Tutorials never mention the acid concentration

[AmateurGoldSeeker]

Hello,

I have seen many tutorials, that are basically all the same, but when it come to the part where they say to dilute a certain amount of nitric acid with a certain amount of water, they never mention what is their acid concentration to begin with. So their mixture "recipe" is basically useless. So, my question is, what is the nitric acid concentration (after dilution) that needs to be used for the first bath (before using the aqua regia)?

 

[4metals]

Are you using nitric because you have inquarted with silver and want to part the alloy to rid the alloy of the Silver and base metals? If so I prefer 2 parts distilled water to 1 part nitric acid (68%). Some refiners use it 1:1 and it works as well so it comes down to who you learned from.

The nitric added to aqua regia need not be diluted before use.

 

[AmateurGoldSeeker]

Are you using nitric because you have inquarted with silver and want to part the alloy to rid the alloy of the Silver and base metals? If so I prefer 2 parts distilled water to 1 part nitric acid (68%). Some refiners use it 1:1 and it works as well so it comes down to who you learned from.

The nitric added to aqua regia need not be diluted before use.

Thank you!

 

[Martijn]

Hello,

I have seen many tutorials, that are basically all the same, but when it come to the part where they say to dilute a certain amount of nitric acid with a certain amount of water, they never mention what is their acid concentration to begin with. So their mixture "recipe" is basically useless. So, my question is, what is the nitric acid concentration (after dilution) that needs to be used for the first bath (before using the aqua regia)?

Welcome to the forum.
To add to 4metals post, nitric is usually the azeotrope of 68% if not mentioned otherwise. HCl is usually about 30%.
AR is never premixed, but nitric added bit by bit to warm HCl.

What do you want to refine? And how much have you studied so far?

 

[macfixer01]

Just to add to what was already said... Acids are usually sold in a few commonly used concentrations. Some such as fuming nitric acid, are so concentrated that they’re overly dangerous and we’d never normally use them for refining. An acid concentration could be specified as a percentage, or a Normal or Molar number. There are some online calculators you can Google to convert between values. If they’re diluting the acid further before using it in the video, then it’s probably one of the more concentrated forms such as 68%. If your acid is a weak one, you could just add less water or possibly even none? Keep in mind though that you’ll need enough solution overall to cover the material. If so you may need to start with more acid to make up for the less water added, or work in a little smaller beaker. For many purposes, a weaker acid will work ok, but take longer or require you to use more of it over the course of the processing.

 

[AmateurGoldSeeker]

What do you want to refine? And how much have you studied so far?

I collected a dozen motherboards and memory cards, with gold plated connectors, and I'm curious to see how much gold I could get out of them.

 

[Martijn]

Start (studying) with the contact fingers.
Cut them close to the gold and make sure no solder or components are left on them.
The easiest way is the copper chloride leach aka AP.

Don't do anything without letting us review your plan. Post it all in one thread for your own ease. Don't buy anything before you have an approved plan.

Have fun!

edited for spelling.

 

[Shark]

Don't do anything without letting us review your plan. Post it all in one thread for your own ease. Don't buy anything before you have an approved plan.

Have fun!

That deserved repeating.

Don’t buy or process anything until getting your plan approved.

 

[GoIdman]

Hello,

I have seen many tutorials, that are basically all the same, but when it come to the part where they say to dilute a certain amount of nitric acid with a certain amount of water, they never mention what is their acid concentration to begin with. So their mixture "recipe" is basically useless. So, my question is, what is the nitric acid concentration (after dilution) that needs to be used for the first bath (before using the aqua regia)?

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Usually if you watch some tutorials or recovery-refining videos on youtube they mention the product and the place where it is brought from (muriatic from home depo etc.). If you chech the product description you can find out the concentration of the product.

I can only agree with fellow members, who are directing you towards the learning process and safety section of this forum.

While learning, you can gather and sort materials, for future recovery, but I personally DO NOT recommend you to process anything , until you didn`t read and understood the safety section of this forum.

Be safe.

Pete