Precious Metals Precipitants

That question would be better asked over on the gold refining forum, but make sure you have your flame proof suit on when you do.

Originally Posted by dewndoj

I have learned of the aqua regia method of dissolving gold, silver, and platinum out of electronic scrap, and know I have to use precipitants to extract the precious metals, but I have not been able to find out if there are different precipitants for EACH kind of metal, and if so, is there any sort of order to extract all the different kinds of metal out of the acid bath??

I'm going to answer your question, but you are not going to like the way I answer you. I hope you take what I say to heart, and heed my warnings because if not, you stand to either do incredible damage to yourself health wise, or far worse.

First, there are very few e-scrap items you would ever directly dissolve into Aqua Regia, and even at that it's almost sure that there is a better way to recover the precious metals from e-scrap than using Aqua Regia. There are two things refiners do when extracting precious metals from electronic scrap, recovering and refining. What you do first is recover the values, then you further refine the values.

Before you ever start screwing around with Aqua Regia, or any acids and/or chemicals, you need to learn chemistry first. EVEN at that, there are the little things you need to learn and understand before you start applying your knew knowledge in chemistry. For example chemistry will tell you to make a solution of Aqua Regia according to specific amounts of each acid, that is not the way we do things when recovering or refining precious metals. We start with a solution of DI water and one acid, and then slowly make small additions of another type of acid until we get the desired affect.

Once you are armed with a good solid knowledge of chemistry, and you have read enough about recovering and refining precious metals, then you will be better equipped to ask the right questions of people who know about refining, and understand the answers you will get, and how to apply them. But even then you will have to start slow, build your knowledge base over a long period of time, and eventually get to a point where you can successfully conduct yourself in a way that will limit the risks involved.

Also, in Aqua Regia, you don't dissolve silver, and to dissolve platinum you would have to apply heat. You don't just dissolve everything in Aqua Regia, and then precipitate out the different metals with different precipitants. That's not the way it's done. You dissolve specific metals using specific types of acids, selectively dissolving base metals, silver and palladium before ever moving to any recovery method in aqua regia. You don't even know enough yet to understand that. You have no business asking about precipitants.

The solutions you precipitate from are not called "acid baths" they are called solutions, and dependent upon the metals dissolved into what acids and/or chemicals, different solutions are called different names.

And last, you should not be asking these questions here, if you have not already noticed I failed to mention any acid names, or precipitants. These types of questions are not meant for this forum. You should be posing these questions on the Gold Refining Forum here:

Gold Refining Forum.com • Index page

But I warn you, it's a professional forum made up of refiners helping refiners. The people there will not suffer questions like what you have posted here. If I were you, I would sign up and lurk there for awhile, read some posts and learn which books you should read before ever posting anything on that particular forum. Those of us that belong to that forum take what we do very seriously, and although I don't mind explaining things in the way I have here, if you were to post this very same question on that forum, you would get responses that would probably upset you. Search for C. M. Hoke Refining Precious Metal Wastes, find the download link, it's free and out of print so perfectly legal to download and read. Read that book and read posts on the forum to get a good idea of how you should conduct yourself BEFORE you post any questions.

Scott

EDITED:

I wanted to mention that I belong to both the Gold Refining Forum and this one because I believe they are the most important in their respective fields anywhere on the internet. I try to post regularly on both, and conduct myself in a similar way. I don't believe one is better than the other, only that certain subjects should be talked about on one or the other but not both.

If you do as the others have suggested you may live long and prosper.

I, like most here, prefer to leave the refining process to experts and concentrate on what we do best, gather, break down and sell. I also belong to the GRF and have read enough to convince me I don't want to get involved in it. I am certain it takes far more study time and money invested in equipment and a location safe to work these processes than I am willing to invest. Please take the time to do the study for your safety and that of others. Mike.

That is just about the **** funniest clip I have seen yet.

I really have to learn NOT to be in the middle of drinking something when reading some of these posts. My computer ends up suffering my uncontrollable laughter.

Scott

Originally Posted by dewndoj

I have learned of the aqua regia method of dissolving gold, silver, and platinum out of electronic scrap, and know I have to use precipitants to extract the precious metals, but I have not been able to find out if there are different precipitants for EACH kind of metal, and if so, is there any sort of order to extract all the different kinds of metal out of the acid bath??

Dude, you better know what the heck you are doing messing around with all this chemical.

Based on the way the question was asked, I'm guessing they have not done a lot of reading over on the GRF.
Dude, you are messing with your health and safety among other things, heed the advice.