Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Gather your gold scraps and weigh them. Write down the weight in ounces. Place all of the gold into a large plastic container.
Put on your protective clothing, gloves, goggles and face mask.
Mix nitric acid and hydrochloric acid in a ratio of 1 ml of nitric acid for every 4 ml of hydrochloric acid in a large plastic bucket with millimeter measurements on the side. This mixture is known as aqua regia.
Pour the aqua regia into the gold container at a rate of 150 ml for every ounce of scrap gold you have in the container. Stir with a long-handled stirring rod. Leave the mixture to sit for more than eight hours or overnight to achieve optimal purity.
Pour the mixture, including the gold, through a fine filter into another container. It should change from a dirty brown to a clear emerald green. Filter the mixture until it turns this color.
Add gold precipitant, such as ferrous sulphate or sodium bisulphate, to the mixture, and let it sit overnight or at least another eight hours. If gold is present, the mixture will turn purple.
Pour off the liquid until only a small amount containing the gold sludge at the bottom is left, then filter out the gold sludge to remove the remaining liquid.
Wash off the gold once again with hydrochloric acid and follow up with a water rinse. Filter and pour the gold into a mold to harden. The gold is now 99.9 percent pure.