An Experimental Examination of

Claims of Anomalous Forms of

Elemental Gold

N. A. Reiter and S. P. Faile

03 March, 2004

Introduction:

In early 2003, thanks in part to information provided by our colleague Dr. S.P. Faile we became aware of the wealth of unusual claims that exist regarding supposed anomalous forms of transition and platinum group elements. Interest turned rapidly to bewilderment, as we attempted to sort out bona fide empirical information from hyper-redundant iterative speculation. However, certain of the claims made provided tantalizing hints or clues that seemed worth following up on, particularly with respect to on-going efforts in gravity and new energy sources.

Claims of the anomalous materials, often called "ormes", "ormus", mono-atomic, or "White Powder of Gold" - often in a confusing state of semi-interchangeability - do seem to at least have a recognizable single source. The entire field, despite conceptual links to traditional Alchemy, appeared on the examination table of New Science in the 1980's thanks to a single unique personality - one David Radius Hudson, formerly of Arizona. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Hudson was granted several patents worldwide pertaining to his discoveries and claims.

It is not the intention of this paper to go into any sort of historical or cultural evaluation of the claims of Hudson or the virtual subculture of experimenters and devotees that have grown up around those claims. Our primary objective was to determine the veracity and feasibility of the technical claims, using acceptable chemical practices, materials, and procedures.

The essential premise, while often expressed in conflicting terms, is that non-metallic physically anomalous forms of eleven transition and platinum group elements may be prepared by chemical or electrochemical means. Among the claimed properties of these converted "non-assayable" materials are room temperature superconductivity, macroscopic quantum tunneling, and strange biological and psychopharmacological effects. It was Hudson's contention - added to by anecdotes from several other recent researchers - that two materials in particular displayed dramatic physical anomalies - the "orme" forms of gold and iridium.

We thus began an evaluation of these claims by fall of 2003. Could anomalous forms of known metals be produced?

Attempted Replication of Hudson's Australian Patent Example:

It had been ascertained by us and others that the teachings of Australian patent AU3662489 (1990) seem to provide the greatest amount of technical disclosure. Example 1 of this patent defines the preparation of so called "g-orme", and includes an extraordinary number of repetitive chemical dissolving and evaporations in HCl and HNO3. The end result of this processing was claimed to be a quantity of light colored flocculent precipitate that when dried and annealed, possessed unusual properties. Initial communication with other investigators has led us to believe that heretofore, perhaps only three or four claims of successful replication exist, and in none of these claims has specific data been made publicly available. Nevertheless, an acceptable quantity of appropriate purity materials were available to us to proceed with as faithful a rendering of the teachings as possible. We began in mid-December of 2003, and finished before New Years Eve day. The time-intensive operation was performed in two locations - our home lab and McMaster Energy lab facilities in Toledo, Ohio. We have excerpted the procedure from the patent text herewith, and have included our annotations as appropriate.

Starting Materials:

Gold - 99.99% pure from Cerac Corp.

HCl - 38% ACS grade - Fisher Scientific

HNO3 - concentrated ACS grade - Fisher Scientific

NaCl - 99.99% from Alfa Aesar

NaOH - commercial "Red Devil" brand.

Water - distilled

Glassware - all new pyrex, with fresh Nalgene bottles for solution storage and transport. We used a 1 liter round bottom flask for boiling, and 250 ml beakers for boiling and evaporation.

Annotated patent text starts below. Original example text is in italics:

G-ORME was prepared from metallic gold as follows:

(1) 50 mg gold (99.99% pure) were dispersed in 200 ml aqua regia to provide clusters of gold atoms.

(2) 60 ml concentrated hydrochloric acid were added to the dispersion and the mixture was brought to boil, and continued boiling until the volume was reduced to approximately 10-15 ml. 60 ml concentrated HCl were added, and the sample brought to boil and checked for evolution of NOCl fumes. The process was repeated until no further fumes evolved, thus indicating that the nitric acid had been removed and the gold had been converted completely to the gold chloride.

(3) The volume of the dispersion was reduced by careful heating until the salt was just dry. "Just dry" as used herein means that all of the liquid had been boiled off, but the solid residue had not been "baked" or scorched.

(4) The just dry salts were again dispersed in aqua regia and steps (2) and (3) were repeated. This treatment provides gold chloride clusters of greater than 11 atoms.

(5) 150 ml 6M hydrochloric acid were added to the just dry salts and boiled again to evaporate off the liquid to just dry salts. This step was repeated four times. This procedure leads to a greater degree of sub-division to provide smaller clusters of gold chloride. At the end of this procedure an orangish-red salt of gold chloride is obtained. The salt will analyze as substantially pure Au₂Cl₆.

****** Because of time constraints, gaps of up to 48 hours existed between some boil-off steps. Solution was kept in either the original flask or transported in Nalgene bottles, also depending on where the boiling was performed.

(6) Sodium chloride is added in an amount whereby the sodium is present at a ratio 20 moles sodium per mole of gold. The solution is then diluted with deionized water to a volume of 400 ml. The presence of the aqueous sodium chloride provides the salt Na₂Au₂Cl₈. The presence of water is essential to break apart the diatoms of gold.

****** Due to availability issues, we used distilled water instead of de-ionized.

(7) The aqueous sodium chloride solution is very gently boiled to a just dry salt, and thereafter the salts were taken up alternatively in 200 ml deionized water and 300 ml 6M hydrochloric acid until no further change in color is evidenced. The 6M hydrochloric acid is used in the last treatment.

****** Step 7 is the most confusing of the sequence. The term, "taken up alternatively" is not clear. Does this mean sequential boil-downs and re-hydrations? Or does it refer to adding discreet amounts of water and acid to the point where no color change is seen between the two solute stages? I made a judgement call for the latter. There was no color change of any significance after two additions each of 6M HCl and H2O. Thus, I left the process as is at that point and proceeded to step 8. See PHOTO A.

(8) After the last treatment with 6M hydrochloric acid, and subsequent boildown, the just dry salt is diluted with 400 ml deionized water to provide a monoatomic gold salt solution of NaAuCl₂'XH₂O. The pH is approximately 1.0.

******* The pH appeared to be closer to 3 or 4, after the addition of 400 ml of water.

(9) The pH is adjusted very slowly with dilute sodium hydroxide solution, while constantly stirring, until the pH of the solution remains constant at 7.0 for a period of more than twelve hours. This adjustment may take several days. Care must be taken not to exceed pH 7.0 during the neutralization.

********* This was accomplished using pH paper, and then was confirmed the following morning using a calibrated pH meter. The solution pH was read at 6.89.

(10) After the pH is stabilized at pH 7.0, the solution is gently boiled down to 10 ml and 10 ml concentrated nitric acid is added to provide a sodium-gold nitrate. As is apparent, the nitrate is an oxidizer and removes the chloride. The product obtained should be white crystals. If a black or brown precipitate forms, this is an indication that there is still Na₂Au₂Cl₈ present. If present, it is then necessary to restart the process at step (1).

******** The chemistry disclosed here seems suspect. White salts are indeed obtained, however yellow to orange salts become segregated and are still present. No black or brown precipitate was noted.

(11) If white crystals are obtained, the solution is boiled to obtain just dry crystals. It is important not to overheat, i.e., bake.

(12) 5 ml concentrated nitric acid are added to the crystals and again boiled to where the solution goes to just dry. Again it is essential not to overheat or bake. Steps (11) and (12) provide a complete conversion of the product to a sodium-gold nitrate. No chlorides are present.

******** This step was repeated four times, in hopes of producing a quantity of salts without any yellow color. This did not occur.

(13) 10 ml deionized water are added and again boiled to just dry salts. This step is repeated once. This step eliminates any excess nitric acid which may be present.

********* At step #13, an accident occurred, and approximately half of the solution at that point was lost when the beaker tipped from the hotplate due to an inadvertent bump by the experimenter. The remaining steps were scaled volumetrically to make up for the lost solution.

(14) Thereafter, the just dry material is diluted to 80 ml with deionized water. The solution will have a pH of approximately 1. This step causes the nitrate to dissociate to obtain NaAu in water with a small amount of HNO₃ remaining .

******** Once again, the pH achieved was closer to 3, following the procedure and volumes cited.

(15) The pH is adjusted very slowly with dilute sodium hydroxide to 7.0 + 0.2. This will eliminate all free acid, leaving only NaAu in water.

(16) The NaAu hydrolyzes with the water and dissociates to form HAu. The product will be a white precipitate in water. The Au atoms have water at the surface which creates a voluminous cotton-like product.

******** This did not occur. We did however observe (see PHOTO B) the formation of a very slight amount of light tan snowflake-like precipitate.

(17) The white precipitate is decanted off from any dark gray solids and filtered through a 0.45 micron cellulose nitrate filter paper. Any dark gray solids of sodium auride should be redissolved and again processed starting at step (1).

********* No paper of this sort was available, so we used 5 micron paper. The precipitate was indeed captured in the paper, but the amount was so small as to make removal from the paper almost impossible.

(18) The filtered white precipitate on the filter paper is vacuum dried at 120C for two hours. The dry solid should be light grey in color which is HAuXH₂O and is easily removed from the filter paper.

(19) The monoatomic gold is placed in a porcelain ignition boat and annealed at 300C under an inert gas to remove hydrogen and to form a very chemically and thermally stable white gold monomer.

(20) After cooling, the ignited white gold can be cleaned of remaining traces of sodium by digesting with dilute nitric acid for approximately one hour.

(21) The insoluble white gold is filtered on 0.45 micron paper and vacuum dried at 120C for two hours. The white powder product obtained from the filtration and drying is pure G-ORME.

The G-ORME made according to this invention will exhibit the special properties described in the "General Description" of this application, including catalytic activity, special magnetic properties, resistance to sintering at high temperatures, and resistance to aqua regia and cyanide attack.

********* Unfortunately the amount of end product precipitate obtained was so small as to make further effective processing or testing very problematic. Small (5mm²) snips of the filter paper containing the precipitate were suspended by fine thread and exposed to a strong rare earth magnet, however no anomalous magnetic susceptibility was observed.

Discussion:

In a strict sense, our following of the patent teachings did indeed produce a precipitated material of unknown composition, albeit a very small amount. We were unable to perform EDS or other spectroscopy on the end material. It did not seem to possess any anomalous magnetic properties. The end product appeared to differ radically enough from Hudson's description that we felt consultation with others working in the area was in order. Experimentalist Barry Carter was consulted, and suggested to us that the gold cluster individuation had not proceeded to the proper level, as we had not achieved a strong green color of solution by step number 7. It is unclear what a green color represents in terms of chemical and physical properties - perhaps a blending of colloidal gold (typically blue violet to the eye - "The Purple of Cassius") with yellow gold-sodium chloride. Mr. Carter also suggested that too much time had elapsed between critical steps, and that we were fortunate to have produced the precipitate we had. While not necessarily resembling Hudson's claimed product verbatim, Mr. Carter felt, however, that we had indeed produced a small amount of the right material.

Grain Hopping as an Indicator of Anomalous Properties:

We shall discuss several other alternative and novel approaches toward the attempted production of unusual gold forms. However, we must first describe a particular effect that we continue to examine and quantify, that may be a unique indicator of the claimed dramatic properties of the altered metallic elements.

On several occasions, we have noted after thorough drying that some of the lightweight precipitated powders recovered from our experiments exhibited what we came to call "grain hopping". Grain hopping typically consists of either attractive or repelling action by individual minute (but visible) grains in a powder when a strong magnet is moved underneath a thin barrier upon which some of the powder is spread. It does not seem to be related to electrostatic forces from our evaluation thus far. In the materials we have examined to date, grain hopping appears to be a temporary effect following first drying or sometimes first annealing. It may linger from a few minutes to several days.

Oddly, the effect of grain hopping seems to be sign variable. Some grains from a given powder pile will be repelled, some attracted. It does not appear to necessarily be synonymous with a room temperature Meisner Effect. Most visible grain hopping has been observed by use of NdFeB magnets of > 1 MGO, held immediately under the foil or plastic weighing dishes used to contain the powders.

See PHOTO C, which shows grains pushed up the side of a plastic weighing dish by a 3" diameter ferrite magnet.

One observation that has prevented us from invoking the Meisner Effect was the hopping away of grains on an inclined surface, in distinction to the contiguous repelling force on superconductive grains (such as YBCO in liquid N2).

A short video clip said to show grain hopping or anomalous magnetic susceptibility exists, and is available for viewing on-line at:

http://www.OrmusMinerals.com/levitate.avi (Courtesy of Barry Carter)

Other Methods, Other Experiments:

Although a key effort, our attempted replication of the Hudson g-orme example was one of several experimental approaches we investigated since October of 2003 to produce anomalous materials of this sort.

Some of our other procedures are described thus:

1. Elecrolytic Dispersal of Gold in NaCl:

We considered that perhaps the energy inherent in electrolysis could break gold into small enough clusters to form the effective bonding with sodium in solution described by Hudson.

A 250 ml Nalgene beaker was filled with 150 ml of distilled water. We then dissolved enough table salt NaCl into the water to saturate the solution at room temperature, and leave approximately 5 ml of salt at the beaker bottom.

Two small oblong nuggets of 99.99% gold (Cerac) of about 4mm by 6mm size were clipped to micro-clip leads at their tips. The clip leads were attached to a variable 0 to 12VDC power supply. We then carefully by hand dipped the ends of the gold nuggets into the salt water, and observed vigorous bubbling as electrolysis ensues. The power-supply bogged down to a low value, however we maintained a current of approximately 1.3A. When dipping, we were careful to only let the gold touch the liquid, not the connecting clips.

Within seconds, we saw a region of yellow gold chloride stream away from the anode, amid the bubbles. At the cathode nugget, a greyish brown coating began to build on the gold surface. After approximately 10 seconds, the nugget electrodes were removed, and the polarity of the applied potential was reversed. They were then re-immersed. As the electrolytic reactions reversed position, the greyish brown coating was spalled off as a cloudy material into the solution of the beaker, and a coating began to build on the other nugget electrode.

This action of reversing and spalling off of the residue was repeated several times, after about 10 seconds of electrolysis. The solution in the beaker was now faintly yellow, from a build up of gold chloride.

The beaker was allowed to sit undisturbed for a few hours. We saw three components with time - the un-dissolved white NaCl salt at the bottom, a greyish tan precipitate above the salt, then the clear faintly yellowed solution on top. The clear portion of the beaker was decanted or removed with a volumetric pipette. We then added 200 ml of fresh distilled water, to take up and dissolve the remaining NaCl. This was done, and we found that the light greyish tan precipitate re-settled to the bottom. We next washed the material several times to remove as much of the NaCl solution as possible. The remaining material was then dried in situ, and formed a very light gray flake material on the beaker bottom. This material was removed and annealed under 2 slpm of N2 at 400C for 1 hour. A very light ash colored powder resulted.

When cooled and placed in a test tube, we found that a few selected granules or portions of this powder did indeed seem to respond slightly to a strong ferrite magnet held nearby. The grain hopping appeared both attractive and repelling, depending on the grains. This property appeared to diminish to null after about 24 hours.

It was shortly after annealing however that we realized that commercial table salt contains an appreciable amount of calcium silicate to prevent grain fusion. It is likely that a good portion of our precipitate may consist of sodium and calcium silicate. However, the action of the dried precipitate must be considered.

B. An Interesting Method Using AuTe2:

We pondered whether gold that is bonded to Te could be broken and dispersed into a mono-atomic form. On the 17^th of November, we examined this. From our notes:

"192 mg (approximately 1mM) of 99.99% gold is physically placed on a pyrex slide with 254 mg of granulated 99.999% Te. We use a propane torch flame to heat the pile. The Te goes to a liquid phase, wets the gold, and then within seconds, we see the shifting and wiggling that indicates the formation of AuTe2 from the discreet components. The compound is a brittle greyish-yellow shiny lump.

We take the mass, and crush it to a coarse powder with a stirring rod in a pyrex beaker. We add 50 ml of concentrated nitric acid, and about 5 ml of 4% H2O2 (topical grade). The contents are warmed slightly to about 80C on a hotplate.

The compound dissolves in-congruently. It appears as though the Te actually goes into solution first, with a faint yellow tint and some bubbling. A fine brownish powder of presumably gold then begins to slowly dissolve, over the course of several hours. 5 ml quantities of H2O2 are added periodically, and we note that the dissolution of the Au picks up with the fresh H2O2.

In the case of our first attempt, the dissolution was stopped before completion. There appeared to be no reason it could not have proceeded to completion. The acidic solution is clear, with a faint pearly character. It is decanted into a separate beaker.

NaOH:H2O (distilled) is added slowly to the clear acidic solution until at a pH of approximately 3 to 4, a white flocculent precipitate appears, in surprising volume. Taking the pH beyond about 8 results in the re-dissolving and vanishing of the precipitate.

The precipitate is allowed to settle overnight, and in our first case, consisted of about 30 ml worth, volumetrically. It is then washed with distilled water three times, before being filtered out with a standard coffee filter. We dry the filter on a hot plate at about 110C.

The dried white material is transferred to a plastic weighing tray for observation. We see that a strong ferrite donut magnet under the tray seems to make a number of the lightweight white powder grains jump onto the sides of the dish! The number of hopping grains appears to be greater than that for the electrolytically dispersed gold experiment.

The powder is then placed in an open-ended ampoule, and annealed under N2 at 400C for 1 hour. When cooled and examined, we find that the hopping properties of the powder seem to be nearly vanished. Annealing appeared to kill the effect seen earlier. However, when a few stray grains of un-annealed powder we re-examined, it was found that they also were deadened. This may imply a short life for the effect overall- one hour or less.

The remaining un-dissolved metallic gold powder was weighed after drying. We find that 138 mg remains, thus implying that about 54 milligrams was taken up in the process.

We also find that the pre-annealing weight of the white powder was 81 mg. This certainly suggests that a component of the material at that point consisted of one or more Te compound species (likely TeO2), as well as Au in a possibly unusual form."

C. Interesting Precipitates from Bentonite Clay and Spring Water:

It was claimed by Hudson that strange "orme" matter exists as a non-assayable component of many natural sources - mineral, as aqueous solutes, and in biological materials. We speculated that orme forms might "hide" inside the lattices or grain boundaries of mineral materials. Correspondence with other experimentalists suggests igneous or metamorphic mineral components such as plagioclase feldspars and zeolites may be rich in unusual nested matter. Another family of materials that seemed interesting was the montmorrilonite or bentonite clays.

We have tried on two occasions the processing of powdered bentonite clay. In both cases, we did achieve a final precipitate from clear solution that when dried exhibited modest grain hopping, actively observable out to perhaps 12 hours.

"50 ml of bentonite is placed in a 250 ml beaker. We add a solution of 50 ml distilled water and 100ml of concentrated nitric acid. The resulting foamy sludge takes on the texture of a thin pudding, before the bentonite breaks down post swelling into a clear liquid and light brown solids. The beaker is allowed to sit overnight, and in the morning, we decant off the clear light yellowish acid. This acid is diluted 1:1 with distilled water. Concentrated NaOH in H2O is then added slowly, and at a pH of about 9 or 10 we observe a light tan or ashen colored precipitate fall out. The precipitate is washed repeatedly and dried in air at 120C to a few mls of light gray powder."

We presume, without having the immediate capability for EDS analysis, that the powder consists of primarily Si, Al, and Ca oxides, with the possibility of unknown anomalous transition metal forms as minor components.

A sizeable body of anecdote and experimentalist testimony also exists regarding the unusual properties of precipitates extracted from either mineral rich seawater, or water from deep earth springs. We have examined this as well, and have observed some amount of moderate grain hopping demonstrable with the dried precipitates. In our case, two-liter quantities of artesian spring water from a private well in northwest Ohio were treated with NaOH until whitish flocculent precipitate falls out at a pH of about 10 to 11. We note that the location of the artesian well (very large flow > 80 gpm) is within 10 miles of a known meteoric impact site from shortly before the last (Wisconsin) glacial period in Ohio. Could the region of the well and surrounding areas be rich in iridium, also claimed to be like gold - extremely anomalous in an orme form? Geologically, the region is primarily limestone karst, so we would thus expect considerable Ca and Mg oxides to be present in deep spring water precipitates.

4. The HCl:H2O2 Method:

In discussion with experimentalist Barry Carter following our attempt at the replication of the Hudson Australian patent, yet another alternative method for preparing anomalous g-orme forms was disclosed. In one sense, this recipe is said to circumvent the ponderous repetitive dissolving and drying to salts. The outcome, however, is not by appearance similar to the material said to be the outcome of the patented Hudson process for g-orme.

The process involves the use of H2O2 along with HCl, to eliminate the presence of nitrogen from either aqua regia or HNO3 steps.

"1 mM of 99.99% gold was pounded into a flat thin disc for ease of dissolving. This was placed in a 250 ml Pyrex beaker along with 100 ml of ACS grade HCl, 50 ml of distilled water, and 25 ml of 3% H2O2. Within a few minutes, we do see the beginning of bubbling at the gold, and the solution slowly turns to a faint yellow color as gold dissolves and is taken into the chloride form. The beaker is warmed intermittently over two days time to a low boil, and HCl and H2O2 are repeatedly added to make up volume. With the first boiling, we add 5 grams of 99.99% NaCl to the solution. By day #2, the gold disc is noticeably reduced in size, and we estimate that about one half of the gold has been consumed. The remaining gold is removed, and the solution is boiled down to salt and re-hydrated with distilled H2O to 150 ml. The solution color becomes a faint yellowish green. We then add small allotments of NaOH in water until at about pH of 8, a dense red-brown precipitate forms and eventually settles out overnight. The precipitate is rinsed repeatedly and dried out in-beaker to a red-brown powder."

The dried precipitate from this experiment again showed some vigorous grain hopping that remained active overnight, but barely. After annealing at 300C in nitrogen, the grain hopping effect was gone for that particular portion of the sample.

General Conclusions and Discussion:

With many hours of boiling time, numerous acid burns, and three hot plates behind us, what can be said about the claims of "g-orme" forms, from our own experience?

1. A reasonably performed replication of Example I of David Hudson's Australian patent number AU3662489 did not produce claimed results - a flocculent white precipitate that when dried and annealed was seen to possess anomalous physical properties. Our attempt did produce a small amount of light colored precipitate that we were not able to effectively test.
2. Other recipes for producing anomalous gold or precipitates have been tried and recorded. Some of these were suggested to us, some arose from our own understanding of claimed models of orme materials.
3. We have found that some recipes resulted in dried and/or annealed powders that exhibited an interesting low level effect we have called "grain hopping".
4. Grain hopping is still under study. In some fashion, it resembles an electrostatic force in the presence of a strong magnet, however it has not yet proven consistent enough to clearly define in terms outside of potential artifacts. For the powders it has been observed in, it seems to be a transient phenomenon.

We acknowledge that with the passing weeks, our recognition has grown of the non-verified and non – replicated status of much of the Hudson – based claims. Such experimentalists as who have claimed to have replicated the basic Hudson patent teachings seem to number less than five. No peer reviewed published documentation exists to our knowledge, although references certainly abound describing unique properties of quantum dot and nano-particle gold.

We are currently attempting to perform a replication of Example 3 from the same Australian patent by Hudson, dealing with the orme form of iridium. Our plans also include another attempt at the patent example g-orme procedure, correcting our protocol and recipe with input from Mr. Barry Carter, et al.

Thus, we must claim inconclusive results for now in this matter.

Taken in the broadest of senses, this project has been an adventure into the paradigm of New Science, and an experiment in that frame of reference. A set of unique and extraordinary claims develops a non-reviewed but faithful "sub-culture" following over twenty years of time. Anecdote and testimonies abound, but hard data and repeatable results are sparse. If verified and exploited, however, the uses for the novel materials claimed would be nearly endless. Our approach is – and has been in the past – to give these claims our best effort, but play no part in perpetuating a mystique devoid of experimental evidence!

In closing, we would like to thank the following contributors to our efforts: Dr. S. P. Faile, Mr. Barry Carter and Mr. Art Ziegler. This work has been conducted on behalf of The Avalon Foundation.