Gold, Gold, Gold, very little gold

[frosch45]

I'll start out with a general foreword, I have done a little research, but instead of just shooting this down immediately, I would appreciate some responses. Not sure if I'm going to pursue this yet, but I have access to large quantities of used pc's.

 

I saw another sfn thread that dealt with aqua regia reclimation. http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30751

 

But then I came across this.

 

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3957505.html

 

Gold reclamation process

 

United States Patent 3957505

 

Gold is recovered from gold bearing materials by dissolving gold ore in an iodide-iodine solution, precipitating gold with a reducing solution, removing the precipitated gold and then regenerating the iodide-iodine solution with an oxidizing agent

 

 

Now generally, I think that I understand this. When it said, iodide-iodine solution, do you think that means like a potassium iodide solution? It can't be liquid iodine because of iodine's sublimation....

 

As for reducing agents, something like Aluminum....

As for oxidizing agents, something like Chlorine....

 

any faulty reasoning here?

[jdurg]

If by "large quantities" you mean a few metric tons worth of scrap computer parts, then yeah, it's feasible. The amount of old electronics that are required to account for the loss of gold in the recovery process is stunning. There is so very little gold in computer parts, especially now a days, that just having a few hundred used PCs around will net you MAYBE a gram of gold if you're lucky. It's just too finely dispersed to reclaim without a significant portion of the small batch being lost.

[frosch45]

If by "large quantities" you mean a few metric tons worth of scrap computer parts, then yeah, it's feasible. The amount of old electronics that are required to account for the loss of gold in the recovery process is stunning.

I was aware

 

There is so very little gold in computer parts, especially now a days, that just having a few hundred used PCs around will net you MAYBE a gram of gold if you're lucky. It's just too finely dispersed to reclaim without a significant portion of the small batch being lost.

 

I was also aware, again, not being rude, but I have researched this extensively. I have access to an pc "junk" shop, which actually has quite the business in these dealings...

 

 

I am certainly not trying to make a profit by any means, its just a little expiriment I wanted to try.

[jdurg]

Okay. Just making sure. I've seen lots of people attempt this and then not understand why they didn't get anything out of it.

 

But to answer your question, yes, it is a solution of iodide and iodine in water. The I- helps the I2 dissolve forming the I3- ion.

[frosch45]

thanks for the help.