What do you think about ozone gold leaching?

[Evan2468WDWA]

I was hopping someone could tell me what they think about this process.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304386X05002847
I'm afraid that I'm not very knowledgeable. Thanks.

 

[butcher]

I do not see much difference in using ozone and HCl, and using HCl and concentrated H2O2, except maybe a little more water in the final product, which is not a bad thing as it can help precipitate traces of silver chloride.

 

[Palladium]

:arrow:

 

[Evan2468WDWA]

I do not see much difference in using ozone and HCl, and using HCl and concentrated H2O2, except maybe a little more water in the final product, which is not a bad thing as it can help precipitate traces of silver chloride.

I didn't even know there was HCl H202 process. There are so many processes, chemicals and formulas my head is spinning. Maybe I'm not cut out for refining.

 

[butcher]

Most all of our heads spin when we first begin to learn this science, the spinning slows some as you begin to learn more, and it gets easier, but you can spend several lifetimes, and not learn it all, I like spinning my brain a little trying to learn as much as I can in this lifetime of mine.

Start with a few basic studies like Hokes book, the guide to the forum, general reaction list, dealing with waste, and reading and following this wonderful forum, that is if you do not mind working the the ole brain, and love learning about gold and other precious metals and their chemistry in recovery and refining.

Caution this can be very addicting to many of us, who like that spinning brain, and love to melt gold.

 

[Evan2468WDWA]

You've succeed in convincing me to give learning it a shot. I'm about a quarter of the way through Hoke's book now. I'm probably going to need to read it more then once. Just so you know if my head explodes I'm holding you personally responsible, and I expect you to come clean up the mess. :lol:

 

[butcher]

Fair enough, I have cleaned up a few messes in my life, one more shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Have a great time learning, It in many ways may be more rewardable than gold in your pocket.

 

[joubjonn]

I had a similar issue in college. All those formulas and equations. It wasn't until my junior year when it clicked that all these engineering classes were running into each other (physics, thermo, heat transfer, dynamics). Basically all teaching the same thing over and over again. Energy in equals energy out. Same with chemistry. Just moving electrons from one place to another.

 

[freechemist]

Just my personal opinion about this gold leaching with ozone.

To me this publication seems to be of academic interest only. Ozone-leaching may once be an appropriate method to leach gold (and palladium, like mentioned in the article) from low grade material, like powdered electronics scrap and/or ore-concentrates.

Preliminary leaching-experiments were done as shown below, according to the original publication:

Stoichiometry experiments for Au and Pd were performed as follows: An excess of metal powder (0.200 g) was placed in 550 cm³ of a previously saturated O₃/HCl solution of known concentration (O₃ 5.1 x 10^-4 M)

These were small lab-experiments, done with small metal-quantities, in very diluted solutions of HCl. They showed, that ozone (O₃) is indeed able to oxydize gold and/or palladium in about 0.1M aqueous HCl, whereas platinum and rhodium remained unaffected.