Something Primal about watching metal melt lol, that's so the truth lol. I could watch metal melt all day long and still want to watch it go again :))) LOVE your videos brother ;) GOD bless you and Mrs. Sreetips :)!
You out did yourself again!! I was really excited to see the title of this video! I've been wondering about that. I remember asking you if you had to use silver, (because my meltable silver supply is low). I have an almost unlimited supply of copper. To see the out come of such a fine looking bar is GREAT!!! Thank you for a Fantastic Video!!!!
@@jamesmclaughlinprimitivele4587 Sounds good to me! Because silver is 6 to 7 times more than copper!!! I like the odds! Plus I already have more copper than I know what to do with and very little silver! Also if you knew me and alot of my past comments, I'm not planning to start for 7 to 9 years. I'm Stock piling supplies and info. Have a GREAT Day!!!!
Hi all. I've just stumbled across this video and have read the comments. I have come up with a formula that takes the guess work out of how much material to add to make your low karat alloy. Also doesn't matter if copper or silver is being used. Mass(add)=Mass(total)×([Ki-Kf]/Kf) Mass(add) = the copper/silver amount to be added Mass(total) = the mass of your sample to be purified Ki= karat of your sample to be purified (initial) Kf = desired karat of sample for processing (final) Here is the example used in this video where: Mass(total)=38.9 g Ki=14 karat Kf=6 karat Mass(add)=38.9×([14-6]/6)=51.87g This mass is slightly higher than the 49.2g mentioned in this video. The reason is that this is the mass required (51.87g) to produce EXACTLY 6 karat gold. The amount mentioned in this video (49.2g of copper) gives 6.2 karat gold which is perfectly fine as demonstrated. By using this formula any karat of gold can be applied to produce whatever karat is desired and the amount of anything to be added is calculated to achieve this. Hope this helps.
I have been wanting to get into prospecting for gold. I never thought that it could include just looking for old scrap metals. This is right up my alley as I also love chemistry, pyro and precious metals. Very well done and informative. You Sir, have a new subscriber! Thanks 👍👍
Good job Sir,,I Think You are excellent, real accumulation be 2,1% The solid work is 56,2% for the 14K Gold be 999.9 Fine Gold Youre Act yield is very purest 24K Gold, real 999.9 I had do a long time like your practise....God Bless you for your knowledge🙏👍
This is the most rewarding form of chemistry, i would have loved to have done this in high school!😁(I guess I could still take a metallurgical chemistry class)
You do know you're allowed to do chemistry without a permit, right? It's not like you're running a meth lab! Sreetips doesn't have a qualification in chemistry, I believe he has a bachelors in aviation management IIRC. All you need to do is know what you're doing and you can do anything, and if you don't know it - learn it! Watch, ask, learn. I've got a bunch of degrees and tbh 99% of what I've learned I learned outside of formal academia. Academia is just to get those pieces of paper required to grease the wheels, it's a pyramid scheme combined with a vague wheat and chaff separator. Although lately it's become so terrible that anyone can pass if you're the right special snowflake variety.
Problem is copper uses WAY more nitric acid then silver to dissolve the same mass of metal. Plus if you have silver to inquart with, its a cinch to get your silver right back to re-use over and over.
That 1.269 multiplier trick looks great, but I’m sure the number would be different if you were I quarter for silver, right? Because copper and silver have different densities?
Your videos are getting better and better, even the details of your explanations. Thanks a lot! I woud expect, that the nitric acid is able to solve some atomes on the surface of your wedding ring. So it should getting matte. Best regards from Germany!
I really enjoy your videos. I tried looking it up and couldn't find an answer. Silver will disolve in hydrochloric acid and it will disolve in nitric acid, but for some reason it won't disolve well in a mix of the two (aqua regia). Why is that? I know why it takes both together to disolve gold. Does silver form a passivation layer in aqua regia preventing it from disolving?
I've never used hydrochloric acid to dissolve silver. I don't think that it will. Hydrochloric acid will instantly form silver chloride upon contact with silver. It would form a passive layer on the silver and protect it from the acids. For these reasons we want to get ALL of the silver out of the gold BEFORE we put aqua regia on the gold. Silver chloride causes problems with contamination of the gold because it's so fine that it's hard to filter out completely. It's slightly soluble in water, more so in hot water, and can lurk, unseen, in our crystal clear gold solutions. And having lots of silver chloride will load up a filter paper and make filtering the gold a slow nightmare. It's best to get out as much of the silver. as possible before dissolving the gold in AR.
@@sreetips Ok I knew it would form silver chloride, just not that it would form a passivation layer with it. That all makes sense. It's pretty apparent that silver is the better metal to inquart karat gold with if you have it to use. If you have to go to the trouble to then separate and recover it, it might as well be a metal that's already part of the alloy and worth recovering.
Thank you for pointing out that Copper can be used for inquarting . It’s something readily available . But QUESTION: with all the copper in the nitrate solution after initial processing , will silver in the solution still displace any solid copper when it’s added into the solution ?
No, copper is more reactive then silver. Copper is above silver in the reactivity series of metals. Put copper in a silver nitrate solution and the silver will come out of solution on the copper. Put a piece of silver in a copper nitrate solution nothing happens. A little silver might dissolve if excess nitric is present. But no metals will precipitate.
Inquarting with copper actually seems to do a better job at cleaning the gold because of less silver present, less likelihood of silver chloride forming when going to aqua regia
I love the deeply dished watch glasses. Where did you find them. Also when I do small batches if silver or gold in AR I put ice in the watch class as it acts to reflux the nitric acid. Saves a bit in the reagents.
I have a question Sreetips: Have you ever had any Pb precipitate after adding the dropper of H2SO4? I don't recall ever seeing this actually happening in any of your videos... just curious here
Lead can get in if someone has used soft solder to repair the jewelry being refined. Soft solder has tin and lead, both are bad for gold. This is especially true when refining gold filled material. I've never seen any lead either. But I always add some sulfuric just in case. That trick was taught to me by a professional refiner on the goldrefiningforum.com - Harold_V - I add sulfuric whether I suspect the presence of lead or not. It hurts nothing and provides a big benefit if lead is in my batch.
@@sreetips Thank you for replying, I love your videos and watch them start to finish, even though I'm not in the least bit refining anything. I do love chemistry (maybe that is why)... You should, just for experience's sake, refine a parcel of Pb/Sn contaminated jewelry in a video, so we can finaly watch the dreaded metals come out of solution upon you adding the H2SO4
At 12:17 you have yet to use any hydrocloric acid and yet the gold is almost pure. Would i actually need hydrocloric acid, or could i simply melt the mud down at this point?
Hello, great chemist Dr. I am one of your followers from Egypt. I did all the steps as shown in the video, but when I add HCL to the gold dust to clean it, it disappears inside the acid? What do you recommend
Copper takes more nitric to get it all out of the gold. Silver takes less nitric and less time. But with copper it seems cleaner because there’s less silver chloride to deal with.
Some of the silver may have cemented out on to the copper during the nitric treatments. But it then redissolves and eventually stays dissolved once all the copper has been put into solution.
I love your vids. Why do you cool the gold solution before precipitating the gold out? Has it got anything to with the heat generated by the addition of the MBS?
Hey Sreetips; I was watching you stamp your Gold Bar, and truly looked like using copper might have been easier than using silver; even though silver was present. I was reminded of "big stack d" and how he melts all of his copper and brass bars and stuff and he polishes the top and sides of his bars to a mirror finish, I'm not sure if that ever interested you or not, but your shiny gold pieces would look stupendous that way, anyhow it was just a thought for you :) GOD bless :)
✌️👀🤚I'm hopping back from three years in the future. Everything has gotten more refined over time especially the horrific fan and vacuum pump noise. I guess the copper inquartation is another useful technique for the gold refiner.
I guess the better question is, why use silver at all? When you can use cheaper more accessible copper. Is there any advantage to using silver over copper?
Yes, I refine silver too. The first step in silver refining is to dissolve the silver in nitric acid. So by using the silver to inquart the gold I’m killing two birds with one stone. Refining both metals at the same time.
@@sreetips wow! Thank you for the free education! You have been of tremendous help. Is there something i could sign up to, where we can get tips or answers to any questions? I would love to pick your brain some more on the topic.
Sreetips! I have close to 20 of the 5 gallon IdealWater jugs full of used up nitric acid from refining close to 120,000 grams of gold filled jewelry over the years. All of which have about 2 inches of sediment at the bottom. What’s it going to take to get you to extract all the other precious metals from the solution?
sreetips would you recommend that I filter out the sediment from the solution first? There’s got to be a ton of Ag in it still In solution, among other precious metals. Is this project anything you’d consider taking on for maybe 15% of the take?
I don't do any toll refining, just my own material. That way if I mess it up its all on me. I've never done it but; hot ammonia will dissolve silver chloride. After filtering out all the junk I think that you can get the clean silver chloride by adding hydrochloric acid. No experience with this though.
I really like your videos and your and products are very nice. Thanks for making these videos. I’m gonna try to do this with some old rings and jewelry to make a gold cross or bar.
Is there any added benefit of inquarting with silver vs. Inquarting with copper? Or do they both work well? I would naturally incline to copper due to its lower price
Nice Job! Sreetips, I have a question...I have silver relay contact that has plated gold. Should I treat it with nitric acid first or straight to Aqua Regia?
[ Question] So I did every steps of the process that you teach, not in just this video but in all your videos. the end solution come out pure fire-yellow with no cloud. I recovered the gold powder cleaned it 4 times put it in my melt dish And went to sell it to a gold buyer he put it on his electronic gold tester and said there was copper, silver and zinc in it but no gold...? This is crazy to me because I cleaned the gold hold a nitric 3 times before doing aqua regia and the 3rd time it was clear.... My question to you is, do you think he might have been lying to me cause he did not want to buy unmarked gold...? By the way I love your videos I'm a big fan and thank you for doing what you do.
First of all I want to thank you for your great works,helping many of us trying to refine the forgotten family treasure.I have some 18K white gold filing and I want to know if it is possible to dissolve directly in AR .The filing might contain 2,5% silver and eventually 1% of palladium.I put a few granules of the white alloy in AR and it disslove entirely
I've never tried to dissolve 18k white gold directly in AR. I don't have any experience to share. I'd inquart with silver, or better yet, copper, then part with hot dilute nitric. If done properly the resulting gold will be very close to three nines fine.
If you get anything on your arm it could feel like poison ivy before you take care of it. If you get any in your eyes or breathe anything you might need to go to the emergency room.
Did you happen to keep track of the volume of nitric acid used? I was originally instructed to use silver over copper as copper will require significantly more nitric than silver to be dissolved out of the gold.
My question is... How do I separate the gold from copper in a AR solution containing approx.6g of 18k gold mixed with approx 19g of copper, and I didn't know about the nitric bath, not to mention I quarted it with way too much copper, so I have both my gold and my copper dissolved in AR. What do I do? Can I precipitate it with SMBS and just remelt and pour it in the water by starting over?
If gold dissolved, then the liquid can be drawn off after allowing the solids to settle completely. SMB will drop the gold and leave the copper in solution. That’s what I’d do if it were mine.
@@sreetips Thank you very much. I watched alot of videos trying to figure all this out. You are by far the easiest to understand. Good job and thank you again for getting back to me.
Careful when just washing your material with just water. If you are not ready to place material in aqua regia, by just washing with water you can accidentally create aqua regia. It's nice to neutralize acids with something other than water
Hi sreetips, very helpful videos. thanks. Sometimes you use inquarting process to refine gold and other times you use aqua regia without inquarting. In what instances should you use iquarting and when should you use just aqua regia?
@@sreetips Cool that makes sense, thanks. Am wondering about the filter papers, what type, grade and size that you use? One for filtering the precipitated gold and the other for filtering the gold in solution after AG treatment
I try to make copper a collector metal and smelt it then put it in nitric acid but it doesn't give me a brown powder but a shiny very fine dust....... What could be the problem?
@@sreetips that would be a good thing to watch you do melt a pamp and refine it to see what you come up with i have some pamp but i love your bars looks so pure amazing to watch you
Hi, I wonder if it would make sense to try electroplate the inquarted alloy in copper sulphate onto an electrode. The gold will not go into solution and collect at the bottom of the cell. this way you could save some chemicals and it doesn't require a lot of electricity.
Thanks to the wealth of knowledge I’ve gained from your videos, I’m planning on doing a copper inquart on some 14k gold that I have and was thinking about this multiplier. For 14k I get a multiplier of 1.332. 38.9g * 0.583 (or 14k/24k) = 22.6787g pure 24k gold 22.6787g * 4 = 90.7148g total weight needed to inquart 90.7148g - 38.9g = 51.8148g that needs to be added to the 14k to inquart 51.8148g / 38.9g = 1.332 ratio of what needs to be added over the weight of the 14k gold In this case, that is a difference of about 2.6g of copper. I don’t have the experience to know if that is relevant. A 1.265 multiplier implies the karat is 13.59k (56.625%). Is this underestimated for a reason? Thank you as always for putting your experience on display for all of us to learn from!
If you add too much copper, for what ever reason, then the gold will crumble to a powder during the nitric boils. This is a nightmare, making separation of the silver solution and the gold difficult and time consuming. Adding GF to the batch. Adding gold plated piece to the batch. Thinking that they are karat scrap, and your gold will NOT stay in nice chunks. It will crumble to a brown/black powder.
Goldie Locks range for inquartation to achieve best results is 26% to about 33% pure gold in your alloy. Yes, it’s understated for a reason. I don’t have enough space to write it out for you here.
I wouldn’t have thought the gold turning into a powder would be a bad thing, but it makes sense in terms for separating it from the resulting solution. Another person mentioned Cody’s lab’s explanation of inquartation. Visualizing the way he explained it and what you’re saying about the gold turning into a powder, too much copper/silver during inquartation spreads the gold atoms out too far so when the nitric dissolves the copper/silver the gold will be in smaller pieces. Can’t wait to give it a go!
Sreetips can you give me how you come up with your calculations to in court your gold with silver for each carrot is it the same calculations or is there a different calculations for each one and is there a different for each weight cuz I'm getting ready to do it and would love to know how you come up with your calculations
This might sound dumb but is there any way mathematically correct way to inquest gold scrap with gold filled scrap? If it could work it would refine to different types of scrap with one refining process.
I did this last week and I see you have about 2% better result than me. I guess I need to adjust how much concentrated nitric acid I add together with my destilled water.
I think nearly, if not all, my scrap gold is 9k. Does this need inquartation? FYI - All I can buy in England is 3% Nitric Acid. Not sure if that's relevant.
I’ve parted 9k with no inquartation. But I did it with 68% nitric diluted with same amount of distilled ware. 3% nitric is something I don’t have any experience with. Sounds kind of weak.
@@sreetips Thank you. 3% was the strongest I could source. Unfortunately here in UK we are micro managed by the government. There are so many restrictions on buying chemicals. It's bewildering to me that in the US you can buy stuff over the counter that is not permitted here. About 20 years ago I showed my son how to make Nitrogen Tri-iodide for a bit of fun. I bought magnesium ribbon too. I had a phone call from the police anti terrorist squad asking what I was making...... That was a long time ago and it's got worse and worse since then.
I screwed up. I took 18.4g gold and alloyed it with 54g copper giving me 72.4g of the alloy shot. So then I weighed out 28g of the alloy shot and added it to a solution of 28g mx-3(nitric substitute) mixed with 120ml hydrochloric acid. I stirred it and put it on the heat. It reacted fast and dissolved everything. So I now have two problems. 1. I quarted too much copper into the gold but worse I fear is that I didn't give the alloy a hot nitric bath. I put it straight into the AR. So how do I separate the dissolved gold from the dissolved copper in the AR brew I now have?
Sreetips, would this method work on material that is only about 7% pure gold? Would the gold stay in nugget form in the nitric baths or would it become more like sponge ?
7% gold would crumble to a powder. Still workable but it would take more time to rinse the silver out of it. You’d have to let the powder settle completely, decant, rinse, settle, decant and could take hours (or even over night) to settle completely EACH TIME YOU RINSE. This greatly increases time require to complete the rinsing. But it’s do-able.
The one question I've got about your silver cell is: Is the silver cell actually improving the purity of your silver by electrolysis? Or is it just taking the impurities with it to form neat crystals?
The electrolysis produces high purity silver. Is the cell actually improving purity, yes - close to five nines fine. Is it just forming impure neat crystals? If palladium is kept out, the voltage is right, and copper concentration is kept below 60 grams/liter then the answer is no.
Inquarting with silver is nice though cause the Ag is +1 versus copper which is +2 and therefore the copper takes much more nitric to dissolve. Plus since you are getting two birds with one stone by inquarting with sterling to start refining anyway
Those charges are important. The advantage to using copper is that it can be had easier than silver. And there is much less silver chloride to deal with when dissolving the gold in Aqua regia.
I love chem lab. In fact I work in a chem R&D lab. Thanks so much for showing us your refinement process of inquarting with copper. You are an excellent instructor. What would you say was the cost of your refinement process, such as reagents, filters, MAP fuel, electricity? These costs would impact the profitability of your system.
Please don't be disappointed. Those melted drops are very low yielding. They are a terrible eBay scam. People are paying $15 for less than $0.50 worth of metal. I'm hoping a video will reveal the scam and save the unsuspecting from paying their hard earned money for junk.
I used tweezers to get the second filter out. I forgot to do it with the first filter. That's a good suggestion and it should be done that way every time.
Yes, i noticed and smiled, but didn't want to labour the point ;) A twisting action can get it out pretty much as if you gathered the edges with fingers. Apart from being good lab practice, i suppose it can help keep a few more molecules of gold in the pot instead of on gloves.
Maybe an air bubble trapped inside. When heated the air expands and has no place to go so pressure builds then releases suddenly, explosively, when the metal gets soft enough. I've had it happen during gold melts with karat gold. Scares the pants off of me!
how much does the gold solution weigh, does the extra weight equal the precipitated gold, is the gold solution a lot heavier than just the chemicals would be ? also i really enjoyed watching your video again when you add the smb! :-)
@@sreetips :-) that would be really interesting to find out whether a solution containing nothing but the chemicals weighs less than a solution containing the gold, i think it will because gold is heavy :-)
Outstanding, I began collecting gold from computers and broken gold when I was working in a pawn shop due to your videos, I have watched about almost all of them, I am hoping to have my shop up and running soon, I am trying to figure out everything I would need to get started, however I have seen furnaces to melt gold and silver, you use a torch and abstain the same results. Is there anything you would recommend as a started kit?
@@sreetips its very fascinating indeed sir and I for one really like watching the channel. There are other channels but you speak my language. Literally and figuratively.
I wish you lived next door to me, with all your knowledge youd be just the guy to pester to help me process 5 years worth of electronic scrap - everything condensed down
Robert, I add sulfuric every time I dissolve the gold as a prophylactic measure to guard against any lead making it into the precipitation phase. Lead, even trace amounts, can ruin the gold and make it crumble.
The precipitated lead should be caught by the filtration between processes. There should be virtually no risk of lead contamination in the final precipitate the way he is doing it.
I am not complaining just offering a suggestion to improve the flow of the process. Sreetips is very meticulous in his procedures. I just have a particular order I perform the process. I offered an explanation as to why. I like Sreetips explanation of why he adds the H2SO4. He is spot on as to why even the tiniest amount of Pb will ruin a solid refine.
your videos are are incredibly watchable, was i correct in my assumption that it was easier to refine the gold when inquarting it with pure copper? it seemed like it was. Good show.
@@sreetips Isn't it more painful watching hundreds of bucks worth of silver turn into blue liquid you may never recover than a few bucks of copper? I could never bring myself to waste that much silver. Also you need a FAQ / channel introduction video on your default page - preferably explaining what your name means, and other commonly asked questions. I see a lot of those unanswered, people seem keen to know more!
So I assume the reason you normally use silver instead of copper (or other metals) for inquarting the gold is because you also need to refine your silver scrap as well, essentially killing two birds?
sreetips okay, that makes sense then. Since you had said it was actually easier if you used copper instead, eliminating the silver chloride. So I figured there was a good reason you used silver anyway
It seems the guy is working around in an endless circle: inquart it, dissolve it, precipitate it, wash it dissolve it again, cement it, dissolve it, precipitate it, melt it, inquart it ...
No - the process is exactly the same. But there’s a higher probability that you’ll encounter platinum group metals in your nitric acid boils. If the solution is green rather than blue then it may contain palladium and platinum.
@@sreetips OK and then I can use that Nitric acid boil to refine out some sterling silver. Will the platinum metal stay in solution when I put copper into the silver nitrate or will they precipitate out with the Silver?
It will cement out on the copper. It will appear last after the silver looking black on the copper. It won’t be enough to recover and refine. I just melt the silver, run it thru my silver cell. The PGMs will end up as slimes in the silver cell anode basket. I recover that separately when I refine the anode filters slimes.
@@sreetips great, one last question. I am testing all my Karat with a scratch stone and acids. I have a few pieces marked as 10K, when scratched on the stone, the lines do not completely disappear with 14k, but are very clear with 10k. Would you calculate them as 14k?, 12k?, or just put them with 10k?
I recently did a clean up of a home of man that passed away and found a lot of jewelry tools and supplies including a 10oz bag of what looks just like the gold that you inquarted with copper. You can see the gold in it and that it's not just copper. It also had some silver nuggets in it but I removed them when I first found it before I knew what I had. So I melted some in a crucible and when it cooled I knocked the piece out and the bottom of it was clearly gold. I assume that the being heavier it settled to the bottom. So I purchased the acids and followed your process but the nitric acid completely dissolved all of it leaving me with just blue liquid. What could I have done wrong. I was sure there was some gold there, what happened? Norm-
Gold will not separate when melted with silver - it will alloy. Even if it’s stirred. Boiling in nitric will dissolve silver and copper leaving the gold behind as a black/brown powder.
Because karat gold contains silver and platinum group metals. A well known fact among refiners. The public don't know this and the refiner just keeps these additional metals, paying out only for the gold content. That's how they can effort to pay out such high percentages.
This should have been my chemistry project in college, cost of Electricity, Chemicals, Man hours, Unrefined Gold, cost of Day at his Shop = 800.00 Gold Yield 1,100.00 profit $300.00 about what my wife gets at her Nail Spa a day and both have chemical Lung Exposure Did you here him cough during the video so does my wife from Nail Spa Chemicals. Love your Videos your warning is warranted.
@@IMDunn-oy9cd I've watched a few of his videos too. He uses borax for at least two reasons one is when filter paper and fine powder is being used, to help keep the precious metals and paper from blowing out of the melt dish, the 2nd one is when there might be just a little impurities, the borax will absorb those impurities. Which he rarely has impurities. I think there is one more reason that I can't think of at the moment. To answer the question regarding why he doesn't use borax doing this (inquarting). There no chance of anything blowing out of the melt dish, and there's no need to worry about impurities since he's melting impurities together to get to 6 karat or 25% or just a little higher so everything stays together. If he did 5.9 karat or 24% everything would turn into a fine powder and trying to get ALL the gold would be very difficult since the gold would be left suspended in the solution. Have a GREAT Day!!!
Yes, both can be used interchangeably with each other to inquart the gold. So if you need 38 grams of silver for your inquartation but you only have 30 grams of silver then you can just add 8 grams of copper to make up the difference.
The only problem with using Copper instead of Silver is that it requires 3 times more Nitric Acid to dissolve the Same Weight in Metal ,, I can’t remember the exact amount but it takes roughly 3 times more nitric to dissolve one gram of copper as it does to dissolve silver
Something Primal about watching metal melt lol, that's so the truth lol. I could watch metal melt all day long and still want to watch it go again :))) LOVE your videos brother ;) GOD bless you and Mrs. Sreetips :)!
You out did yourself again!!
I was really excited to see the title of this video! I've been wondering about that. I remember asking you if you had to use silver, (because my meltable silver supply is low).
I have an almost unlimited supply of copper. To see the out come of such a fine looking bar is GREAT!!!
Thank you for a Fantastic Video!!!!
Requires at least twice as much acid than silver
@@jamesmclaughlinprimitivele4587 Sounds good to me! Because silver is 6 to 7 times more than copper!!! I like the odds! Plus I already have more copper than I know what to do with and very little silver! Also if you knew me and alot of my past comments, I'm not planning to start for 7 to 9 years. I'm Stock piling supplies and info.
Have a GREAT Day!!!!
Hi all. I've just stumbled across this video and have read the comments. I have come up with a formula that takes the guess work out of how much material to add to make your low karat alloy. Also doesn't matter if copper or silver is being used.
Mass(add)=Mass(total)×([Ki-Kf]/Kf)
Mass(add) = the copper/silver amount to be added
Mass(total) = the mass of your sample to be purified
Ki= karat of your sample to be purified (initial)
Kf = desired karat of sample for processing (final)
Here is the example used in this video where:
Mass(total)=38.9 g
Ki=14 karat
Kf=6 karat
Mass(add)=38.9×([14-6]/6)=51.87g
This mass is slightly higher than the 49.2g mentioned in this video. The reason is that this is the mass required (51.87g) to produce EXACTLY 6 karat gold. The amount mentioned in this video (49.2g of copper) gives 6.2 karat gold which is perfectly fine as demonstrated. By using this formula any karat of gold can be applied to produce whatever karat is desired and the amount of anything to be added is calculated to achieve this.
Hope this helps.
I have been wanting to get into prospecting for gold. I never thought that it could include just looking for old scrap metals. This is right up my alley as I also love chemistry, pyro and precious metals. Very well done and informative. You Sir, have a new subscriber! Thanks 👍👍
Thank you!
Good job Sir,,I Think You are excellent, real accumulation be 2,1%
The solid work is 56,2% for the 14K Gold be 999.9 Fine Gold
Youre Act yield is very purest 24K Gold, real 999.9
I had do a long time like your practise....God Bless you for your knowledge🙏👍
Hello sir,
Thank you for this beautiful presentation. And I think it's the simplest way to recover gold.
thanks again
This is the most rewarding form of chemistry, i would have loved to have done this in high school!😁(I guess I could still take a metallurgical chemistry class)
You do know you're allowed to do chemistry without a permit, right? It's not like you're running a meth lab! Sreetips doesn't have a qualification in chemistry, I believe he has a bachelors in aviation management IIRC. All you need to do is know what you're doing and you can do anything, and if you don't know it - learn it! Watch, ask, learn. I've got a bunch of degrees and tbh 99% of what I've learned I learned outside of formal academia. Academia is just to get those pieces of paper required to grease the wheels, it's a pyramid scheme combined with a vague wheat and chaff separator. Although lately it's become so terrible that anyone can pass if you're the right special snowflake variety.
Cody’sLab did a really good presentation on why to add metal to karat gold
I totally posted a link to that video on the last inquartation video.
Tell me how to get from Brown dogturd. Looking to gold
As in the brown precipitate gold particles after adding SMB to the shiny gold bar? Heat is the answer
Too bad Cody lost his marbles when him and canyon broke up. He doesn’t do all the cool chemistry vids like he used to.
@@llihpmeHnevetS give him time
Problem is copper uses WAY more nitric acid then silver to dissolve the same mass of metal. Plus if you have silver to inquart with, its a cinch to get your silver right back to re-use over and over.
I can't be the only person who cheers for sodium metabisulfite
Didn’t realise you need this many steps to purify the gold. Great video!
That 1.269 multiplier trick looks great, but I’m sure the number would be different if you were I quarter for silver, right? Because copper and silver have different densities?
Your videos are getting better and better, even the details of your explanations.
Thanks a lot!
I woud expect, that the nitric acid is able to solve some atomes on the surface of your wedding ring. So it should getting matte.
Best regards from Germany!
Can the nitric acid treatment process be speeded up if you grind/granulated the inquarted gold into a finer mass?
Yes, smaller pieces equals greater surface area and faster nitric digestions.
I really enjoy your videos. I tried looking it up and couldn't find an answer. Silver will disolve in hydrochloric acid and it will disolve in nitric acid, but for some reason it won't disolve well in a mix of the two (aqua regia). Why is that? I know why it takes both together to disolve gold. Does silver form a passivation layer in aqua regia preventing it from disolving?
but dilutions are we talking? IDK, i'm still confused, learning as well...
I've never used hydrochloric acid to dissolve silver. I don't think that it will. Hydrochloric acid will instantly form silver chloride upon contact with silver. It would form a passive layer on the silver and protect it from the acids. For these reasons we want to get ALL of the silver out of the gold BEFORE we put aqua regia on the gold. Silver chloride causes problems with contamination of the gold because it's so fine that it's hard to filter out completely. It's slightly soluble in water, more so in hot water, and can lurk, unseen, in our crystal clear gold solutions. And having lots of silver chloride will load up a filter paper and make filtering the gold a slow nightmare. It's best to get out as much of the silver. as possible before dissolving the gold in AR.
@@sreetips Ok I knew it would form silver chloride, just not that it would form a passivation layer with it. That all makes sense. It's pretty apparent that silver is the better metal to inquart karat gold with if you have it to use. If you have to go to the trouble to then separate and recover it, it might as well be a metal that's already part of the alloy and worth recovering.
i like the way you purify gold..its amazing..
I like it too.
Thank you for pointing out that Copper can be used for inquarting . It’s something readily available .
But QUESTION: with all the copper in the nitrate solution after initial processing , will silver in the solution still displace
any solid copper when it’s added into the solution ?
No, copper is more reactive then silver. Copper is above silver in the reactivity series of metals. Put copper in a silver nitrate solution and the silver will come out of solution on the copper. Put a piece of silver in a copper nitrate solution nothing happens. A little silver might dissolve if excess nitric is present. But no metals will precipitate.
Inquarting with copper actually seems to do a better job at cleaning the gold because of less silver present, less likelihood of silver chloride forming when going to aqua regia
I love the deeply dished watch glasses. Where did you find them.
Also when I do small batches if silver or gold in AR I put ice in the watch class as it acts to reflux the nitric acid. Saves a bit in the reagents.
Those are filled with oil and a candle burned under it to give off fragrant vapors. I get at the thrift store for a few bucks.
I have a question Sreetips: Have you ever had any Pb precipitate after adding the dropper of H2SO4? I don't recall ever seeing this actually happening in any of your videos... just curious here
Lead can get in if someone has used soft solder to repair the jewelry being refined. Soft solder has tin and lead, both are bad for gold. This is especially true when refining gold filled material. I've never seen any lead either. But I always add some sulfuric just in case. That trick was taught to me by a professional refiner on the goldrefiningforum.com - Harold_V - I add sulfuric whether I suspect the presence of lead or not. It hurts nothing and provides a big benefit if lead is in my batch.
@@sreetips Thank you for replying, I love your videos and watch them start to finish, even though I'm not in the least bit refining anything. I do love chemistry (maybe that is why)... You should, just for experience's sake, refine a parcel of Pb/Sn contaminated jewelry in a video, so we can finaly watch the dreaded metals come out of solution upon you adding the H2SO4
At 12:17 you have yet to use any hydrocloric acid and yet the gold is almost pure.
Would i actually need hydrocloric acid, or could i simply melt the mud down at this point?
I always give it a boil in HCl cleans it up good.
You should stamp it on the back side..... the front side is to beautiful and this way the back side becomes interesting as well, great work!!!
I'm thinking that stamping it on the back would cause the front to deform because the pure gold is so soft.
@@sreetips I would probably give it a try to see how it comes out stamped on the back. You can always remelt. Either way, Cheers!
Hello, great chemist Dr. I am one of your followers from Egypt. I did all the steps as shown in the video, but when I add HCL to the gold dust to clean it, it disappears inside the acid? What do you recommend
Sounds like excess nitric acid. Try denoxx to rid it of excess nitric before precipitation.
@@sreetips thank you for replying
Great video, what is the benefit (or how is it worse) of refining with Copper instead of SIlver?
Copper takes more nitric to get it all out of the gold. Silver takes less nitric and less time. But with copper it seems cleaner because there’s less silver chloride to deal with.
Wouldn't the copper cause the silver in the leftover nitric solution to cement out?
Not if they are both in solution
There is enough nitric & hydrochloric acid in there to dissolve both.
'Cementing out' only happens if there isn't enough acid to go around.
Some of the silver may have cemented out on to the copper during the nitric treatments. But it then redissolves and eventually stays dissolved once all the copper has been put into solution.
I love your vids. Why do you cool the gold solution before precipitating the gold out? Has it got anything to with the heat generated by the addition of the MBS?
Thank you so much for this video. It was very educational for us beginners.
Hey Sreetips; I was watching you stamp your Gold Bar, and truly looked like using copper might have been easier than using silver; even though silver was present. I was reminded of "big stack d" and how he melts all of his copper and brass bars and stuff and he polishes the top and sides of his bars to a mirror finish, I'm not sure if that ever interested you or not, but your shiny gold pieces would look stupendous that way, anyhow it was just a thought for you :) GOD bless :)
✌️👀🤚I'm hopping back from three years in the future. Everything has gotten more refined over time especially the horrific fan and vacuum pump noise. I guess the copper inquartation is another useful technique for the gold refiner.
I think I goofed on the copper inquartation. I added nitric that had some silver in it if my memory is correct.
@@sreetips No big deal - no worries.✌️
I guess the better question is, why use silver at all? When you can use cheaper more accessible copper. Is there any advantage to using silver over copper?
Yes, I refine silver too. The first step in silver refining is to dissolve the silver in nitric acid. So by using the silver to inquart the gold I’m killing two birds with one stone. Refining both metals at the same time.
@@sreetips wow! Thank you for the free education! You have been of tremendous help. Is there something i could sign up to, where we can get tips or answers to any questions? I would love to pick your brain some more on the topic.
Just a thought.... Have you ever dissolved a diamond in piranha solution? just thought that might be neat to see!
Sreetips! I have close to 20 of the 5 gallon IdealWater jugs full of used up nitric acid from refining close to 120,000 grams of gold filled jewelry over the years. All of which have about 2 inches of sediment at the bottom. What’s it going to take to get you to extract all the other precious metals from the solution?
That's a big project. There will be silver, some platinum, and palladium. But you handle it just like eating an entire elephant, one bite at a time.
sreetips would you recommend that I filter out the sediment from the solution first? There’s got to be a ton of Ag in it still In solution, among other precious metals. Is this project anything you’d consider taking on for maybe 15% of the take?
I don't do any toll refining, just my own material. That way if I mess it up its all on me. I've never done it but; hot ammonia will dissolve silver chloride. After filtering out all the junk I think that you can get the clean silver chloride by adding hydrochloric acid. No experience with this though.
I really like your videos and your and products are very nice. Thanks for making these videos. I’m gonna try to do this with some old rings and jewelry to make a gold cross or bar.
Is there any added benefit of inquarting with silver vs. Inquarting with copper? Or do they both work well? I would naturally incline to copper due to its lower price
Nice Job! Sreetips, I have a question...I have silver relay contact that has plated gold. Should I treat it with nitric acid first or straight to Aqua Regia?
Get the silver with nitric first. Then recover and refine the plated gold foils.
Are you going to start recovering and reusing the crystalline copper from your waist bucket for this?
It's too contaminated with other metals. It ends up getting thrown away.
[ Question]
So I did every steps of the process that you teach, not in just this video but in all your videos. the end solution come out pure fire-yellow with no cloud. I recovered the gold powder cleaned it 4 times put it in my melt dish And went to sell it to a gold buyer he put it on his electronic gold tester and said there was copper, silver and zinc in it but no gold...? This is crazy to me because I cleaned the gold hold a nitric 3 times before doing aqua regia and the 3rd time it was clear.... My question to you is, do you think he might have been lying to me cause he did not want to buy unmarked gold...? By the way I love your videos I'm a big fan and thank you for doing what you do.
Anybody is capable of anything. Especially when it comes to gold.
@@sreetips Do you have a online social account? Like Facebook or Instagram?
No
First of all I want to thank you for your great works,helping many of us trying to refine the forgotten family treasure.I have some 18K white gold filing and I want to know if it is possible to dissolve directly in AR .The filing might contain 2,5% silver and eventually 1% of palladium.I put a few granules of the white alloy in AR and it disslove entirely
I've never tried to dissolve 18k white gold directly in AR. I don't have any experience to share. I'd inquart with silver, or better yet, copper, then part with hot dilute nitric. If done properly the resulting gold will be very close to three nines fine.
Wow....I had no idea you could extract your own gold. Found this while looking up the meaning of "In Assay".
Do the fumes contaminate your skin if not covered completely?
If you get anything on your arm it could feel like poison ivy before you take care of it.
If you get any in your eyes or breathe anything you might need to go to the emergency room.
Also it would be a good idea to keep a lot of baking powder around
when dealing with these kind of chemicals.
@@authorunknown7262 baking SODA neutralizes acids, not powder.
@@coreylarremore1713 I keep forgeting the difference.
Did you happen to keep track of the volume of nitric acid used? I was originally instructed to use silver over copper as copper will require significantly more nitric than silver to be dissolved out of the gold.
I did not. But I know that copper uses more nitric than silver does.
What do you do with spent chemicals after all metals have been recovered?
Add the solutions to my stock pot. Traces of precious metals cement out on copper.
My question is... How do I separate the gold from copper in a AR solution containing approx.6g of 18k gold mixed with approx 19g of copper, and I didn't know about the nitric bath, not to mention I quarted it with way too much copper, so I have both my gold and my copper dissolved in AR. What do I do? Can I precipitate it with SMBS and just remelt and pour it in the water by starting over?
If gold dissolved, then the liquid can be drawn off after allowing the solids to settle completely. SMB will drop the gold and leave the copper in solution. That’s what I’d do if it were mine.
@@sreetips Thank you very much. I watched alot of videos trying to figure all this out. You are by far the easiest to understand. Good job and thank you again for getting back to me.
Requires more acid to dissolve copper vs silver no?
Yes, but some may not have access to silver. And copper is only $2.50 per pound while silver is $14.00 per ounce.
Careful when just washing your material with just water. If you are not ready to place material in aqua regia, by just washing with water you can accidentally create aqua regia. It's nice to neutralize acids with something other than water
I’ve never made aqua regia with water
Hi sreetips, very helpful videos. thanks. Sometimes you use inquarting process to refine gold and other times you use aqua regia without inquarting. In what instances should you use iquarting and when should you use just aqua regia?
Karat gold inquart. Gold filled, incinerate foils and then AR. Escrap foils are so thin that they will dissolve in bleach and hcl
@@sreetips Cool that makes sense, thanks. Am wondering about the filter papers, what type, grade and size that you use? One for filtering the precipitated gold and the other for filtering the gold in solution after AG treatment
I try to make copper a collector metal and smelt it then put it in nitric acid but it doesn't give me a brown powder but a shiny very fine dust....... What could be the problem?
you are very smart this is amazing to watch i have a question the one ounce gold pamp bars are they pure gold?
I believe that they are, but I've never owned one so I don't know for sure.
@@sreetips that would be a good thing to watch you do melt a pamp and refine it to see what you come up with i have some pamp but i love your bars looks so pure amazing to watch you
Hi, I wonder if it would make sense to try electroplate the inquarted alloy in copper sulphate onto an electrode. The gold will not go into solution and collect at the bottom of the cell. this way you could save some chemicals and it doesn't require a lot of electricity.
Thanks to the wealth of knowledge I’ve gained from your videos, I’m planning on doing a copper inquart on some 14k gold that I have and was thinking about this multiplier. For 14k I get a multiplier of 1.332.
38.9g * 0.583 (or 14k/24k) = 22.6787g pure 24k gold
22.6787g * 4 = 90.7148g total weight needed to inquart
90.7148g - 38.9g = 51.8148g that needs to be added to the 14k to inquart
51.8148g / 38.9g = 1.332 ratio of what needs to be added over the weight of the 14k gold
In this case, that is a difference of about 2.6g of copper. I don’t have the experience to know if that is relevant.
A 1.265 multiplier implies the karat is 13.59k (56.625%). Is this underestimated for a reason?
Thank you as always for putting your experience on display for all of us to learn from!
If you add too much copper, for what ever reason, then the gold will crumble to a powder during the nitric boils. This is a nightmare, making separation of the silver solution and the gold difficult and time consuming. Adding GF to the batch. Adding gold plated piece to the batch. Thinking that they are karat scrap, and your gold will NOT stay in nice chunks. It will crumble to a brown/black powder.
Goldie Locks range for inquartation to achieve best results is 26% to about 33% pure gold in your alloy. Yes, it’s understated for a reason. I don’t have enough space to write it out for you here.
I wouldn’t have thought the gold turning into a powder would be a bad thing, but it makes sense in terms for separating it from the resulting solution.
Another person mentioned Cody’s lab’s explanation of inquartation. Visualizing the way he explained it and what you’re saying about the gold turning into a powder, too much copper/silver during inquartation spreads the gold atoms out too far so when the nitric dissolves the copper/silver the gold will be in smaller pieces.
Can’t wait to give it a go!
Sreetips can you give me how you come up with your calculations to in court your gold with silver for each carrot is it the same calculations or is there a different calculations for each one and is there a different for each weight cuz I'm getting ready to do it and would love to know how you come up with your calculations
Sorry sreetips
This might sound dumb but is there any way mathematically correct way to inquest gold scrap with gold filled scrap? If it could work it would refine to different types of scrap with one refining process.
Yes, gold filled can be used to inquart the gold. But gold filled has stuff in it that could cause problems. I'm chicken to try it.
@@sreetips I can understand that, thanks
Hello. Are you using borax?
What would you prefer : ferrous sulphate or smb?
Regards
SMB. Ferrous sulfate takes longer.
I coat the melt dish with borax.
sreetips Thank you !!!!! Much appreciated.
Hello. Just a suggestion. Why not design a nice Sreetips Logo then instead of writing Sreetips you can use your Newly Design Sreetips Logo
I did this last week and I see you have about 2% better result than me. I guess I need to adjust how much concentrated nitric acid I add together with my destilled water.
I think nearly, if not all, my scrap gold is 9k. Does this need inquartation? FYI - All I can buy in England is 3% Nitric Acid. Not sure if that's relevant.
I’ve parted 9k with no inquartation. But I did it with 68% nitric diluted with same amount of distilled ware. 3% nitric is something I don’t have any experience with. Sounds kind of weak.
Also, copper will require more nitric than silver does.
@@sreetips Thank you. 3% was the strongest I could source. Unfortunately here in UK we are micro managed by the government. There are so many restrictions on buying chemicals. It's bewildering to me that in the US you can buy stuff over the counter that is not permitted here. About 20 years ago I showed my son how to make Nitrogen Tri-iodide for a bit of fun. I bought magnesium ribbon too. I had a phone call from the police anti terrorist squad asking what I was making...... That was a long time ago and it's got worse and worse since then.
I really can't believe you took a Gamble on your ring your wedding ring for that matter of fact that was very gutsy!
I screwed up. I took 18.4g gold and alloyed it with 54g copper giving me 72.4g of the alloy shot. So then I weighed out 28g of the alloy shot and added it to a solution of 28g mx-3(nitric substitute) mixed with 120ml hydrochloric acid. I stirred it and put it on the heat. It reacted fast and dissolved everything. So I now have two problems. 1. I quarted too much copper into the gold but worse I fear is that I didn't give the alloy a hot nitric bath. I put it straight into the AR. So how do I separate the dissolved gold from the dissolved copper in the AR brew I now have?
I’d let the solids settle completely and siphon off the gold-bearing solution.
Sreetips, would this method work on material that is only about 7% pure gold? Would the gold stay in nugget form in the nitric baths or would it become more like sponge ?
7% gold would crumble to a powder. Still workable but it would take more time to rinse the silver out of it. You’d have to let the powder settle completely, decant, rinse, settle, decant and could take hours (or even over night) to settle completely EACH TIME YOU RINSE. This greatly increases time require to complete the rinsing. But it’s do-able.
@@sreetips Thanks for the quick reply. Much appreciation of you and your videos.
The one question I've got about your silver cell is: Is the silver cell actually improving the purity of your silver by electrolysis? Or is it just taking the impurities with it to form neat crystals?
The electrolysis produces high purity silver. Is the cell actually improving purity, yes - close to five nines fine. Is it just forming impure neat crystals? If palladium is kept out, the voltage is right, and copper concentration is kept below 60 grams/liter then the answer is no.
Inquarting with silver is nice though cause the Ag is +1 versus copper which is +2 and therefore the copper takes much more nitric to dissolve. Plus since you are getting two birds with one stone by inquarting with sterling to start refining anyway
Those charges are important. The advantage to using copper is that it can be had easier than silver. And there is much less silver chloride to deal with when dissolving the gold in Aqua regia.
I love chem lab. In fact I work in a chem R&D lab. Thanks so much for showing us your refinement process of inquarting with copper. You are an excellent instructor. What would you say was the cost of your refinement process, such as reagents, filters, MAP fuel, electricity? These costs would impact the profitability of your system.
This is my hobby. I don’t track expenses for each batch. We make our profit when we buy.
I can’t wait to see how much the melted drops yield... so stoked🤗
Please don't be disappointed. Those melted drops are very low yielding. They are a terrible eBay scam. People are paying $15 for less than $0.50 worth of metal. I'm hoping a video will reveal the scam and save the unsuspecting from paying their hard earned money for junk.
sreetips thank you so much for the heads up, I was planning on buying a 1560g of melted drops for 177.00.
Thank you for the valuable information, take care that you don't get robbed. Shouldn't you neutralize the nitric before you drop the gold?
Hey Sreetips, why do you wash it with hydrochloric acid during the rinsing process?
Because the hydrochloric acid will rinse out some dissolved metals, if present, from the gold powder better than plain water can.
Beautiful result, yet again !
I used tweezers to get the second filter out. I forgot to do it with the first filter. That's a good suggestion and it should be done that way every time.
Yes, i noticed and smiled, but didn't want to labour the point ;)
A twisting action can get it out pretty much as if you gathered the edges with fingers.
Apart from being good lab practice, i suppose it can help keep a few more molecules of gold in the pot instead of on gloves.
Hello Mr Sreetips. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. When inquirting with copper - is it exactly the same amount as when one uses silver?
Yes
sreetips Thank you !
Mr Sreetips. Why does gold burst? I had a button when heated it burst. Why will this be?
Maybe an air bubble trapped inside. When heated the air expands and has no place to go so pressure builds then releases suddenly, explosively, when the metal gets soft enough. I've had it happen during gold melts with karat gold. Scares the pants off of me!
sreetips Thank you. Yes it unexpectedly. I lost about 3 . I couldn't find it after the burst. Thank you for always replying .
Why do you use smb the first time and second time Stumpout, does it make a different? Can i do the job with stumpout only?
SMB is Stump Out. Stump Out, by BONIDE is SMB.
how much does the gold solution weigh, does the extra weight equal the precipitated gold, is the gold solution a lot heavier than just the chemicals would be ?
also i really enjoyed watching your video again when you add the smb!
:-)
I don't know. I may have to try an experiment to see if the liquid gets heavier after dissolving the gold.
@@sreetips
:-) that would be really interesting to find out whether a solution containing nothing but the chemicals weighs less than a solution containing the gold, i think it will because gold is heavy
:-)
hello sir will you be doing the gold bars from computer parts off ebay soon thanks great videos
Yes, coming up next.
You must have the world's cleanest wedding ring!
why do you precipitate the gold the re dissolve it and re precipitate it a second time, is it more pure after the second one?
Yes, every time that's done the gold gets more pure.
Cody's Lab does a great Minecraft demonstration of inquarting.
Excellent work thumbs up
What filters are you using?
Regular lab grade filter papers.
@@sreetips can you contact me? MFE.Waste@gmail.com
So after the fifth nitric run it should be fine to be melted into a bar right
Correct, very close to three nines. But the only way to be sure is to refine it with aqua regia.
I noticed that you used 1 equation to figure the amount of copper being 1.265,what number do you use for 10k?
10k constant is; 0.635
Another Great EPISODE!!! Cheers!!!
At 16:53, I was wondering with you rinse with hydrochloric acid at this point.
Hydrochloric will rinse out dissolved metals from the gold better than plain water.
Outstanding, I began collecting gold from computers and broken gold when I was working in a pawn shop due to your videos, I have watched about almost all of them, I am hoping to have my shop up and running soon, I am trying to figure out everything I would need to get started, however I have seen furnaces to melt gold and silver, you use a torch and abstain the same results. Is there anything you would recommend as a started kit?
This is a awesome channel to watch. Something about the gold and refining it??? Very cool.
I love doing it. It’s fascinating. I started watching an older video of mine and couldn’t stop watching it.
@@sreetips its very fascinating indeed sir and I for one really like watching the channel. There are other channels but you speak my language. Literally and figuratively.
Very cool presentation, Thank you!
The silver will then be dissolved into the nitric/water. Can you add table salt to it and drop your silver?
Yes, adding table salt will react with the silver nitrate and form silver chloride.
@@sreetips Ok thanks. I have AR in with copper pipe and bubbler, seeing stuff on bottom.
What was the purpose of dissolving the gold twice?
Repurification. Any gold that I'm going to sell gets refined at least twice. Just to be certain.
I wish you lived next door to me, with all your knowledge youd be just the guy to pester to help me process 5 years worth of electronic scrap - everything condensed down
Also, add the H2SO4 just before the last rinse. That way there is no chance the Pb would go ack into solution during the subsequent dissolutions.
Robert, I add sulfuric every time I dissolve the gold as a prophylactic measure to guard against any lead making it into the precipitation phase. Lead, even trace amounts, can ruin the gold and make it crumble.
The precipitated lead should be caught by the filtration between processes. There should be virtually no risk of lead contamination in the final precipitate the way he is doing it.
I am not complaining just offering a suggestion to improve the flow of the process. Sreetips is very meticulous in his procedures. I just have a particular order I perform the process. I offered an explanation as to why. I like Sreetips explanation of why he adds the H2SO4. He is spot on as to why even the tiniest amount of Pb will ruin a solid refine.
inquarting gold, which would be more economical tho silver or copper? this could be buying it outright or reclaiming from waste!
I refine silver so for me, using silver makes sense. But for those who don't have silver then copper can be used.
your videos are are incredibly watchable, was i correct in my assumption that it was easier to refine the gold when inquarting it with pure copper? it seemed like it was.
Good show.
Using copper seemed to do a better job of cleaning the gold before refining. I refine silver so I'll continue to use silver instead of copper.
@@sreetips Isn't it more painful watching hundreds of bucks worth of silver turn into blue liquid you may never recover than a few bucks of copper? I could never bring myself to waste that much silver. Also you need a FAQ / channel introduction video on your default page - preferably explaining what your name means, and other commonly asked questions. I see a lot of those unanswered, people seem keen to know more!
Dr. Lex Winter none of the silver gets wasted. I’ll get it all back out of those blue solutions. I save them and recover the silver later
why did you multiply the grams of gold by 1.265? what does 1.265 represent?
A constant. Grams of 14k times 1.265 will give the exact amount of sterling/925 silver required for inquarting.
@@sreetips ah ok thanks, and this constant is only valid for 14k gold or also for other karats?
10k constant 0.635
14k constant 1.265
18k constant 1.9
@@sreetips thanks a lot!!
Haven't seen watch glasses like those before. Made by Kimax?
Those are from the thrift store. They are filled with oil and heated with a candle. Perfect reflux covers.
@@sreetips"perfect" is right.
So What's better to use copper or silver
So I assume the reason you normally use silver instead of copper (or other metals) for inquarting the gold is because you also need to refine your silver scrap as well, essentially killing two birds?
Correct
sreetips okay, that makes sense then. Since you had said it was actually easier if you used copper instead, eliminating the silver chloride. So I figured there was a good reason you used silver anyway
It seems the guy is working around in an endless circle: inquart it, dissolve it, precipitate it, wash it dissolve it again, cement it, dissolve it, precipitate it, melt it, inquart it ...
I feel the same way some times. Getting pure gold, from any source, is never quick and easy
I have some karat white gold scrap. do i treat this different than yellow karat gold?
No - the process is exactly the same. But there’s a higher probability that you’ll encounter platinum group metals in your nitric acid boils. If the solution is green rather than blue then it may contain palladium and platinum.
@@sreetips OK and then I can use that Nitric acid boil to refine out some sterling silver. Will the platinum metal stay in solution when I put copper into the silver nitrate or will they precipitate out with the Silver?
It will cement out on the copper. It will appear last after the silver looking black on the copper. It won’t be enough to recover and refine. I just melt the silver, run it thru my silver cell. The PGMs will end up as slimes in the silver cell anode basket. I recover that separately when I refine the anode filters slimes.
@@sreetips great, one last question. I am testing all my Karat with a scratch stone and acids. I have a few pieces marked as 10K, when scratched on the stone, the lines do not completely disappear with 14k, but are very clear with 10k. Would you calculate them as 14k?, 12k?, or just put them with 10k?
What is the exact formula of inquartation of gold
14k multiply grams by 1.265
10k multiply grams by 0.635
18k multiply grams by 1.9
8:39 why its blue tho?
Copper in solution is blue
Can I use 67% nitric acid for this process and what temperature is the hot plate set at?
Yes. I don’t know hot plate settings. Mine has low medium and high. I use medium-high setting
I recently did a clean up of a home of man that passed away and found a lot of jewelry tools and supplies including a 10oz bag of what looks just like the gold that you inquarted with copper. You can see the gold in it and that it's not just copper. It also had some silver nuggets in it but I removed them when I first found it before I knew what I had. So I melted some in a crucible and when it cooled I knocked the piece out and the bottom of it was clearly gold. I assume that the being heavier it settled to the bottom. So I purchased the acids and followed your process but the nitric acid completely dissolved all of it leaving me with just blue liquid. What could I have done wrong. I was sure there was some gold there, what happened?
Norm-
Gold will not separate when melted with silver - it will alloy. Even if it’s stirred. Boiling in nitric will dissolve silver and copper leaving the gold behind as a black/brown powder.
@@sreetips So there must not be any gold in it? If I use stump out what will happen?
Nothing
Why is there silver in the gold-copper alloy?
Because karat gold contains silver and platinum group metals. A well known fact among refiners. The public don't know this and the refiner just keeps these additional metals, paying out only for the gold content. That's how they can effort to pay out such high percentages.
@@sreetips Ahh, I see. Interesting, thanks!
This should have been my chemistry project in college, cost of Electricity, Chemicals, Man hours, Unrefined Gold, cost of Day at his Shop = 800.00 Gold Yield 1,100.00 profit $300.00 about what my wife gets at her Nail Spa a day and both have chemical Lung Exposure Did you here him cough during the video so does my wife from Nail Spa Chemicals. Love your Videos your warning is warranted.
I find this fascinating, even though I don't understand chemistry one little bit.
I'm not a chemist. You actually don't need to know chemistry to refine. Just rules to remember.
In a lot of your other videos, you add borax when melting. Is there a reason why you didn't this time?
@@IMDunn-oy9cd I've watched a few of his videos too. He uses borax for at least two reasons one is when filter paper and fine powder is being used, to help keep the precious metals and paper from blowing out of the melt dish, the 2nd one is when there might be just a little impurities, the borax will absorb those impurities. Which he rarely has impurities. I think there is one more reason that I can't think of at the moment. To answer the question regarding why he doesn't use borax doing this (inquarting). There no chance of anything blowing out of the melt dish, and there's no need to worry about impurities since he's melting impurities together to get to 6 karat or 25% or just a little higher so everything stays together. If he did 5.9 karat or 24% everything would turn into a fine powder and trying to get ALL the gold would be very difficult since the gold would be left suspended in the solution.
Have a GREAT Day!!!
Thanks Shane York.
@@IMDunn-oy9cd Your welcome, my Friend!!
Masha Allah u make thing so simple God has blessed u . great job sir thanks you sir
I would like to ask if it's possible to inquart gold with the mix of silver and copper?
Yes, both can be used interchangeably with each other to inquart the gold. So if you need 38 grams of silver for your inquartation but you only have 30 grams of silver then you can just add 8 grams of copper to make up the difference.
@@sreetips thank youu
The only problem with using Copper instead of Silver is that it requires 3 times more Nitric Acid to dissolve the Same Weight in Metal ,, I can’t remember the exact amount but it takes roughly 3 times more nitric to dissolve one gram of copper as it does to dissolve silver
And silver is about 180 times more than copper in price. The math here is good.