how to clean a gold nugget

[bonza]

Hi all
I found a gold nugget about twice the size of a jelly bean yesterday, but nearly through it away as was covered in dirt.

it looks the slug of gold is stuck with a dark coloured quartz and the dirt is really baked or cemented onto the gold. it wasnt till I scratched it with a knife that I could see it was actually gold

whats the best way to clean the crap off? I have it soaking in a glass of water at the moment

would spirits of salts work?

[nuggethill]

All of mine nuggets are cleaned with one type of acid (sulphuric acid),
leave it in the acid for a month and most of the quartz will be dissolved,
but don't mix two different acids together as this makes aquafura (not sure of the spelling)
and this will dissolve gold.
hope this helps

I usually wait till I have a few nuggets before I treat them

also you may not be able to obtain this acid but if you can

please safety first

regards Harry

[Rowdy]

Spirits of salts "muriatic acid" should help or if you want some a bit stronger, hydracloric as used by brick cleaners will also clean up your nugget. Another good cleaner is mag wheel cleaner which has a low percentage of hydrafluric acid in it.
As stated above be careful handling any acids as they can cause severe injury when not handled correctly.
Rowdy

[nugget893]

The mag wheel cleaner that Rowdy is talking about in an aluminum cleaner. The one that I use is called AliBrite and you can some times find it at Supper Cheap Autos. I normally use Hydrochloric acid or commonly know as Brickie acid. I leave it in that acid for a week to ten days. It depends on how dirty the nugget is and if it has iron stone on it. Then I transfer it into the Alibrite for about a week. This will brighten up the gold. I finally wash the nugget in a screw top jar with worm water and dish washing detergent and give it a good shake then tip it on to a paper towel to dry it. And pres-toe a nice clean nugget for your collection.
nugget893