T-6

[Lou]

I'm so glad I just saw this thread.

Because it is so wrong, and in so many ways! I'm close to locking it, except for a few bits of possibly useful information.
I'm sick of seeing T-6 recommended in refining. It has no place.


"Using a kitchen strainer lined with a coffee filter filter 5 gallons of your source water into a 5 gallon bucket. Add 1/4 cup clorox bleach and 1/4 cup plain household amonia and stir vigorously with a log plastic spoon. The foam forming on the to is the precious metals and they will slowly precipitate out and fall to the bottom of the bucket. Carefully pour off the water and filter the powder through a coffee filter. You can then view it under a jewelers loupe or microscope and you will actually see the pieces as small nugget and flake shapes of each metal. this powder can be weighed by a very good scale and will tell you how much metal you can recover per gallon of water. A good estimate is that if the pile in the bottom of the bucket is the size of a dime it is commercially recoveralble and profitable to do so. "

LET NO ONE ACTUALLY DO THIS!!! This is a very dangerous procedure which does not accomplish anything close to what is claimed. For lack of a better word, it is insane. No one should mix ammonia with bleach in any circumstances.

 

[rhwhite67]

Lou

Thank You for your input. The desire to learn how to get the precious metal out of this stuff is a very real desire for several people as i have mentioned in my post.

The issue with Chlorine and Amonia, I deffer to your knowledge and as stated above in an answer to Irons reply, I prefer to do the water test with amonia chloride which accomplishes the same result.

As for T-6 you are absolutely right and I agree with you whole heartedly, there is no place for it in refining. I our case it was used to extract the precious metals from a large volume of leach solution based on bad information we received from the person who was selling it as a terrific precipitant for precious metals. It does precipitate the metal but then you cannot get the metal back out of it.

As i stated above. as soon as i have a chance to try the suggested method from Johnon or find a way to extract the metals from this goop I will post the information to try and help those who have had the miss-fortune of running across this stuff.

Thank You for your diligence and the blessing of your input for everyone here.
Ron

 

[butcher]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A795611
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/mixing-bleach-and-ammonia.html

 

[Gratilla]

I wonder if solvent extraction (SX) with DiButyl Carbitol (DBC) might be the way to go.

My thinking: T-6 is a very "broad spectrum" leach/precipitant, ie it can be used as both/either leach/precipitant; it leaches and precipitates pretty much ALL metals. DBC is selective for Au and ignores most of the other metals - Ag and Hg I believe are exceptions. The T-6 docs, themselves, suggest a second (more specific) leach to get at the PMs from the precipitate.

So, would either of the following work:

a) Releach the T-6 precipitate with say AR or SSN, followed by SX with DBC.
b) Direct DBC SX from an acid-side T-6 leach of your cons (ie before precipitation).

 

[BamBamNielsen]

Phill,

I am currently using T6 but as a leach NOT a precipitating reagent. I leach at acidic PH, swing the PH and everything falls out of solution as organo-sulfides. I have had ZERO difficulty using this and smelting afterwards. Maybe I can help? I don't understand your problem but then again I am having a hard time following this whole thread. I come at this from a pyrometallurgical position meaning that there are a lot of details I would need from you in order to know how to help:

What are you using the T6 for?
What exactly is the difficulty?
What are your EXACT smelting conditions? (atmosphere, crucible type, temperature, residence time, collector metal etc)
What are your EXACT smelting reagents?
Reagents to precips ratio?
Do you have an assay of your precips?

The devil is ALWAYS in the details.

 

[g_axelsson]

Welcome to the forum BamBamNielsen!

I don't think you will get an answer, last time Phill visited the forum is eight years ago. It's ten years since the thread were active last time.

But it's always good to get more information about procedures, even in old threads, because it adds to the amount of knowledge stored in this forum.

Göran