Assaying Gold Chloride

[BBM610]

Is fire assay useful for gold chloride?

 

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[BBM610]

View attachment 1478453

 

[Eu_citzen]

I'd assume so. Why not ask your local assaying office?

 

[BBM610]

I'd assume so. Why not ask your local assaying office?

I did. They said they would not do a fire assay because it will absorb water and increase the weight when exposed to air.

They suggested ICP Anaylsis.

Just wondering if it works or whether is might not.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Fire assay isn't a good idea. Are you aware that gold chloride is a neurotoxin? Safety first.

Why not just precipitate the gold and weigh it? HCL followed by SMB is the usual way or you could just put that mess back into solution and use ferrous sulfate.

Your question leads me to believe you might be just learning chemistry? Do you have purple/reddish spots on your skin?

Heavy Pans

 

[Eu_citzen]

Fire assay isn't a good idea. Are you aware that gold chloride is a neurotoxin? Safety first.

Heavy Pans

I suppose that's the answer then.

 

[BBM610]

I am only online here once or twice per month.

 

[BBM610]

I leached ore with HCL and bleach. Then precipitated with dissolved SMB.

 

[BBM610]

That is the precipitate.

 

[BBM610]

The thing I am wondering is what to do with gold chloride powder. Anyone looking to buy it would need to know Au %. I can get a good price for it as a compound. How do you assay without destroying the compound?

Jon

 

[BBM610]

Let me clarify; if your goal is to make gold chloride powder as a final product and you make it from ore without knowing what the specific content of each precipitate is; then can gold chloride powder be assayed after it is made? I was asking specifically about the compound including the form as the gold in it was not the proposed final product. I do not want to separate it just evaluate it.

 

[BBM610]

I am sure suppliers of gold chloride powder as a product are likely adding the gold by % to produce it. If I can sell it; would I not need to know this too? It is used in laboratories. I was surprised I got a full pound it.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Let me clarify; if your goal is to make gold chloride powder as a final product and you make it from ore without knowing what the specific content of each precipitate is; then can gold chloride powder be assayed after it is made? I was asking specifically about the compound including the form as the gold in it was not the proposed final product. I do not want to separate it just evaluate it.

Would it not be better to have the said ore assayed? I kinda feel that would be a backwards approach otherwise.
There is non-destructive testing I'm sure. But there's a reason it's not much used. Besides, testing this is simple yourself.
Save yourself the additional cost.

I mean, if you were to precipitate gold from x amount of grams of AuCl you can just redissolve it later, to get your AuCl back.
Just weight the gold & goldchloride (dried) beforehand. Then calculate the % of gold.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Hmmm.... that's the precipitate after SMB? My precipitate is usually brown/black in appearance from a pee yellow solution that turns clear after SMB addition.

I think you have pulled out something else.

 

[BBM610]

It is ore from Placer County, CA. The AuCl was actually orange. Some of the AuCl from this ore is yellow too. Both turn blackish when I add SMB then it clears. The precipitate is either super yellow, red yellow, or yellow-white. I did get avocado green from it once. It turns black when I melt it like silver chloride and gold powder.

 

[BBM610]

I do want to have the ore assayed. .

 

[BBM610]

Yes. Just wanted to try leaching it.
This is what the other precipitate looked like from this same ore. Thanks.

 

[BBM610]

I was actually expecting variations. This is almost dried out.

 

[BBM610]

I may have found lode gold. It is Placer county. There is a ton of red sand 1/4 mile om where I found the ore. There may be a lot of gold in it. I have to send it out.

 

[Capt Nemo]

After SMB addition, NONE of my precipitates look like that! You are pulling something else out of that ore!

If your pulling gold with bleach/HCl your solution should look like this.



This is the precipitate after adding SMB, which is finely divided gold.