Gold soup

[Ohiogoldfever]

Just another gold prospecting hobby coming to a boil. Mmmm tastes like gold, and hydrocloric acid.

 

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[Fat]

...that looks like a beaker full for sure.
All computer and green boards?
How long does process take?
Make a lot of pics and explain a little more what your doing plz.
I want to see gold button you end up with too.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

This is a bunch of foils from about 900 grams of mid 60’s pins.

After depopulating from the boards I soaked them in Hydrochloric acid for about two days, this is too remove all the solder and tin.

Once the pins are clean they go into an acid peroxide mixture / copper chloride. It takes several weeks for the copper chloride to dissolve all the copper in the pins. Every few days the solution needs to be stirred and aerated. Once the copper is completely dissolved it releases the gold foils because the solution will not dissolve gold leaving it untouched. Much like squeezing the guts out of a banana. Only the skins left.

With the foils filtered I boil them in hydrochloric acid again to remove any further trace amounts of copper.

I’ll finish up in a few days when I have time but I expect this to yield about 7-9 grams. I’ve run these before.

It’s a nasty process that requires the highest respect and precautions. No amount of gold is worth your health.

Lots of information on this process on You Tube, though I prefer gold refining forum.com, better information as long as you don’t mind reading.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

The pins

 

[Fat]

....are you able to reuse you acids than or do they get used up in the process? Every couple days stir and adjust the strength?
I’ll look up on line and get caught up on my lack of knowledge about subject.
Neat project.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

You can keep using it. You have to freshen it up a bit from time to time but it can be used for more than one batch. The acid doesn’t get week so much as it gets saturated with copper. It can only hold so much in solution. Roughly two pounds of copper per gallon.

8 bucks of acid can eat a lot of copper. You can cement the copper back out and recover it also.

Science is coooool.

 

[Fat]

How do you get all the pins. Do you recycle them somehow or buy from a scraper place? I’m sry but I’m clear out of the loop and that looks like interesting project.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

That’s the trick. It’s just networking. Looking high and low to dig up good materials. Buying on eBay or similar places won’t leave room for profits.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Almost complete. Final process is to dissolve in aqua regia and drop pure gold.