hey guys, I have been refining some scrap and I have about 30 gallons of left over AR in my stock pot. I am not perfect at this so there is a chance that some silver chloride is still in the stock pot and that some gold that was precipitated hadn't settled out of the solution. The nitric acid is completely neutral. I have put some scrap iron pieces in the stock pot and they have dissolved until they stopped. What should I use to precipitate any valuables left? How do I test for any valuables? How do I process the precipitated sludge? I am very interested in getting any gold, platinum, palladium, and rhodium left in the stock pot. I am ignorant and need help. I appreciate any advice, thank you.
stock pot 101
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Your mistake was to use iron, copper would only have cemented values out, now you have any values plus copper in the mix.
I suggest a little more study before attempting further refining or recoveries from the stock pot, any values in there are safe if you don't throw them away.
I suggest a little more study before attempting further refining or recoveries from the stock pot, any values in there are safe if you don't throw them away.
I really appreciate your advice. I understand now i should have used copper so i avoid all the unwanted base metals. I am reading hoke's book and she used zinc to precipitate the sludge, does sludge precipitated from zinc go through the same process as sludge from iron? If i am not mistaken i think zinc precipitates more base metals than iron.
I will give you an answer, zinc can be used to precipitate various metals but usually only when one value is in solution alone ie no base metals.Reading Hoke will give you the basics but a whole lot more will be learnt from reading the forum, use the search function top right of your screen to research, virtually everry question has been answered in depth and by some of the most knowledgeable people in refining.
Some links to Hoke and Harolds posts...
Göran
- * For those that doesn't know it yet, Hoke have a whole chapter for the stock pot, chapter 13, page 143-155.
* Harold's five quart ice cream bucket
* Harold, sending iron filing to the stock pot
* Harold, filtering and incinerating the cemented metals
* Harold, emptying the stock pot
* Harold, 20 year stock pot savings plan
* Harold, hydrogen from the stock pot ignites
* Harold, short introduction
Göran
Pantherlikher
Well-known member
Also a search on the elephant in the room has some other very useful posts.
The iron you used dropped anything of value. Let settle for a week and drain off as much solution as possible.
Then treat as described time and time again. And of course, the solids knowing PMs and copper are present with anything above steel.
B.S.
The iron you used dropped anything of value. Let settle for a week and drain off as much solution as possible.
Then treat as described time and time again. And of course, the solids knowing PMs and copper are present with anything above steel.
B.S.
Geo
Well-known member
30 gallons is a lot of solution to deal with. Some miss the point that Harold made about evaporating to keep volumes of solution manageable. You should evaporate the solution to concentrate the values first. If you have a gram of gold in a gallon of solution, it would be hard to detect if cemented out. If you have a gram of gold in a couple hundred ml's of solution, it would be much easier to detect and recover. There are some good ideas on the forum about evaporating from old coffee makers to crock pots but what ever you use, use something and evaporate the solution and make things easier for yourself.
For what you have, the iron cemented copper and the copper cemented values (if there were any) so if you have metal solids, incinerate the solids and wash in warm, dilute nitric acid. Any solids left would probably be gold. Use copper to cement any other precious metals from the nitric wash.
For what you have, the iron cemented copper and the copper cemented values (if there were any) so if you have metal solids, incinerate the solids and wash in warm, dilute nitric acid. Any solids left would probably be gold. Use copper to cement any other precious metals from the nitric wash.
