Silver and gold refining

[Charverdude]

At some point in the future I’ll be refining silver and gold .

thought see if anyone else has done it in past and what other peoples view are. 😁

[richatthecroft]

Wear some eye protection, gloves and an apron and choose a well ventilated room...have fun 😁

[JunkBond]

I believe I have read on the forum before that there are restrictions on some of the chemicals required.

@jonrms may have some useful info.

[Charverdude]

@richatthecroft I will lol before I start will get fume hood as well , 

plus been researching into various ways for the past 5-6 months and will continue to do so before I start . 

[Charverdude]

3 minutes ago, JunkBond said:

I believe I have read on the forum before that there are restrictions on some of the chemicals required.

@jonrms may have some useful info.

That’s correct there are , 

mine option apply for a license to be able to buy some of them in larger quantities,

plus there are various other ways to refine without some of the harsh chemicals but takes a lot longer plus more work to get higher grade of precious metals, 

[trp]

Regulations round chemicals have got a lot tighter in the U.K. over the past few years. Buying the quantities needed would be pretty difficult for most. Though there are sites like Cooks on Gold, that’ll sell it in bigger quantities if you are a VAT registered business (in the trade) 

[jonrms]

5 minutes ago, JunkBond said:

I believe I have read on the forum before that there are restrictions on some of the chemicals required.

@jonrms may have some useful info.

I am VERY reluctant to give any advice on using chemicals etc. If someone has basic chemistry and the CM Hokes book, you can do all sorts. But DEATH is a real possibility.  

This is why I don't do tutorials on how to like some. And I really worry about some people doing this.  The waste needs proper disposal too. 

[trp]

I seem to remember (but not certain, been a while) that extraction through electrolyse uses less chemicals. 

Are you thinking of casting your own products from your refined goods? 

[Charverdude]

3 minutes ago, trp said:

I seem to remember (but not certain, been a while) that extraction through electrolyse uses less chemicals. 

Are you thinking of casting your own products from your refined goods? 

Not thinking of casting yet lol 

just that one of my hobbies there is a lot of silver / gold and small amount of palladium is something that I starting to get a lot of building up , so one day it’s something I was looking into recover it and refine .

[Charverdude]

8 minutes ago, jonrms said:

I am VERY reluctant to give any advice on using chemicals etc. If someone has basic chemistry and the CM Hokes book, you can do all sorts. But DEATH is a real possibility.  

This is why I don't do tutorials on how to like some. And I really worry about some people doing this.  The waste needs proper disposal too. 

Don’t worry I have type of ocd you have no idea how much I looking into something  when I set my mind into it , I don’t just look into just how to do something I research every little aspect of everything even the negatives and dangers, 

even when it comes to the point of doing it I will go over everything again 2 or 3 times and weigh up the pros and cons and decide what to do , if I have all safety equipment in place and the knowledge or to send all off to be refined for me .

i will think hard before I jump 😁

[jonrms]

Good, SERIOUSLY this is not like playing with baking soda and vinegar.  

Your actions can cause reactions that can make the B word!!! 

Infact some of the steps can make some nasty stuff if you know how. And even with chemicals being limited,  you can replace them easily which thankfully most have no clue 

[Charverdude]

1 minute ago, jonrms said:

Good, SERIOUSLY this is not like playing with baking soda and vinegar.  

Your actions can cause reactions that can make the B word!!! 

Infact some of the steps can make some nasty stuff if you know how. And even with chemicals being limited,  you can replace them easily which thankfully most have no clue 

I know what you mean and that’s why some of the chemicals are regulated and for good reason , 

can be replaced but better to go of that direction of thought and not to put curiosity into people’s thoughts lol 

some people just watch a video and think “that’s it I know what what the steps are and know what to do “ but not look into each step in more detail and look at the chemicals they are using and the implications they can have .

[jonrms]

5 minutes ago, Charverdude said:

I know what you mean and that’s why some of the chemicals are regulated and for good reason , 

can be replaced but better to go of that direction of thought and not to put curiosity into people’s thoughts lol 

some people just watch a video and think “that’s it I know what what the steps are and know what to do “ but not look into each step in more detail and look at the chemicals they are using and the implications they can have .

Yep it's far to easy to end up with C4H8CL2S 

Or straying away you can make 6 KNO3 + C7H4O → 3 K2CO3 + 4 CO2 + 2 H2O + 3 N2

NOT something I would promote. 

[Charverdude]

Be ok if had fire arm licence lol

[Charverdude]

The reasoning of researching refining was ,

I can sell all items that I have building up ( which contain silver/gold and so on ) from around £2 and £6 per kg 

whivh I was thinking obviously there has got to be a lot more value in the items then they are paying for lol

[Charverdude]

There is one company that I can arrange with them the fee first then I get all of the precious metals that is recovered , which is the best way to go but down side is a min of 500kg of total item weight to be refined 😆 

[jonrms]

Take a typical hard drive, there are Neodidium magnets,  gold wire, gold plated pins on a circuit board,  Platinum and Palladium in the optical sensor.  Copper and aluminium. 

If you can refine yourself you can save loads, but I suggest buying a devils forge and that will help with space!

[Charverdude]

Plus you have the mmlc and ic chips and so on , 

I suffer from general anxiety disorder and one of the things I do to take mind of things and in a world of my own is I like stripping electronics apart ( pc’s and so on ) and I keep all the parts once they are stripped into 100pieces .

[jonrms]

3 hours ago, Charverdude said:

Plus you have the mmlc and ic chips and so on , 

I suffer from general anxiety disorder and one of the things I do to take mind of things and in a world of my own is I like stripping electronics apart ( pc’s and so on ) and I keep all the parts once they are stripped into 100pieces .

Well, I am a bit OCD too. I do this to distract myself from the constant pain with my broken back.  And to motivate myself I take on a few boards a time. Then I might pour silver, or incinerate IC or MLCC chips. Or ribbon cables. Everything has its jar, bucket etc and labled. 

Gosh I really do have OCD! 

Best advice is this. NO matter what you read, take EXTREME care!!! Fume hood with a respirator!!!! Also ensure you neutralise the fumes by charcoal and a water system use a venture method,  or cyclone method. 

Have more than you think for PPE.  Boxes of baking soda, a phone , plenty of water, eye wash aprons. Chemical gloves. I wear a full face system so goggles are not required.  

Practice on small amounts first, ie grams!!! Take notes, colours. Observe. 

 

[Charverdude]

@jonrms I take it you have done all this before and experienced in it all ? 
 

Do you have a lot of knowledge on stripping components for precious metals?

[jonrms]

LOL you can say that. 

Ask away, I won't tell you how to mix chemicals or give you a chemistry lesson. But I will help make your life a bit easier. 

[Charverdude]

1 minute ago, jonrms said:

LOL you can say that. 

Ask away, I won't tell you how to mix chemicals or give you a chemistry lesson. But I will help make your life a bit easier. 

No disrespect at all or in any way , I would never ask any advice from anyone I didn’t know in person about mixing chemicals what do ever , 
hard to explain I’m a person that thinks that someone I don’t know tells me something ( and it’s dangerous) they might give me advice so I fail at what I’m doing , and I research everything that I’m told before I would ever attempt it ,

believe me I don’t mean any disrespect at all or saying you would deliberately give wrong advice , 

I know you being responsible with what you say about not giving advice , I would expect you to either, 

was going to say what components you thought were worth while keeping when stripping boards and so on down lol

[Charverdude]

I did have someone one ( not on here some where else ) say to me soak memory sticks in brake fluid to loosen gold plating and after a day or two put in 200g of chlorine granuals, 

good job I already knew what would happen , I told him you do it first and see what happens , good way to light your candles NOT .

[Seth]

I strongly suggest that you don't do it, at least unless you are doing out of curiosity, there is a reason why refining companies have minimum amounts requimens in the hundreds of kilograms, it's really not safe, it really is not cost effective unless done on a large scale, and the proper safe disposal of the chemicals is not cheap, even the chemicals themselves are not cheap to begin with - even in the so called 3rd world countries there are a tonne of hoops to jump through and environmental safeguards that need to be in place before they will even let you think about doing it on any sort of scale that would make you any money and these are countries where the daily wage for a semi skilled worker is less than a £1 a day.  Not to mention I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the amount of people who claim to be OCD about safety who's bodies I've ended up being sent out tto recover, this is not something you can simply ''wing it'' with a large margin for screwing up, even the safe disposal of the chemicals used is pretty dangerous, it's one thing putting your own life at risk, but the gases some of these chemicals can give off especially when used wrong, mixed incorrectly could also kill your  neighbours.  I have a mate who has a company that recovers metals - not just precious metals, from old elecronics especially computers, and it took a grant from the Indonesian government and the U.N for him to set it up, something to do with environmenal protection and recycling grants, his company literally scours through landfills looking for electronics and discarded computers to recover and refine all the metals they can from these devices.

Romember that song from chemistry class, ''litle Johnny is no more for what he thaught was H2O, was really H2SO4'', if you don't know why little Johnny is no more without the help of Professor Google, you shouldn't even be thinking about refining yourself.  If you don't know whether you can safely add acid to water, of it's water added to acid that is safe without the help of Professor Google, again you shouldn' even be thinking about doing it.

[Charverdude]

@Seth

i was in now way thinking of doing it on a large scale or with the thought of making money or business doing it , it mainly on small scale to try out of curiosity as I know it’s very dangerous.

the reason I done this post is to see what people’s views were on it , as I wanted to see what other people think and take aboard all your views before going ahead in future doing it myself so I don’t just jump in and do it with just my thoughts , 

So far this has given me a good reaction , given me more to think about not just my own view on it all, 

It’s good to have other people advice not to do something when it’s something really dangerous and not just go of ones own thought of knowledge and jump in the deep end and doing it , 

min not good at putting things into words but hope you get what I mean 😁