i've been hyperfixating on gold recovery from ewaste and looking at ways to do it without the use of mineral acids where possible, and minimizing the loss of reagents. it's all very arbitrary and subjective, but i decided to put down some of my thoughts over at the alkaline glycine process page with some photos of my first experiments with the procedure. eventually i'd like to make a video overview of the process once i've gone through it fully myself (waste/input material -> dissolution of base metals -> filter solids -> dissolution of precious metals -> filter and discard solids -> recovery of complexed base and precious metals -> purification and reuse of ligand solution).

it's a ways off as i'm currently still collating many different academic sources that are tailored for some combination of mining/academic research/industrial waste stream processing. it's tricky to weigh which hazardous reagents and steps are worth dealing with. i think a lot about how someone on the gold refining forum says that it is disrespectful to those who have been perfecting the art of precious metal refining to think one knows better than all those who have come before her and try to reinvent the wheel. it helps me to not get lost in the weeds when i am theorizing workups, so i can ground myself in the sense of asking myself "why am i deviating from the established and functional practice?"

anyway it's nice to have an end goal that gives me an excuse to mix up fancy colored potions.