Cost of melting down junk silver

[Silverman1985]

Just wanted to ask. Let’s say for example I had a load of junk silver in sterling grade or lower percentages. What does it cost or how does one go about extracting the pure silver from it. I have a lot of junk silver and am not looking to do so, but trying to gauge how to value junk silver around the spot price. 

[Peterheat]

Ive been looking into this myself and it looks a tricky job using acids and boiling the acid so pretty dangerous with out the proper equipment and ppe but very possible to do but the original payment would be quite expensive but if you do it right you should get a pretty good yield and if you clean all you equipment into a bucket and do the same refining to your waste liquid you should end up with a 92.5% yield id be interested in how you get on with it though 

[watchesandwhisky]

Does anyone offer this service if i send up sterling ?

[Peterheat]

4 hours ago, Madstacks said:

Does anyone offer this service if i send up sterling ?

Ill be trying it for the first time soon I could let you know how it goes if you want me too never tried it before though so who knows how it will go ill be trying it with my own scrap jewelry and other scrap silver im just in the process of sourcing the right acids at a reasonable price 

[DarkChameleon]

Used to be refineries wouldmelt your silver or gold down then you could get it back minus costs...i dont think its worth it or thered be videoscall over youtube showing it done for profit.

[ShropshireTom]

On 31/08/2020 at 13:13, Silverman1985 said:

Just wanted to ask. Let’s say for example I had a load of junk silver in sterling grade or lower percentages. What does it cost or how does one go about extracting the pure silver from it. I have a lot of junk silver and am not looking to do so, but trying to gauge how to value junk silver around the spot price. 

Observation - depends what you want it for. Refining is relatively difficult, but as pointed out can be done at home. But if you Group your purity together it’s easy enough to melt and pour into a mould. I used to do it lots with broken 9ct and 18ct gold and gold scrap. Same purity in generally means same purity out if you do it correctly and don’t get it contaminated.

 

You can do it at home for a modest cost. However, it isn’t without peril, so do take reasonable precautions! Brief overview: build a home forge with forced airflow (old hairdryer will do it) - there’s a lot of videos on YouTube. Do use refractory grade materials though!!!! Make sure to use an appropriate graphite crucible and mould. Get the fire and air going (lumpwood charcoal burns hot, be careful if you use it) with the crucible in place and some silver to start your melt off. Once you have a liquid, add the rest of it a piece of a time. Now - important for finish - heat up your graphite mould with a blowtorch before you pour. Once poured, they can be tipped out of the mould pretty quickly. Moisture is the enemy in all of this, never pour molten metal anywhere near anything wet or damp. Do ensure you have the correct PPE and handling equipment like tongs and treated leather gauntlets.

Nearly all scrap buyers will have a Niton type xrf analyser and when you sell will pay you according to composition. They will however only pay you to the nearest recognised purity, rounding down in their favour obviously. 
 

Refining for your own collection is not something I’ve ever done so can’t offer any comment on that, but I’ve seen it done and it does look fun - though dangerous.