One can work consistently at this gold recycling gig, or loaf, depending upon your mood.
I'll admit, the "after results" in the attached was WORK, as the customer who brought in these black buttons SWORE there was gold in them--before started experimenting...sure couldn't tell it by lookin'....
He confessed he'd been reading about torching scrap jewellery, so he thought he'd "try it."
What a challenge, as the torch wielding experimenter had rendered the black buttons absolutely and te-totally INSOLUABLE!
It tickles me to reveal my backyard gold scrappers competitors on ebay (where I am seller gold_tutor couldn't solve this problem
The results--as shown--are 99% pure. Not only is the "after 'close up' pix" chemically pure, notice how crumbly it is after sound chemistry solves the problem.
Sound, logical, straightforward chemistry GETS THE GOLD out of burnt-to-a-crisp junk.
The customer would have been far better off, profit-wise, to have shipped all the marked karat scrap "as is" than to have done this, and made it hard work for someone else what would have been a very simple refining job. But, I'm not griping--work is work, and I get a KICK out of finding the gold in burnt-up messes. B)
The only way to get this "brighter appearing" and take out any remaining impurities is to smelt it at very high temperatures, and then subject it to electrowinning, such as the Royal Canadian Mint does the gold they purchase, in order to achieve .9999 (99.99% a.k.a. 4 Nines) purity. I never take it that far, as this .99 or as we call it in the trade "2 Nines" is pure enough for my buyers.
FYI:
there are 4 levels of pure, and chemically pure, aka 2-nines is the lowest level that the trade accepts as wearing the "pure" label. This is as far as I take it, to the "chemically pure" designation.
If any of you have any messes you've been making by playing around with a torch while you're trying to learn, give me a shout. The gold is still there...that is, the gold that is left, didn't get away by volatizing into a vapor at the temps a torch can create ...