How to extract and refine gold from old computer parts.

Feb 27, 2020

Hello everyone, today I will show you how to

extract

and

refine

gold

from old

computer

parts

, mainly from video cards, RAM and motherboard connections. Pam is worth about a fiver. Let's see how much

gold

we can

extract

. Now we're going to trim the pieces down to about half the height of the container we're going to use, then we'll stack the pieces on end so that as the base metals dissolve, the gold sheets will fall off once we have the container. full, we will add an aquarium air pump with a hose to agitate the solution. I was able to fit three pounds of scrap into this container.

We will start by adding 1000 milliliters of hydrochloric acid, this is also known as muriatic acid and can be purchased at most home improvement stores. It is generally sold as an acid for concrete edging or as a solution to lower the pH of your pool. Always remember to work with hydrochloric acid in a well ventilated area and if you can smell chlorine you need more ventilation as you may see a white vapor coming out. from the mouth of the bottle very dangerous gasps do not breathe pour the acid into the container slowly to avoid splashing next we will add hydrogen peroxide.

More Interesting Facts About,

how to extract and refine gold from old computer parts...

I'm using 34%. I bought my peroxide at my local garden and clothing store. Remember. When working with high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide more slowly and deliberately to avoid splashing, the hydrogen peroxide will immediately begin to react with the base metals. A lot of heat is generated during this process, so be sure to use a suitable container, such as scientific glass, or use a lower concentration of hydrogen peroxide to avoid such a vigorous reaction. I am covering the container to help prevent the solution from splattering and to condense any acid that may start to boil. If you are using a container that is larger or smaller than the container I am using, just remember to mix the acid and peroxide. hydrogen in a ratio of 10 to 1 and be sure to cover the remains.

I used 1000 milliliters of hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, 100 milliliters of 34% hydrogen peroxide as the solution was heated. The hydrogen peroxide will begin to react more vigorously. Bubbling air through the solution will help reduce foaming and hold the solution well. Next, we are 13 hours and 19 minutes into extraction, you will notice that the solution has turned a very dark color. This is because it is full of dissolved metals such as copper, nickel, tin and lead. Dosing the solution with 100 milliliters of hydrogen peroxide will not only dilute the solution and leave more room for the dissolved metals, but will also rejuvenate the corrosive power of the acid. aware that after dosing with the hydrogen peroxide the container will be very hot to the touch we are at 27 hours now we will dose the solution with 100 milliliters of hydrogen peroxide now I will restart the bubbler to be able to stir the solution we are at 27 hours and 24 minutes After mining audits on the Airstream, as you can see, there is a higher concentration of gold flakes floating in the solution.

Now I will remove and rinse the air hose from the aquarium. Now we are 72 hours into the extraction, we will empty part of the solution to make it easier to work with, do not discard this solution, we are going to filter it to detect fine gold particles, as you can see, the scrap has been digested quite well with the acid peroxide solution, most of the base metals have dissolved. the solution only the gold is strong enough to resist it is quite fun to scrape off the gold plate this is a very thick gold plate it comes off in very durable and thick sheets no matter how fun it is and it seems like it will take forever, let's scale Let's turn this up a little bit, pour the remaining solution into this 2 gallon bucket.

Wow, could you look at all the coils of gold at the bottom of this glass? Next we will move the scrap into the 2 gallon bucket by hand, don't just dump it out. Since it might splash next, I'll shake the

parts

in the solution while wearing a new, thick pair of gloves that have an excellent hydrochloric acid resistance rating. I would not recommend performing this procedure within 10 hours of your last dose of hydrogen peroxide. Now that the pieces have been completely cleaned of metal, we are going to filter the solution to trap any fine gold particles that remain.

There will be a lot of gold leaf left at the bottom of the glass. I use a very fine filter to remove. all particles make sure to pre-wet the filter so it doesn't move when you pour the solution into the funnel, filter the solution using a gentle vacuum, just a quick reminder of the corrosive nature of this project, as you can see the filter. It is full of what may be gold dust, once the solution has been filtered we will pour it into a separate container for treatment and disposal at a later date. I like to keep the first wash separate from the second as it's easier to handle the waste carefully.

Remove the filter from the funnel and set it aside as the filter is full of gold powder. I placed my filters in a beaker to dry and process later, as you can see the beaker has a lot of gold foil and some other contaminants in it I will set this aside and process the remaining scrap from that bucket so that we have a total amount of gold sheets from the six pounds of scrap. Now we will combine the gold foils so that we can remove any remaining contamination. We will start with 200 milliliters of hydrochloric acid, mine only appears yellow because I used the glass that had the gold foils to measure the 200 milliliters now we will add a small amount of nitric acid I like to use the incremental dosing method so we gain I do not have excess nitric acid , gently heating the mixture, let the reaction occur, as you can see, the acid is beginning to dissolve the gold.

Observe the red nitrogen dioxide vapors. Avoid breathing at all costs. I added another 200 milliliters of hydrochloric acid in a small amount. of nitric acid, there seems to be a lot of metal in this container. Now we will prepare a vacuum filtration to remove all traces of fiberglass and plastic. Be sure to rinse your glass or container thoroughly as it contains a gold-containing solution. see all undissolved specifications of the PCB board, be sure to rinse them well with water until the solution runs clear. Next, we will make a saturated solution of sodium metabisulfite. I bought mine as a stump remover at a local hardware store.

Keep stirring until the solution disappears. We will no longer absorb sodium metabisulfite. Now we will add our filtered gold solution to a large beaker. Be sure to rinse your flask as the solution contains gold. Now we will add the saturated sodium metabisulfite to the gold-containing solution. What's happening here is sodium metabisulfite. is reacting with hydrochloric acid to produce sulfur dioxide gas, the sulfur atoms attract the gold atoms like a magnet to iron, and as the gold atoms crowd around the sulfur atoms, they fuse and leave. the solution as a metallic powder. We will now perform a stannous chloride test to make sure all the dissolved gold has fallen out of solution everything looks clear allow the heavy metal particles of gold to settle to the bottom of the container after allowing the gold to settle for four hours , you can see that it is piled up at the bottom of the glass, but the remaining hydrochloric acid solution is still tinted brown, we will pour this out and then rinse the gold with hot water.

A quick test with stannous chloride reveals that there is no target in this solution. Lilla now rents the gold with hot water. water once more, allow the gold dust to settle to the bottom of the glass, then we will pour the remaining washing solution into a container for the waste from the second round. I like to keep them separate from the first round because it is easier to process with less metal dissolved in the acid, after an hour all the gold has settled to the bottom of the glass. We are left with a thick golden sludge at the bottom of the glass.

Let it dry so we can process it further now that it has been left to dry. Look, it has a rich golden color. Now we will add 400 milliliters of hydrochloric acid, then apply medium heat and stir vigorously as the hydrochloric acid boils, it will react with the remaining contaminating metals found in the gold powder. You can see the solution has become considerably darker, remove it from the heat and let it cool. There is definitely more metal dissolved in the solution, most likely iron. After allowing the solution to settle and cool, we'll pour it in, but first we'll do a quick stannous chloride test and look.

As if there is gold dissolved in the solution, simply add a small amount of our saturated sodium metabisulfite solution to precipitate the gold. It is important to add in small amounts and slowly, as we do not want to remove any other metals from the solution when diluting. It took about five minutes to fully react. Once the solution has settled, test the stannous chloride once more. There is no dissolved objective in this solution. It is safe to pour it into the waste container. You can see all the impurities that have been removed. Now we will do it.

Rinse the gold dust with hot water after allowing the gold to settle, we can pour out the washing water. This clock water can be discarded immediately after adding a small amount of baking soda and then checking the pH to make sure it is above 7 but below. 10 now it's very tempting to go melt your gold dust right now, but let's purify it one more time, we'll start by adding four hundred milliliters of hydrochloric acid, now we'll add over medium heat and stirring, then we'll add a little bit of concentrated nitric acid. We will add a very small amount, just enough to dissolve the gold.

After one hour, the gold will be completely dissolved. Notice the beautiful orange color of high purity gold dissolved in a ratio of water. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool after allowing the mixture to cool. we will add a little concentrated sulfuric acid. I bought mine at a local hardware store as a drain cleaner. What is happening here is that the sulfuric acid is reacting with the dissolved lead and will precipitate it as a fine lead powder. Now we will filter the gold solution with a vacuum cleaner. The very pure solution flows freely through the fine filter paper.

Be sure to rinse the beaker filter and funnel completely, as this yellow solution contains gold. You can see the lead that fell out of the solution stuck in the filter. Now we will transfer the solution back into a large beaker make sure to rinse your flask completely. We will now add a saturated solution of sodium metabisulfite to precipitate the gold from the solution as a fine metallic powder. A quick stannous chloride test reveals that there is no more gold dissolved in the solution after allowing the target to settle, you can see that this rinse is very clear, pour it into the second round waste for further treatment, rinse the powder from gold with hot water once the gold has settled or quenched and discard the rinse water once the goal has been achieved. is completely dry pour it into our belt dish and heat it with two blowtorches to liquefy the target with such a small flame this could take up to 20 minutes now that the gold has melted and fused into a bead we will pour it into this preheated. mold to make a perfect gold bar after pouring the gold bar from the mold and cooling it in water.

There you have it, a very pure gold bar. I'm going to have to upgrade my oven to be able to pour a proper loaf. how much gold we have received from a total of six pounds of scrap, much more than I expected, it just goes to show that the older

computer

s and the older strap contain much more gold than the newer ones. Let's test the purity of the gold I have. a jeweler's test kit, we will start with the 22 carat solution. I'd say it looks pretty good, at least two nines, but we'll