This simplified method is based upon the Gold Alchemy method described on a previous page. The method below has been proven by several individuals who I have help to make their own white precipitate of Gold. -- It will work for you too, though it does require proper preparation and sufficient patience. Average time required is about a month, but the record is currently right at about two weeks for yielding a batch of your own precipitate from pure Gold.

Gold Prep & Aqua-Regia Dissolution -
a. Start with pure Gold at 99.9% or better purity - I typically use selected Gold bullion coins at 99.99% or better. First use a hammer and a hard metal surface to beat the coin until it is very flat and thin. Then, use a fine metal file to shave the coin into tiny flakes.
b. Prepare 100mL of Aqua-Regia for each gram of Gold. Use 80mL of 30-35% HCl mixed with about 20mL of 69% Nitric Acid. -- an alternative to the Nitric Acid is to use about 2 tablespoons (30mL) of Potassium Nitrate (saltpetre) or Sodium Nitrate {Potassium and Sodium Nitrates are more readily available and work quite well}.
c. Put the Gold into a 250mL flask (preferably borosilicate or Pyrex) and add the prepared Aqua-Regia solution. Put the flask onto a sandbath hotplate arrangement at 80'C and leave it for 24 hours. After 24 hours, bring the volume of soluiton back up to 100mL or so with straight 30-35% HCl. Place this back onto the sandbath and cook until the solution volume drops to about 20mL (may take a couple of days). Repeat again by topping off to 100mL with straight HCl, and this time BOIL the solution vigorously for ~5 minutes, then place back onto the sandbath at 80'C to cook.

pH Swing Disaggregation -
d. After 24 hours, remove the flask. {If the solution has cook to dry or near dry, add distilled water to bring the volume up to at least 20-30mL.} Prepare a Sodium or Potassium Hydroxide solution (NaOH or KOH), if necessary, by adding about 1-2 Tablespoons of pellets or powder to 100mL of distilled water (a strong 1:4 to 1:8 ratio concentration). Titrate the Hydroxide solution into the flask while measuring the pH. Bring the pH to about 12.5; you will see the solution probably turn a very dark purple, almost black. Put the flask back onto the sandbath for about 2-3 hours. Remove the flask and titrate the solution back down to <1.0 with straight HCl. Place the flask back onto the sandbath. -- This completes 1 "pH Swing", including the 24 hours of "cooking" at low pH in HCl.
A NOTE regarding SALT Formation during pH Swings. -- As NaOH or KOH and HCl react, SALT {NaCl or KCl} is formed in the solution. Eventually the solution will be so saturated with salt, that salt will start falling out of the solution while it is cooking in HCl. The high concentration of Cl- ions force the salt to bind as NaCl or KCl rather than staying ionic, and the salt crystalizes and falls out. If the flask is removed from the heat and allowed to cool a bit usually a lot of salt will fall -- let this happen, when you start to see salt buildup in the solution, remove it from heat - let it cool - and let the salt fall out. Then carefully decant off your good yellow golden solution leaving the salt behind in the flask, put this into a flask as before and proceed from where you left off. -- remove the salt from the flask with small bit of water or HCl and KEEP IT -- there is good gold in that SALT. You can start processing IT at "f-g." to recover the gold -- letting it sit in a tiny amount of straight HCl for long periods of time at 80'C will recover precipitate in time.
e. Repeat "d." above at least 5 times. On the last pH swing, as you titrate UP with Hydroxide, STOP at pH of ~7.5. Notice the COLOR of the solution and whether any white precipitate is beginning to form. If the color is NOT CLEAR, like water -- no yellow color left -- then repeat "d." at least 5 more times and repeat "e." again. If the color IS CLEAR like water, whether precipitate is beginning to form or not, proceed to the next step.
f. Let the solution "cook" {in HCl} until it is DRY {OR - Until the golden solution has a small volume of ~20mL}. It should appear to be SALT with a bit of yellowish crust throughout it or on it {or with a golden solution above it if just reduced}. Once DRY {or reduced to 20mL or near dry}, add STRAIGHT HCl to bring the volume back to 100mL, and put back onto the sand bath to "cook". Repeat this step at least 5 times, then go to the next step. -- It should take at least a day to cook the solution to dry each time. --- Note that we have revised recommendations on this step, as indicated within the " { }" symbols. We are now of the opinion that whether reduced to as low as 20mL in this step, or to DRY, both are equally good - so the best practice is to target about 20mL, and if you over cook it to near dry or dry - you are fine.

Precipitation -
g. Now, to the DRY {or near dry} solution {With a solution of 20mL - this may be poured off of any salt that has formed, further reducing the salt somewhat at this phase}, add distilled water, then Repeat the careful UPWARD titration, STOPPING AT ~7.5 pH. -- Notice whether any white precipitate is beginning to form. If no white precipitate has formed -- then repeat "f.". If a Precipitate has formed -- look at it. IF it is NOT WHITE then repeat starting back at "c.", using Aqua-Regia for at least one cooking session, then continue back through step "d." --- there's still metal which has not fully disaggregated. -- If it IS WHITE, it should have the appearance of a cottony or fluffy looking material, sometimes attracting bubbles from the stirring. If it does looks like this you are there. {If it looks like a solid precipitate - like a powder - and falls rapidly to the bottom you need to go back to step "c." and Boil your solution vigorously.} -- It is VERY LIKELY that you have only converted a portion of the Gold to this form at this point, but we can either let the precipitate settle AT 7.5pH for about 4 hours, then carefully decant off the top water --- carefully keeping that water, or we can use a sub-micron (0.2u or 0.45u) vacuum filter to recover the precipitate. Wash the precipitate with water and again decant it or filter it -- again preserving the water. Take the water and continue processing it at step "f-g." until more precipitate forms. There is nothing wrong with continuing at step "f-g." until the the precipitate is so thick it will look like gelatinous milk at pH 7.5 -- this is fine.
h. Now that you have the precipitate, and have washed it once, you may either use it wet, in a water solution, or proceed to drying and annealing it.