White gell in waste bucket?

[oldtimmer]

Two days ago, I emptyed the copper and other metals that had dropped out of solution in my waste bucket with an Aluminum plate in it. I poured most of the liquid back into the waste bucket and set it aside. This afternoon when I went to put some waste solutin into the waste bucket, I was surprised to see that it is now a mass of grayish gell. What has happened and what is the white gell? How do I dispose of it?

The water in the other bucket of copper and other metals is perfectly clear.

Thanks,

dave

 

[Harold_V]

The aluminum cemented the dissolved metals, leaving behind the aluminum in solution. What you are witnessing is one of the reasons why you should keep aluminum out of your processing. Once dissolved, it can wreak havoc with your ability to filter solutions.

Harold

 

[nicknitro]

Hi Harold,

I believe I have a similar problem. I was stripping some cleaned fingers in some Nitric, and all was well till I poured some water from an aluminum can into the filtering gold flakes to speed filtering. Now I have a purpleish/ white gel mixed in the gold flakes. I have been adding hot tap water to try and break up this solution, however it is a slow process. LOL

My question is, how do you remove this gel substance? I was just trying to get the foils off to save them up for a later HCL Clorox bath, so I would hate to have dissolve them now.

Nick

 

[Harold_V]

how do you remove this gel substance?

I had a standard procedure for that very thing. Incinerate the material once separated from the solution. Get it up to a dull red heat, but do not melt anything. Make sure it gets well exposed to oxygen. When cool, screen to break up clumps, then give the entire lot a boil in HCl and water. Allow to settle, decant, rinse with tap water, allow to settle, decant, then process the remains for values. By doing the incineration and HCl wash, the resulting gold chloride will filter easily. Best way to understand this is to ignore my advice.

Harold

 

[nicknitro]

No no Harold,

I think this sounds like pretty good advice. I did some other research to see what kind of material this could be. My best guess is Aluminum Hydroxide. Similar to the antacid. I wiki' d it.

If it is, I do not understand the chemistry that could have produced it. A very small amount if any transferred by the can bearing water. Maybe a contanimate from my filtering unit.

At any rate wiki stated an ethanol could dehydrate this gel enough to crystallize it. Then I contemplated incineration to remove any nitrates, and then do a HCL wash to remove the ALOH3, "correct compound?, Aluminum Hydroxide?" . \\

Do you think that is what I'm dealing with? I know you guys get millions of questions here. So take your time.

Nick

 

[Harold_V]

I am not ruling out the presence of tin.

What ever the material may be, the process I mentioned proved to be invaluable when dealing with such materials.

Could be this time it won't work---but it sure can't hurt!

Harold

 

[nicknitro]

I just don't see why now out of the blue it happened. I was only dealing with pretty clean cut fingers from Ram and accessory boards. I must of had a contaminate from the filter apparatus. Housekeeping has never been my strong point. I guess that is another thing I will have to work on in this hobby.

Nick

 

[Harold_V]

I just don't see why now out of the blue it happened. I was only dealing with pretty clean cut fingers from Ram and accessory boards. I must of had a contaminate from the filter apparatus. Housekeeping has never been my strong point. I guess that is another thing I will have to work on in this hobby. Nick

I seem to recall a substance when I worked with an excess of zinc. Could be wrong, however. My years of refining are well behind me----haven't touched anything since '95, as I recall.

Edit: I made mention of zinc because the base material for most of the plated pins is brass, which consists of copper and zinc----around 30%.

Anyway, I make a zinc solution to spray my roof to prevent moss. If the solution isn't slightly acidic, a pale white substance precipitates. I'm not a chemist, and don't profess to understand chemistry in the least, so I can't discuss what is happening-----I just know it does.

As for cleanliness when refining-----if you don't practice cleanliness, all your hard work goes for nothing. Getting contaminants out is just part of the work----keeping them out is the other half. For example, when you melt pure gold, the torch tip should be cleaned well. I used a tip for pure gold only, then another for inquartation. Before I'd use the gold tip, I'd go over it with fine abrasive cloth, removing any traces of oxides of copper, insuring that nothing was introduced to my twice refined gold. I also cleaned out my melting tray, and used a dish that was either new, or one that had been used for melting pure gold only. All of these little meausures return dividends. You can't hope to produce 4 9's if you don't follow all of these little tips, and even then you'll be lucky to succeed. Given the opportunity, if I was still refining and it was available to me, I'd do all my gold melting in a clean room.

Harold