I have been running test batches disolving foils in hcl/bleach I have no problems there .I get the nice gold solution. when I go to drop i barely get any to drop matbe dissolving 1/2 gram foils I get a very small amount of brown powder dropped usually takes overnight. But i still test pos with stannous. tried evaporating it down by 1/2 cooling and using smb but still no drop. my solution went from yellow to clear but not sure what happened. no clorine left over. Will copperas give a better result. This is my second batch of smb (from the same guy) maybe its bad. Any thoughts? What common products have smb in them at home depot. Bought stump remover but it was pot sulfate
what is the minimum amount of gold foils for a nice reaction
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It gets easier the more you have to work with. If you are starting out with barely anything, you will have a hard time dropping barely anything. Try something like 10g. of foils, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to work with.
ericrm
Well-known member
they is thing you dont says...
half a gram of foil in how much solution?
did you drop in hot or cold solution?
you say your solution come from yellow to clear so you have precipitation...even a little gold will make it yellowish
what color is your stannous at first? and then when you think you still have gold at the end.
i have made A LOT of mistake beleive me ,and one of the first that i have done was to take a false positive for a real positive.
a real gold positive is faste and blue(purple) and sink fast to the bottom(if you use porcelain dish to see), a false positive is slow and brown and smell rotten egg (dont breath ... smelling is not breathing)
one trick i use with clear solution when im in doubt is to take copper and dip it in ,if you see a blackish pool around your copper when you take it out ,you still have pm in your solution
hope this help
half a gram of foil in how much solution?
did you drop in hot or cold solution?
you say your solution come from yellow to clear so you have precipitation...even a little gold will make it yellowish
what color is your stannous at first? and then when you think you still have gold at the end.
i have made A LOT of mistake beleive me ,and one of the first that i have done was to take a false positive for a real positive.
a real gold positive is faste and blue(purple) and sink fast to the bottom(if you use porcelain dish to see), a false positive is slow and brown and smell rotten egg (dont breath ... smelling is not breathing)
one trick i use with clear solution when im in doubt is to take copper and dip it in ,if you see a blackish pool around your copper when you take it out ,you still have pm in your solution
hope this help
i thought more might be easier. I disolved 1/2 gram in 50 ml acid bleach then diluted 3 to 1 so when all said a little more than a cup full. when it didnt drop I added 2 more cups water..when that did nothing I steamed it down to less than half my stannus test shows brown almost immediatly. Not purple. is there a false positive for brown.
Any how i will reduce down further and try another drop. I dropped in ice water the second time 75 deg the first time. should i wash the foils in something other than hcl or ammonia. as they never really come completely clean there are always a little bit of stuff mixed in. solder mask chips ect. no metal though.
Any how i will reduce down further and try another drop. I dropped in ice water the second time 75 deg the first time. should i wash the foils in something other than hcl or ammonia. as they never really come completely clean there are always a little bit of stuff mixed in. solder mask chips ect. no metal though.
Geo
Well-known member
brown stannous test is almost always an indicator of excess SMB.is the solution crystal clear or a little murky?
still clear but added a bunch of water. thats what puzzles me. It was a nice gold color. when smb added it instantly cleared but did not go brown. the next day I saw a little mud in the bottom very little. Still sitting out there. Have you ever used copperas .I ordered some They claim it works better than smb
Alos threw a chunk of copper
nothing happened so i think there is nothing left and false pos with the smb i think you.re right.
One other thing
I have a witches brew condensing in a crockpot. (know there is gold in it. ) Its the mix of my first failed trys. It is black sludge at this point. How do i get it to the point where I can reprocess it. Get the base metals out.
Alos threw a chunk of copper
nothing happened so i think there is nothing left and false pos with the smb i think you.re right.
One other thing
I have a witches brew condensing in a crockpot. (know there is gold in it. ) Its the mix of my first failed trys. It is black sludge at this point. How do i get it to the point where I can reprocess it. Get the base metals out.
Geo
Well-known member
a half gram of gold is less in diameter the quarter of a BB from a pellet gun. in powder form it would be a light dusting on a 1000 ml beaker. you wouldnt be able to see it until you tilted it and let it all collect to one side.when im testing yields with a small sample, i do the entire process even though i dont see a drop i know its still there. i wait till the next day and swirl the solution with a plastic spoon and any precipitate will collect in the center of the container.
shel8483
"I have a witches brew condensing in a crock-pot. (Know there is gold in it.) It’s the mix of my first failed tries. It is black sludge at this point. How do I get it to the point where I can reprocess it? Get the base metals out."
Here is what I would do, keep condensing until it is almost a powder, or thick goo, then mix up some concentrated sodium hydroxide in a water solution in a jar, put your thick goo into a corning casserole dish on a hot plate, heat but not to the point of bubbles popping and splashing out of dish, if liquid layer forms lower heat and decant the black liquid to another jar, when almost all liquid removed add hydroxide solution and stir well raise heat again to low boil, lower heat let settle but keep warm, decant liquid, when you have added enough hydroxide solution the liquid will be clear salt water, dry powders raising heat slowly, you may have to take a couple of days for the solution to dry while raising heat as needed (do not let it bubble to point of splashing, lower heat if it tries too), once you get powders dry crush them fine, with hot plate on high the powder should darken Oxidizing base metals, it may form a syrup after drying the first time, keep heating and keep crushed, then incinerate the powder red hot, keeping the powders glowing red hot, constant stirring to expose to heat and air, until no more smoke will come off of them, turn off heat, when cool cover with HCl, bring up the heat and stir, a low boil and lower heat, spray in just a little water, let powder settle, decant liquid, rinse several times in boiling hot water, letting powder settle each decanting of solution, If a lot of base metals the HCl wash and water washes may need to be repeated, the remaining powder can be dried and incinerated again, this treatment will remove several of the base metals that would give you troubles, and you could then treat these powders in nitric acid to remove base metals, silver and possibly palladium before dissolving any gold or other possible PGM's.
Any questions on this process, you should read Harold's topics on incineration, and also C.M. Hoke's book, even if you do not have questions, reading these will answer the questions you have not thought of yet.
"I have a witches brew condensing in a crock-pot. (Know there is gold in it.) It’s the mix of my first failed tries. It is black sludge at this point. How do I get it to the point where I can reprocess it? Get the base metals out."
Here is what I would do, keep condensing until it is almost a powder, or thick goo, then mix up some concentrated sodium hydroxide in a water solution in a jar, put your thick goo into a corning casserole dish on a hot plate, heat but not to the point of bubbles popping and splashing out of dish, if liquid layer forms lower heat and decant the black liquid to another jar, when almost all liquid removed add hydroxide solution and stir well raise heat again to low boil, lower heat let settle but keep warm, decant liquid, when you have added enough hydroxide solution the liquid will be clear salt water, dry powders raising heat slowly, you may have to take a couple of days for the solution to dry while raising heat as needed (do not let it bubble to point of splashing, lower heat if it tries too), once you get powders dry crush them fine, with hot plate on high the powder should darken Oxidizing base metals, it may form a syrup after drying the first time, keep heating and keep crushed, then incinerate the powder red hot, keeping the powders glowing red hot, constant stirring to expose to heat and air, until no more smoke will come off of them, turn off heat, when cool cover with HCl, bring up the heat and stir, a low boil and lower heat, spray in just a little water, let powder settle, decant liquid, rinse several times in boiling hot water, letting powder settle each decanting of solution, If a lot of base metals the HCl wash and water washes may need to be repeated, the remaining powder can be dried and incinerated again, this treatment will remove several of the base metals that would give you troubles, and you could then treat these powders in nitric acid to remove base metals, silver and possibly palladium before dissolving any gold or other possible PGM's.
Any questions on this process, you should read Harold's topics on incineration, and also C.M. Hoke's book, even if you do not have questions, reading these will answer the questions you have not thought of yet.
I suggest adding the the full disclaimer on the use of sodium hydroxide (lye)...use a full face mask when handling. As Harold stated in another recent post one drop in an eye and you quilify to be a model for the Hathaway Shirt ads. That reference just dated me big time....for those of you who have no clue to what I am talking about search "Hathaway Shirt Ads" for an explanation and info on one of the most successful ad campaigns ever.
Texan
Texan
