Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Most easy method to convert gold potassium cyanide to metallic

We use GPC for electroplating gold. We have changed the process using different commercial salt. We want to extract Metallic Gold from left out GPC by simple method like displacement reactions. Pl. suggest us.

Mohan Srivastava
platers - Hyderabad, India
2006

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Extracting gold from the left out gold potassium cyanide?
You may end up spending more in treating the cyanide waste than what you would get by extracting the gold.

T.S.N. Sankara Narayanan
- Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
(ed.note Nov. 2017: The good doctor has a fascinating blog at https://advancementinscience.wordpress.com)
2006

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Hi Mohan,
The way I read the question is that you want to convert PGC salts to solid gold? If I am correct in reading this, I would suggest choosing a reputable precious metals refiner. The refiner has the proper facilities to do the job correctly, and the lot processing charge should be reasonable. You could request the gold back in bar or ingot form. If the PGC Salts are still in sealed jars, maybe the original supplier would take them back? Good Luck.

Mark Baker
process engineer - Malone, New York
2006

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Unless you have changed to a gold sulphite process (which produces a different type of deposit) your new process will almost certainly still be based on GPC whatever it says on the bottle and your new supplier will be very happy to sell you his replacement chemicals.
If the solution is not sulphite based, I would use your GPC to replace the gold used from the process and just use the new supporting chemicals.
If you are not happy to do this, sell the GPC to another plater or a refiner (who will sell it to a plater)
Remember GPC is a lot more valuable than gold metal.

Geoff Smith
Hampshire, England
2006