Waste treatment system at Gold Refinery

[4metals]

The pipe with the holes actually directs the air bubbles and maximizes their contact with the cemented particles that like to stick to the copper slab causing them to slough off. The air movement he has, as seen in the video, is aggressive and probably be more effective than a propeller on a shaft unless it is one big propeller.

I would hang one of those cylinders, like the one he made and showed us in the video, around every slab in the cementation tank.

Remember, the more surface area of copper that effectively contacts the values in solution, the faster it works.

 

[Gold.refinery]

The air movement he has, as seen in the video, is aggressive and probably be more effective than a propeller on a shaft unless it is one big propeller.

I have an idea, do you approve? Increase the diameter of the cylinder to 200 mm. Make holes at the highest level.
That is, there should be no holes between the bottom holes and the top holes.

Use two copper plates in the middle of the cylinder.

I shared the video to build another cylinder if you have no advice.

 

[Yggdrasil]

If I were you, I would cancel the middle pipe with holes. Just take it out. I dont think air bubbles will create enough movement of liquid into the pipe and out from the holes. You would need kind of a propeller for that. I think as is it is restrictive.. I would get few copper sheets as wide ad possible and submerse them in to the tank and let the air do its job. the thicker the plate the better it is. technically you are replacing gold ions with copper so copper plate will disappear. We use two plates that are 6" wide, 3 feet long and 1/2 inch thick. we always keep them in it the tank and occasionally take it out and rub them off.

I can’t say what dimensions this is, but there is only one pipe.

It is a tried and tested design, I use around 50mm and 300 mm long.
The longer the pipe is and it is completely submerged it will create a “draft” through it by the air.

Of course you can create circulation any way you want as long as the circulation around the copper is strong.

4metals beat me to it

 

[4metals]

Truth if the matter is the cementation you are doing with the rig you made is fine. In the long run the metals recovered from cementation will just bring you closer to overall accountability but not make or break you.

If you were to hang 2 slabs in the fixture you made, you would likely have substantially less circulation on the 2 slab sides facing each other. So in reality you would gain little.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I have an idea, do you approve? Increase the diameter of the cylinder to 200 mm. Make holes at the highest level.
That is, there should be no holes between the bottom holes and the top holes.

Use two copper plates in the middle of the cylinder.

I shared the video to build another cylinder if you have no advice.

You want good speed around the copper slabs, increasing the diameter negates that.

 

[Shark]

Maybe an air lift pump for a pipe that size. They will move large volumes of fluid with aggressive bubbles.

 

[EMRE]

do not increase the diameter..

 

[Gold.refinery]

4metal
Yggdrasil
Shark
Emre
Orvi

Do you have an opinion on the location of the holes and the number of holes?

 

[Shark]

I have never used one that size. But, I am thinking near the top. As Yggdrasil mentioned the updraft caused by the air being pumped in will lift the cement up and out. So I would consider where that lift starts loosing its power to keep the cement in good motion to be the better location.
I also agree that larger pipe would not be the way to go. Adding additional pipes might not be a bad idea based on how much material needs to be cemented out.

Let’s see how the others feel.

 

[4metals]

Do you have an opinion on the location of the holes and the number of holes?

This isn’t rocket science, what you have will do the job. You have bigger fish to fry!

 

[Shark]

I missed that video the first time. It sure seems to be working well.

 

[EMRE]

4metal
Yggdrasil
Shark
Emre
Orvi

Do you have an opinion on the location of the holes and the number of holes?

Even no holes is fine as long as your bubbles create upward stream of liquid.. .

 

[EMRE]

4metal
Yggdrasil
Shark
Emre
Orvi

Do you have an opinion on the location of the holes and the number of holes?

Let me ask you something; what is your reason for refining? do you want to make gold bars? if so in what denominations? The reason I am asking is because you will need to have a labaratory with proof corrected fire assay capability. ICP is even better. This is to verify the purity of your work. You can not do this with XRF machines.. Just so you know..

 

[orvi]

4metal
Yggdrasil
Shark
Emre
Orvi

Do you have an opinion on the location of the holes and the number of holes?

As it was said, as you have it, you are good to go. You will see if it is working or not.

You can do it like this with holes, or as EMRE said, without the holes. But when you are going without them, you need to submerge the pipe completely to allow uninterupted flow of liquid.

With all the suggestions and pictures, you now know that important variables is diameter of the tube => this largely impact flowrate through the tube. If diameter is big, flow will be less aggressive, and tend to break less cement down of the copper bar.
Also important parameter is surface area of copper. That does not mean you immediately need 1x1 m piece of sheet copper rolled inside but that if you make the solution to flow, this parameter could be reduced to effective minimum.

 

[Gold.refinery]

You can run a separate exhaust to each tank to run when you are not scrubbing the gasses or you can use the existing ductwork and switch to a non scrubbed exhaust through tee’s and blast gate shutoffs so you can either scrub or just exhaust when not running any noxious gasses in need of scrubbing. Like overnight.

To suck gases without purification (like overnight), could we turn on the air fan scrubber in Low frequency and
keep the water circulation pump off?

 

[4metals]

To suck gases without purification (like overnight), could we turn on the air fan scrubber in Low frequency and
keep the water circulation pump off?

Yes. Shut the circulation of the scrubber liquid off and it is just a blower.

 

[4metals]

You can do it like this with holes, or as EMRE said, without the holes. But when you are going without them, you need to submerge the pipe completely to allow uninterupted flow of liquid.

This is not totally true, without some holes on the lower pipe you will not provide a flow thru setup. At least a ring of holes around the bottom so there is a place for liquid to flow in to displace what has flowed out the top.

 

[orvi]

This is not totally true, without some holes on the lower pipe you will not provide a flow thru setup. At least a ring of holes around the bottom so there is a place for liquid to flow in to displace what has flowed out the top.

I assumed that the pipe with copper bar is hanging from above and isn´t touching the bottom of the vessel. But yes, if it will be standing from the bottom, then some holes also in the bottom are necessary. Anyway, setup with holes at the top is best.

 

[4metals]

But yes, if it will be standing from the bottom, then some holes also in the bottom are necessary.

When I first started using this style I started with about 5 feet of 6” diameter PVC and in the center drilled 4 equidistant holes around the pipe. Then I cut the pipe in half leaving 2 equal length pipes and 4 scallop shaped cutouts at the bottom to allow solution in. The first ones I made were for cementing silver from silver electrolyte loaded with copper. So much Silver came down the holes were blocked so I added a second line of holes around the circumference to maintain flow.

I always liked to stand these on the bottom of plastic drums so they were easy to remove and clean out the cemented Silver after the solution was pumped out. Often we had a couple of these bubbling away processing solution so simplicity of use entered the design.

 

[Gold.refinery]

This isn’t rocket science, what you have will do the job. You have bigger fish to fry!

We made two pvc cylinders according to the recommendations (you can see in the video). We put them in the mother solution, about 110 liters. For 3 hours. We have not yet filtered the solution, but no particles have settled.
Did they react?
what is the problem?