TheBhut Intro

[The Bhut]

Hello, it was suggested I introduce myself. I am an amateur home refiner who got started by watching Sreetips on YT. I am a complete newbie, but I have taken the time to 1. Read Hokes book, not saying I completely understand everything in there though and 2. I have invested in converting my garage into a home lab paying attention to safety with fume hood, ppe, etc.

I've so far processed about 7 toz of gold from old karat and gold filled scrap. Ive tried some electronics recovery but that stuff confounds me. e.g. Normally HNO3 turns blue/bluish green when removing base metals (copper, iron, etc), but with electronics is such a mix of things, like right now I have a batch where the HNO3 has turned reddish brown with a fine brown silt, from some electronic boards where I was after the gold and palladium, anyway I'll get it sorted filter and calcinate I guess.

Glad to be here and around folks smarter than I, so thats my rather long winded Hello

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello, it was suggested I introduce myself. I am an amateur home refiner who got started by watching Sreetips on YT. I am a complete newbie, but I have taken the time to 1. Read Hokes book, not saying I completely understand everything in there though and 2. I have invested in converting my garage into a home lab paying attention to safety with fume hood, ppe, etc.

I've so far processed about 7 toz of gold from old karat and gold filled scrap. Ive tried some electronics recovery but that stuff confounds me. e.g. Normally HNO3 turns blue/bluish green when removing base metals (copper, iron, etc), but with electronics is such a mix of things, like right now I have a batch where the HNO3 has turned reddish brown with a fine brown silt, from some electronic boards where I was after the gold and palladium, anyway I'll get it sorted filter and calcinate I guess.

Glad to be here and around folks smarter than I, so thats my rather long winded Hello

Welcome to us.
How do you process the PCBs?
There are no Pd in the boards themselves, unless they are very old or military/space related.
There may be/are some Pd in the MLCCs in some high end equipment. These are best treated with smelting.

 

[The Bhut]

Hi there, thanks what I had was a mix (I think that maybe that was my mistake, mixing things) of CPUs, Memory sticks and some boards. I usually and by usually I mean this is my second time doing it, give them a decent HNO3 bath and collect the foils and solid bits for AR. Last time/1st time I just did memory sticks and after I dropped the gold, stannous kept showing brown palladium in solution and I just dropped it from the AR with Zinc to mess with later and have that set aside. This time I did the same except with a mixed bag of materials (I will not do that again), though my nitric looks a weird spooky red rust which I might think to be copper, BUT would that be blue.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi there, thanks what I had was a mix (I think that maybe that was my mistake, mixing things) of CPUs, Memory sticks and some boards. I usually and by usually I mean this is my second time doing it, give them a decent HNO3 bath and collect the foils and solid bits for AR. Last time/1st time I just did memory sticks and after I dropped the gold, stannous kept showing brown palladium in solution and I just dropped it from the AR with Zinc to mess with later and have that set aside. This time I did the same except with a mixed bag of materials (I will not do that again), though my nitric looks a weird spooky red rust which I might think to be copper, BUT would that be blue.

First and foremost you never mix material like this.
PCBs contain for the most part only Tin and Copper.
What has the values are what is on the PCBs and on the connecting points (Fingers).
Most Gold is in the Chips.
These need to be Pyrolized and incinerated before they are gravity separated, incinerated and then maybe dissolved.

You need to study some more, so her are some links for you:

We ask our new members to do 3 things.
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: https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=19798
2. Then read the safety section of the forum: https://goldrefiningforum.com/forums/safety.47/
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum: https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/dealing-with-waste.10539/

Suggested reading:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/forums/the-library.101/
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/when-in-doubt-cement-it-out.30236/
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threa...le-read-this-before-you-post-about-ore.33333/


Forum rules is here.
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/gold-refining-forum-rules.31182/

This is how Stannous tests look like:
Courtesy of LazerSteve

 

[DeBangis]

Welcome to GRF.