How to Refine Gold

Refining gold

There are several things you will need in order to refine gold. Be sure to have everything at hand and that you have a large enough area to work. You may want to do this on a long table outside where you will get plenty of ventilation. The odor can sometimes be rather suffocating, especially if you try do this in a closed room.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Rubber gloves
• Goggles
• Rubber apron
• Plastic buckets
• Nitric acid
• Filter
• Stirring rod (wood or plastic)
• Storm gold precipitant
• Urea
• Water
• Aqua ammonia
• Precious metal detection liquid

1. Put your gold in a container. For every ounce of gold, you will need a container that is the size of 300 milliliters. Add nitric acid to the gold in the container. For every ounce of gold, you will add 30 milliliters of nitric acid. Then let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

2. Add 120 milliliters of hydrochloric or muriatic acid for every ounce of gold in the container. The mix will turn brown and become very hot. You will want to wait at least an hour before filtering the acid. You could wait overnight for this part.

3. Pour the mixture into another container by filtering any particles that could contaminate the gold. The acid will become a clear emerald green color. If it isn't clear and it appears cloudy or musty, re-filter the mixture.

4. Take a quart of water and boil it. Add 1 pound of urea, which is used to adjust the pH level of the acid. Slowly add the water and urea mix to the acid. The acid will foam, so don't add the mix too quickly, otherwise it could overflow and you could lose some gold. Once the acid stops foaming, stop adding the water/urea mix. You will have raised the pH level from .1 to 1.0. This kills the nitric acid, but not the hydrochloric acid.

5. Take another quart of water and boil it. Add an ounce of storm precipitant for every ounce of gold in the container. Add this solution to the acid slowly to prevent overflow. The acid will change to a muddy color. Particles of gold will be forming in the water. Wait 30 minutes, then test the acid for any presence of dissolved gold. Use precious metal detection liquid in order to detect dissolved gold so that none is thrown away.

6. Pour the acid into another container by filtering. You will have what looks like mud on the bottom of the container and you do not want to pour this out. This is gold. Once you poured out all of the acid, add water to the mud and stir. Take the muddy particles out of the container and proceed to rinse three to four times and then pour aqua ammonia on the gold. White vapors will the appear and you will need to rinse again and then let the gold dry.

References

• Refining Gold

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish