uncertain of results

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sounds like tin.is the powder grainy when you try to filter, or does it turn soft and gooey. metastannic acid in nitric acid is a nightmare when you try to filter.if you had done a large lot, you would be screaming right now.the only real way to deal with metastannic acid is to incinerate it to recover the gold.
 
I would lean more toward the soft and gooey side. It goes right through the filter. So I have some gold plated tin... Hmmm. Interesting prospect.

Edit: I can bend at the pieces and chip the plating off, making gold shavings. I guess this would be a better way to avoid dealing with the excessive and troublsome base metals?
 
Plated stock should not be processed in that manner. It sounds as though it is dissolving the plating and then 'attacking' the base metals and that is what is depositing on the bottom. Plated material could have several different base metals that you really don't want in your solution. It is best to do plated in an electrolytic cell.
 
what i told him is just an experiment to see what he is dealing with. he isnt doing big lots, just testing pieces to see what its made of and how it reacts. really its a better way of learning the reactions involved on really cheap material than waiting to learn on more expensive stuff.
 
I'm sorry Geo. I made this reply after the bottom of page 2 thinking that was the last post, DUH! At the time I didn't realize there was a third page going. DUH again! :oops:
 
Geo, That's EXACTLY what I am doing. And this stuff is REALLY cheap. I mean old lady, everyday, gawdy cheap. Of sources to refine gold from, I would rate this stuff just above sea water. I shall do the boil in HCl.

maynman, it's not reall dissolving the plating perse. It is definately removing it from the main body of the jewelry but I can still see gold fleck in the goop like glitter. That is probably what you meant. It looks kinda cool actually. What is the basic principal of this "electrolytic cell" you speak of?

The results are in. HCl (37%) turned emerald green color. Again, visible Au flakes floating around. Some black granules formed and also something that looks a lot like salt... very granular. Most of the piece remains in tact with a dull pewter/Pb look to it. I have some heavy hitter 98% Sulfuric, just FYI.
 
WallaceFish said:
Geo, That's EXACTLY what I am doing. And this stuff is REALLY cheap. I mean old lady, everyday, gawdy cheap. Of sources to refine gold from, I would rate this stuff just above sea water. I shall do the boil in HCl.

maynman, it's not reall dissolving the plating perse. It is definately removing it from the main body of the jewelry but I can still see gold fleck in the goop like glitter. That is probably what you meant. It looks kinda cool actually. What is the basic principal of this "electrolytic cell" you speak of?

The results are in. HCl (37%) turned emerald green color. Again, visible Au flakes floating around. Some black granules formed and also something that looks a lot like salt... very granular. Most of the piece remains in tact with a dull pewter/Pb look to it. I have some heavy hitter 98% Sulfuric, just FYI.
Click to expand...

Yes, thank you for the correction. I did mean to say that the solution was undermining the gold and releasing it from the base metal. The same as doing fingers in AP, more or less.

The electrolytic cell uses sulfuric acid, an anode, cathode and of course DC power to remove JUST the gold plating. It's very fast and efficient. If monitored properly, there very little base metals involved. Someone correct me if I am wrong as I have not done this myself and I am going from memory. Just do a search for Sulfuric Cell. There's lots of info on them.
 
Yes, I know it's an old thread but by reading it from the beginning it dawned to me that everyone missed one important thing so I'll add it for future readers.
WallaceFish said:
Using AR method, 100g of alloy + 300ml HCl + 50ml Nitric added until no more recation. Let it settle overnight (very dark green solution). Lots of grey matter accumilation at the bottom. Filtered that off with some chunks of alloy left over. Next, had only good clean filtered, dark green solution. Dissolved 5g SMB in distilled water, added to filtered solution AND... precipitated more grey matter. Last time, I used the EXACT same method but got Au with SMB addition. Now it seems I am getting AgCl but that doesn't make any sense to me. All that should have dropped out while cooling overnight PLUS the material was low in Ag. If gold content in feedstock is very little, will this be difficult to recover?
Click to expand...
WallaceFish said:
majority of the shot I made was GP junk. I am not even sure it was gold at this point. Along with it was some 14k stuff. As for the inner base metals of the GP material it was soft and gray like Pb but not as heavy.
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No wonder he didn't find any gold in his mess. Most of the gold that were dissolved in the beginning would have cemented onto the alloy that were taken away by the filtering and would still be with the solids.
I guess that everyone just assumed that the alloy was a high gold alloy suitable for AR and not made of gold plated objects melted together.

Göran
 

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