How to refine gold?

first there is the question of what is refining gold.
most of the above post are on milling gold not refining gold.
mercury is used in milling gold ores be they rock containing gold or computer boards. ect
this cover gold milling
books.google.com... &oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPR9,M1


this is how you refine gold.
you need to have a more then a basic knowledge in chemistry and lab safety.

Once you finish this process you will end up with .999 pure gold bullion. This at the current market price is over eight hundred fifty dollars per ounce. Just follow these few easy steps any you will learn how to refine you old gold in to .999 pure bars of gold

First you need to get the gold that you want to refine. It could be old rings, necklaces, earrings, or anything that is made of gold that is no longer wanted. Once you get the gold it will be tossed into a hot acid bath of something called Aqua Regia. Aqua Regia is a mix of Nitric acid and Hydrochloric acid, usually in a volumetric ratio of one to three. Next you would add the gold carefully as to not splash the acid, remember to always wear gloves and protective clothing, as you would not want to hurt yourself in the process. The Aqua Regia is left to sit overnight and the next day.

Then you pour off the acid. The acid is what contains all your gold. Once you pour off the acid you will want to collect anything that is left over. Only good metals will not dissolve so what you have is most likely silver. Rinse the pieces that are not dissolved At this point you are also able to recover any gem stones that were in the jewelry, diamonds etc as the acid does not harm good stones. These can be sold or reused. Next you must neutralize the nitric acid witch has partially been done by heating the acid but is best done by adding Urea/ Uric acid...and yes its urine and yes urine does work.

But urea fertilizer is more sanitary, and then we add sodium Bi Sulfite to precipitate the gold out of solution. It falls to the bottom as a nasty brown powder and it's not the nicest form of gold to look at. That is rinsed several times and filtered. Then after the gold is filtered it then will be heated by a torch. The final result is a pool of gold once melted. The gold is allowed to cool for a short time and then tossed into water, once the gold cools down and is not steaming its safe to pick up and hold. Congratulations you have completed the process and made gold bullion

This is just the basic way to do gold and you need to know how to do each step properly or you can lose your gold or hurt your self.

Just melting the gold powder is tricky in itself. as the torch will blow it all over the room unless you add borax and are very careful fusing the borax into glass over the gold before you hit it with full flame of the torch.

I spent 20 years working gold mines.
and know how to refine gold but even i would just send my crude gold bars (dore bars) to a refiner then to spend the time trying to do something they can do a lot better.
en.wikipedia.org...

I have been a professional precious metals refiner for the last 40 years. Refining gold requires quite a lot of knowledge, in order to keep from injuring yourself or others.

The vast majority of gold refining info on the web is incorrect, inefficient, and dangerous. Most of the info given thus far on this thread falls into this category.

Don't listen to anyone that tells you to use mercury. Besides being very dangerous, it doesn't refine (purify) the gold. It only recovers it. Big difference.

The ONLY reliable source of information that I know of is found on the following link. Everything you need to know is found there.

www.goldrefiningforum.com...



[edit on 3-12-2008 by goldsilverpro]

www.goldrefiningforum.com will be all you need.

AFLAC

Originally posted by red_leader
Hi,

I'm looking for some advice on how to refine and mint my own gold bullion. Any practical advice or weblinks are appreciated. I'm pretty handy and have access to some gold scraps....

Download and read "Refining Waste Metals" by C.M. Hoke. Gives you a good background in refining gold and other precious metals.