would be my next step? I was thinking about boiling off a lot of the water and adding some HCL to make it acidic and then dropping with SMB, but not sure if that’s right. What are your alls thoughts?
Thanks!
 
Not a bad idea, but it's not overly important to boil down to much.
It would work as is, I guess.
Not knowing how much extra liquid you have.
But when that is said.
The drop will be faster and more complete if its concentrated.
Up to you how much resources you will use😉

Regards Per-Ove
 
BRC1 said:
Okay so finally had my first big spill. I caught the Vacuum hose on the Buchner as i was filtering my gold bearing solution (GBS) and the Filtering flask tipped over. Only about a third of the solution came out so not a total loss but still frustrating. I soaked up the GBS best i could with paper towels before neutralizing the area with a basic solution. My question is: can i just disolve the paper towels in nitric with my next batch of gold filled material or should i just chalk it up as a loss?

thanks in advance for any help!
- B
Click to expand...
To avoid this kind of catastrophe, I always place a plastic tray under the equipment. It is as simple as that.
 
Just wondering how many out there have experienced a very rapid burning of their filters. Nitro cellulose is produced when paper is nitrated in Nitric. It usually has to be a strong solution, followed by a couple water washes. Any carbonaceous material can be nitrated, as well as most metals. I don't want to turn this into a lesson on how to make high explosives, but reading some of the mishaps that occur here, somebody could inadvertently create a monster in the bottle.
 
So it's Monday Morning and I am still festering over how much gold I've probably just burnt off as AuCl in my papers.... LOL!

Treatment with a SMB solution before incineration totally makes sense and I'm still laughing at myself for not realizing this step. Thank you Martijn, for pointing this out.
 
Quiklearner said:
I believe the proper thing to do is to save the paper towels and add them to your filter papers to incinerate for further recovery/refining.
Click to expand...
Per the bold print - you have to be very careful with this process - if not done right much/most of your gold can/will go up in smoke - on the other hand - done right you will recover the VAST majority of the gold

In this thread I posted very detailed instructions of the process -------------

https://goldrefiningforum.com/threa...nd-pm-salts-recovery.21638/page-2#post-306023
If it were me I would first go with squeezing/washing out as much of the gold chloride as possible - as suggested by Orvi - then follow up with SMB as suggested by Martijn - or if you have filters that need to go to ashing anyway (as in the link) just add this in with them

Kurt
 

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