29521536 Inquarting Gold Notes

7/31/2019 29521536 Inquarting Gold Notes

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Phil, lets say I had a gold nugget from panning and I wanted to refine it. Since it is about

16 to 18.5k gold I would most likely inquart it, (melt it with silver to lower karatmelt it with silver to lower karat), (at

18% I might be able to just use nitric without inquarting, but to insure I got all the basemetals, I would quarter the gold with silver).(NOTE: To inquart gold: 75% silver 25% gold. Melt together in a melting dish, and drop into metal bowl(NOTE: To inquart gold: 75% silver 25% gold. Melt together in a melting dish, and drop into metal bowl

with cold water to form flakes. See Steves video. Then follow the procedurewith cold water to form flakes. See Steves video. Then follow the procedures stated below.)s stated below.)

1) Process inquarted gold thru Nitric solutionProcess inquarted gold thru Nitric solution. (50% water / 50% acid50% water / 50% acid. Heat if necessary)

Now nitric can get down under the gold and attack the base metalsattack the base metals. Depending on howmuch silver I added, gold would be either brown powder or a much pitted nugget of gold.

2) After reaction stops, allow to settle; decant nitric from goldAfter reaction stops, allow to settle; decant nitric from gold.To the nitric acid, after decanted from goldafter decanted from gold, add Hydrochloric acidadd Hydrochloric acid to get back, (dropdrop)

the silver out of it as silver chloride. (Set aside for time being).

3) Dissolve gold in AR solutionDissolve gold in AR solution. (80% HCI / 20% Nitric. Apply heat)((Hoke states, 4 fl oz HCI (muratic acid) + 1fl oz HNO3 (nitric acid) will dissolve 1 troy oz of gold. This isHoke states, 4 fl oz HCI (muratic acid) + 1fl oz HNO3 (nitric acid) will dissolve 1 troy oz of gold. This is

equivalent to 31ml of HCI + 8ml of HNO3 per gm of gold.)equivalent to 31ml of HCI + 8ml of HNO3 per gm of gold.)The gold would then be dissolved in Aqua Regia, best to only useonly use the amount of nitric

needed to get gold completely dissolved with heat. No need to use urea, I do not use urea;

insteadinstead I boil the Aqua Regia down to almost syrup (not to crystalsnot to crystals).

4) Boil off nitric acidBoil off nitric acidbeforebefore dropping gold with SMBdropping gold with SMB.

Carefully watch first boil! What happens is, the nitric in solution gets concentrated and

will try and foam overatat the most concentrated point, if you watch it, after boiling for awhile you will see foam bubbles forming around top of liquid; at this point lowerlowerheat,

waitwait until this point of concentration is passed, then you can raiseraise heat.

Once you have syrup, add some HCl to wet solution and boil it again to syrup. Do this fora total ofthree timesthree times, in order to eliminate nitric acid from the aqua regia solution (no

need to use urea).Now we can add 3 times the water. This will dilute the acid to where the silver chloride

that it held, (this is some Ag that was still in the goldthis is some Ag that was still in the gold), will come down as white cottage

cheese; let solution sit overnight and decant solution from silver chloride powder. Now

we can precipitate the gold from this yellow solution.Butcher

5) Precipitate gold with SMBPrecipitate gold with SMB

NOTE:NOTE: Filter the solutionFilter the solution BEFOREBEFOREprecipitating gold with SMBprecipitating gold with SMB!!

leavemealone, post re: what is my wrong? Typically you want to use an equal amount of

SMB, as the amount of gold you estimate in your solution IE: if you figure theresroughly 3 grams of gold3 grams of gold, use 3 grams of3 grams ofSMBSMB, then test your solution after decanting. (If

using copperas you need to double that figure.)

Johnny


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The SMB can be used dry or wet it works either way.

The key is to use enough SMB to reduce all the gold to a metallic state. This usuallyrequires 1 gram of SMB per gram of gold1 gram of SMB per gram of gold to be reduced as a general rule of thumb. If you

don't get all the chlorine (HCl-Cl reaction) or nitrate (AR reaction) out of the solution theamount of SMB needed could increase, typically not more than double the amount of

gold expected.

If you want to use water with your SMB, the solubility of SMB in water at 20C is 47 g

per 100 mL, so a pint of 20 C water (473 mL) can hold enough SMB when saturated toreduce ( 47 x 4.73) 222.3 grams of gold at optimal conditions.

Steve

As for adding SMB, I, I alwaysalways add my SMB dry with lots of swirling of the beaker oradd my SMB dry with lots of swirling of the beaker orstirring with a glass rodstirring with a glass rod. Stannous tests afterward proves the gold is all precipitated.

Just two days ago the temperature outside was below 40F (~4C) at dusk. I precipitated a

batch of gold from solution, outside in the cold, with solid SMB in less than 2 minutes. Iadded the SMB and swirled the flask, within one minute the solution turned dark brown.

Within 1 hour all the gold had settled nicely. The solution was filtered outside and was

completely cooled. Expect a slight delay of less than 2 minutes before the solutionchanges to clear then brown.

I find that the removal of oxidizersremoval of oxidizers from the gold solution to be the most important factor

when using SMB. All the free chlorine or NOx should be removed before adding drySMB. If you add a small amount of SMB and brown powder forms then re-dissolves, you

have free oxidizers in the solution.

Add small amounts of dry SMB with stirring, let it all dissolve, then add more if

necessary. Test with stannous once the brown cloud or sponge of gold settles.

Steve

Re: Best way to use SMBRe: Best way to use SMBI use mine dry. Gold precipitates as a brown powder if thesolution is clean, and a more black colored if the solution is dirty. I never check pH when

using SMB.

Steve

Thank you Steve for your reply. I have seen the SMB precipitate out of solution as awhite powder by a metallurgist in Las Vegas on my chlorine solution. In your opinion

can it precipitate as a gold chloride?

Joyce if the solution contains copper II chloride and you add SMB, you will get an offwhite to grey collared precipitate of copper I chloride along with your gold.

This contamination dissolves easily with warm HCl.

Steve


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WASHING THE GOLD POWDER AFTER USING SMB post by lazersteve

1) After precipitating the gold with SMB, test for gold in solution with stannous chloride,

if present (purple swab) add more SMB until test is negative.

Here's how stannous looks to Gold, Platinum, and Palladium

Note the color of the results will be lighter if the concentration is low. The colors will

also vary if you have several of the metals in the same solution.

1. Let the gold powder settle to the bottom of the beaker over night.

2. Siphon or gently pour off the used SMB solution into an old milk jug labelledUsed SMB. Save in your stock pot or properly dispose of.

3. The gold powder stays in the same beaker you precipitated it in.

4. Add just enough water to cover the gold powder and boil for 5 minutes.

5. Let settle and pour or siphon off the water into the stock pot.6. Repeat three times.

7. Add just enough muriatic acid to cover the gold powder.

8. Boil for 5 minutes and pour or siphon off into the stock pot after testing withstannous. If gold is present keep in separate beaker to precipitate later.

9. Repeat until the acid is no longer discolored by the process.

10. Repeat the water rinse as above.


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11. If you suspect silver is present as a contamination, repeat the process with hot 3%

household ammonium hydroxide (unscented- clear). Put these rinses in a separatecontainer and add muriatic acid until no more white silver chloride precipitates.

You have added enough HCl when there are no more white fumes coming out ofthe liquid. Any karat, dental, cpu lid, or gold filled scrap will have silver as a

contaminate.12. Finish up the rinses with three more hot water rinses. Put these rinses in with the

ammonium hydroxide rinses.

13. Gently heat the beaker containing the gold powder while swirling the beaker. Asthe gold dries it will begin to clump and move around the beaker freely. Don't

allow the gold to stick to the beaker.

14. When the gold is 100% dry it should be a nice light tan color, if not re-dissolve itand precipitate again with SMB. Repeating the above cleaning process after

precipitation. Good clean gold settles very quickly when precipitated and clumps

into nice balls when dried. No gold should be stuck to the beaker when you aredone.

15. When completed transfer the gold to a properly prepared melting dish and melt

into a button.

16. Steve

Re: AR process for placer gold

When we dissolve a metal in an acid the metal gives up electrons on the atomic level, the

metal is still in this solution, when we give back these electrons the metal it will

precipitate back out of solution as a metal.Lets look at gold with its place on the reactivity series (if you dont have an idea about

reactivity series, do a search for it on web; get a chart for your refining notes), gold is atthe bottom of the series, a very un-reactive metal, it will not dissolve in nitric acid, it willnot dissolve in hydrochloric acid, but in a combination of the two of these acids it will

dissolve, the nitric oxidizes the gold and then it will become a metal salt with the chloride

from the hydrochloric acid, giving up its electrons, this is now yellow dissolved salt ofgold chloride, the nitric in solution will keep it dissolved, until it is eliminated (or used

up). Now, to get our gold back, how can we do this? Well, one way. We could just

replace the gold from solution. Take a look at the reactivity series, and the position ofcopper in the series compared to gold. Copper is above gold, meaning, it is more reactive,

so by adding copper to this acidic salt of gold in solution, the copper will start dissolving,

giving up its electrons to the acid and if we had excess acid it would not start

precipitating the gold until all of the unreacted acid was used up, then the copper wouldcontinue giving up its electrons, but now to the dissolved gold in solution. Since the gold

got back its electrons, it will form back into a metal (brown powderbrown powder) and precipitate out

of solution. Once all of the gold has precipitated and the solution is loaded the copper barwill not dissolve any further (nothing left to take its electronsnothing left to take its electrons). Now with dissolved

copper salts in solution, all these copper atoms are missing their electrons; a metal higher

in series can replace the copper from solution, and so on.


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Another method to get the gold from aqua regia would be to eliminate the nitric acid ( 3

boil, Hcl additions method ) and the use a chemical to precipitate the gold, here is anequation using sodium bisulphite (notice the ITE in the name NOT ATE), this is a

chemical reaction with the gold chloride, not a replacement reaction like the example

above.2HAuCl4 + 2NaHSO3 --> 2Au + 4HCl + NaSO4 + SO2.

The sulphur dioxide gas,sulphur dioxide gas, after the arrow, gave backgave backthe gold its missing electrons,

precipitating the gold.In the examples above the acids dissolve the gold metal, gold loosing its electrons,

becoming a yellow liquid. Copper was a replacement reaction, giving gold back the

electrons, making gold precipitate, but loosing its own.

The second one was a chemical reaction, used to precipitate the gold.By: R. Butcher

NOTENOTE: Check SMB solution for other metals that could be present before storing or

properlyproperly disposing of it!

I,philddreamer, took the liberty to compile some of the great information from a numberof different posts from the GRF.com, so to have a guide when processing my first batch

of inquarted gold. The result, a beautiful 13.4gm golden slug! Thank you, thank you,

thank you, all you brothers & sisters @ GRF.com. I could not have done it without you.

Phil (philddreamer) Figueroa Lynnwood, WA.

29521536 Inquarting Gold Notes

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