Water soluble white crystals

[ttutone1]

Hi Everybody.
I refined my gold powder that was retrieved from misc pins and foils from computer boards. The last step I dropped the gold with Oxalic acid. The gold that was retrieved looked really good. What I had left was the muriatic acid with Oxalic acid that I decanted, mixed in with my wash water. About 2 quarts of fluids. I evaporated the water by simmering the fluids. What I have left is some VERY yellow fluid with white crystals on the bottom of the beaker. The liquid tested positive for gold. I will try to drop the gold with SMB.
But my question is what are these white crystals and what should I do with them?
They do dissolve in water very easily. Here is a picture after they were separated.

 

[niteliteone]

Looks like salt crystals from the condensed HCl mixed with gold in solution. Add a little water to rinse the gold containing liquid from the salts and add this liquid back to your gold containing liquid and try a another drop using SMB for the second drop.

Also iron in solution will have the same color as gold in solution, but will not drop with the SMB like gold will.

 

[DANCER]

I believe it's excess oxalic acid. Since you still have gold in the solution, I believe that you either didn't boil it or didn't boil it long enough. You can test it by dissolving it in water and then adding sulfuric acid slowly. CO2 bubbling up will extinguish a small flame. The sulfuric acid dehydrates the oxalic acid releasing CO2 gas.

 

[ttutone1]

Thanks niteliteone

Add a little water to rinse the gold containing liquid from the salts and add this liquid back to your gold containing liquid and try a another drop using SMB for the second drop.

This worked good.

Thanks to both of you for the replies.

 

[niteliteone]

Glad to have been helpful.
Keep up the good work.