VERY FINE AND DIRTY (gold)

[Michael Rogers]

This is my first attempt at trying to recover some gold. I had alot of old computers around my house. Basically I depopulated the boards and grinded all of the ic chips and bga's into almost a sand like texture. I used a gold pan to remove as much of the trash as possible then I put the concentrate into muriatic acid peroxide solution. What I have is a good bit of very fine gold but there is still alot of other metal in it. I dont know what direction to go in. I dont want to use aqua regia until I get it cleaned better. Anyu advise?

 

[Yggdrasil]

This is my first attempt at trying to recover some gold. I had alot of old computers around my house. Basically I depopulated the boards and grinded all of the ic chips and bga's into almost a sand like texture. I used a gold pan to remove as much of the trash as possible then I put the concentrate into muriatic acid peroxide solution. What I have is a good bit of very fine gold but there is still alot of other metal in it. I dont know what direction to go in. I dont want to use aqua regia until I get it cleaned better. Anyu adView attachment 61984View attachment 61986View attachment 61987View attachment 61988vise?

Welcome.

Try to pyrolize and incinerate it thoroughly.

But seriously , where did you find this procedure?
It should have been separated and sorted into different batches, then processed each its own way.

Here is for your studies, and believe me you need it.

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/

 

[Martijn]

This is my first attempt at trying to recover some gold. I had alot of old computers around my house. Basically I depopulated the boards and grinded all of the ic chips and bga's into almost a sand like texture. I used a gold pan to remove as much of the trash as possible then I put the concentrate into muriatic acid peroxide solution. What I have is a good bit of very fine gold but there is still alot of other metal in it. I dont know what direction to go in. I dont want to use aqua regia until I get it cleaned better. Anyu adView attachment 61984View attachment 61986View attachment 61987View attachment 61988vise?

Welcome to the forum.
That's a very interesting way to recover the gold without burning any plastics.
You could try a nitric acid leach to see if any silver or Pd is in there, but it looks ready for AR to me.
But if this is your first attempt; How much do you know about safety and working in a fume hood to keep the gases away from you? The AP went well as I can see. So you have shown you have some skills.

Try a couple of grams of the powder before dissolving the entire thing. With nitric or AR. It should be rinsed well and heated to get rid of any chlorides if you try nitric to avoid gold dissolving.
AR is made by adding a drop of nitric to warm HCl and letting that react out on the gold before adding another drop.
Play with small amounts to get familiar with dissolving, chilling and filtering and then precipitate the gold.
Collect the powder until you have enough to melt.
Suggest your steps here before you do anything.
And read those links Yggdrasil gave you. Especially Hoke. They're the basics that will help you understand what you are doing.
You could have lost some bonding wires and foils with panning, but grinding it down so fine could have rolled gold balls of the tiny bits, helping with holding it in the pan.

An assay on the panning tailings would be very interesting.

Did you weigh and record what went in the grind and how much concentrates you now have?

Oh, and one last thing: try to always use gloves. Also on 'clean' beakers with foils.

But nice job so far.

Martijn.