Tea any one? Noe seriously please help!

[skoorb]

I already posted this but I thought I would start a new thread!

I made the mistake of jumping in head first. I went and bought the $55 kit from shor and I procesed 5 computers (dell optiplex p3's) I did a small batch to see what I could yeild. This was BEFORE I found this forum. when all was said and done, I ended up with 1/2 a gram of gold. I was, needeless to say, UPSET with the result. I figured on atleast 1 to 1.5 grams. Well lets just say I did not get all the stuff out of the computers.

Ok on with the question.

I tore apart another 50 computers did the same thing as before and now I have 1.5 gallons of, well, Texas Tea?

Not clear, black fluid. This fluid had hardly any solids at the bottom after sitting for almost 2 days. So I am wondering how can I get my gold from this solution. Is there a way to start over? From now on I have decided I am going to use Steves method but I really want my gold lol.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I tried adding some peroxide to the solution and nothing.

the chemical in the solution are hcl subZero urea storm and about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of peroxide. I tested the solution and it still has a Ph of about 3
and there is just under a gallon of this solution.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Noxx]

Cement everything with copper than start over.

 

[JustinNH]

Yeah, cement and start over...

So it turned black and wont settle after you put in the 'storm' precipitant? If so, thats the gold, i believe. I think heating it up helps the gold drop out. No first hand experience, but I think ive read that on here a few times.

 

[skoorb]

Ok I tried heating and I have what seems to be a massive amount of powder on the bottom. I am pretty sure it is not all gold as I added hcl and it changed from gray to black. when I stir it the top layer black but the powder underneath is gray. Any ideas?

forgive me for asking this amatuer question but could you please explain the cementing process? I dont want to be a pain but I think I have quite a bit of gold and dont want to lose it.

And I started another batch using laser steves method (AP) and all is going as expected so far. I do have a question though. I noticed in his film that all he did was foils. I did ic's fingers and cpu's as well as pins. is it a good idea to do just one group at a time or is it ok to mix them up as I have. I seem to have alot of very fine gold powder that floats and sparkles in the mixture when I agitate it.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[nicknitro]

I would keep scraps sorted and processed accordingly.

The CPU's undoubtedly have solder and iron which could complicate things later on.

As I'm positive everyone else will tell ya, "As I got the same thing LOL", read up on the forum, I especilly like Lazersteves webpage for visual aids, and grab a copy of Hokes refining book, and read it till you fully understand, before you jump into too much more.

Basically in refining, the object is to remove as many impurities as possible, in many steps as you will see in Hokes Book. There is no one catch all way to deal with all scraps. People here are very good atgiving help and advice, just beware if you ask a lot of questions that are already discussed in other forums, it discourages them.

Have fun,
and if I can help any more PM me or I believe there is a link to a chat room in one of the forums here.

Nick

 

[lazersteve]

Your gray powder sounds like copper I chloride.

It is nearly insoluble in aqueous solutions, but dissolves in acid (HCl).

Rinse it out of your gold foils using HCl washes and lots of stirring.

The rinse acid can be oxidized then used as AP on your next batch.


Steve

 

[skoorb]

hey guys thanks alot. I heated the solution and rinsed. did this several times. there was still a reaction and color change so I decided to put some peroxide in the solution and stired the liquid changed to a nice yellow color and there was some residual powder on the bottom which is now white. I filtered the yellow solution which I assume to be auric chlohride, heated some water and disolved a small amount of smb after about 30 minutes i have a light tan to brown liquid which is settling. sound like it is all coming together. i will let you know.

Thanks for all the help

 

[Lou]

Steve,

Many people seem to be bewildered by cuprous chloride.

Perhaps we should sticky a post explaining that the whitish sediment on the bottom is caused by:

Reaction of
copper (II) chloride with elemental copper to give copper (I) chloride, the water insoluble silt.

or

copper (II) ion reaction with a reducing agent (sulfur dioxide produced by sulfites) with chloride present.

 

[skoorb]

Ok,

I as I said earlier I started a new batch. everything went well until SMB when I added the auric chloride it turned clear then kind of gray never brown there is a small amount of brown silt on the bottom but the solution is clouded with crystals. what are the crystals and where did I go wrong? too much smb? too much clorox? oh yeah I also tested the solution and there was a very small amount of gold in solution as it took about 5 minutes for a color change to a very pale purple!

You make it took so simple steve.

 

[lazersteve]

Skoorb,

The gray and purple upon precipitation sounds like colloidal gold to me. This is very finely divided gold particles suspended in the solution.

Add some water to dissolve the crystals. Then add a small amount of HCl and boil to break the colloidal suspension.

All in all it sounds like you had very little gold in the solution along with some copper, then added too much SMB and formed the purple colloidal gold and crystals of either copper I chloride or SMB.

Steve

 

[butcher]

and did you disolve solder? you can have stannous (tin) cloride and gold reaction.

 

[skoorb]

ok that helps. I know i had very little gold and i thought that maybe i did use too much smb. Now on to another question. I have about half a gallon of acid peroxide and notice there are very very small particles of gold attached to the side of the jar as well as a gray powder at the bottom. what is the best way to re-capture those tiny gold particles? and yes i did dislove too many different things at once. from now I am only going to process one thing at a time as advised by another member. Pictures below.