/r/PreciousMetalRefining
Links and discussion relating to separating and extracting Precious Metals from other materials, such as electronics and jewelry. Usually the processes discussed here are for the home user to extract Precious Metals from scrap.
What we are about
Links and discussion relating to separating and extracting Precious Metals from other materials, such as electronics and jewelry. Usually the processes discussed here are for the home user to extract Precious Metals from scrap.
Useful Posts
Items that have PM and other recoverable metals in them - Brewer846
Dummies Guide to GOLD bullion refining - tauristercus From abovetopsecret
/u/ribnag's guide to chip pyrolysis
Other Subs
External Resources
/r/PreciousMetalRefining
3,896 Subscribers
Help! White precipitate
So i had 2 grams of 14K gold, I added 5 grams of scrap silver (925). I melted that together, put that in a beaker. When I added the nitric acid, the solution turned white almost instantly, after letting it sit a bit you can see that the solution is clear but there is this white precipitate. There should‘t be any tin in that, so my only guess is that the silver turned into silver chloride, can I use AR now, filter then SMB as silver chloride is insoluble in AP? Or better yet what would you do? Appreciate any help!
17:21 UTC
Nitric and sulfuric
I’m thinking about experimenting with l adding a bit of sulfuric acid to nitric (maybe I’ll be able to save nitric or use more diluted nitric) to help it dissolve more silver but I’m worried about silver sulfate forming, does anyone know what happens as far as silver nitrate vs sulfate in that combination?
23:22 UTC
Will Pirhana solution dissolve copper?
I know Nitric Acid will but Sulfuric acid is cheaper and easier to find so was wondering if Phirana solution ( Sulfuric acid+ peroxide would do the trick)
20:49 UTC
Fume hood in Los Angeles? Will pay 10% of yield!
Hi! I have about 120 grams of inquarted gold that I need to refine and process, with an expected yield of 28-30 grams.
I have nitric & HCl, as well as sodium metabisulfite.
I do not have a fume hood or space in my apartment to make one. I do not have graduated cylinders, beakers, filters, funnels, etc.
If there are any refiners local to Los Angeles, would you be open to sharing your space? I'll give you 10% of my yield, + the silver chloride if you want it, for access to your fume hood & glassware.
Happy to jump on a call first too if you want to sus me out first!
00:25 UTC
Forbidden cornflakes
16:54 UTC
Material with possible high Platinum and Iridium concentration needs assaying. Not sure where to start.
I have a little over 400 grams of what was described to me by a relative who's since passed away, as an ore, with a large amount platinum in it that I'm interested in having refined and the metals in it possibly sold on ebay, to a refinery or perhaps at a local pawn shop. Below are photos of the material in a mortar used to grind the material and also in a bag containing around 200 grams of it. The material was sitting in a closet for around 8 years until a couple of months ago, when I decided to have the material tested by someone with an XRF machine Below are photos of the test results of several different samples in both General and Precious metals modes. The precious metals mode results indicate possible high concentrations of Iridium and Platinum, though I've read such machines often give false positives for Iridium and that the only way to be sure what you've got is by the assay method. In the general mode there's mostly bismuth. I'm in Southern Nevada near Las Vegas and when I did a Bing search for local businesses that might assay and process this material nothing came up. I called up a local refinery, but they said they only deal with businesses, not individuals like myself. There are a few businesses in other states such as Midwest Refineries that the Bing search engine indicated might be able to help me, but I have no experience doing this was wondering if anyone on this forum could suggest where to begin, as based on the XRF results this material could be quite valuable and I have no virtually no knowledge of refining methods myself. There's only 5 photos of the readings below, but I did several other tests with a couple of different machines and they all showed about the same percentages of platinum and iridium with the platinum consistently showing in the 30-35 percent range.
00:15 UTC
How to tell if gold plated or brass?
This is a switch from a communication device.
15:50 UTC
New to this
Could the community here he'll me get started? I've always been interested in this and would love to start. I just don't know where to begin. What sort of process is recommended? What equipment and ppe are required? Thanks
17:23 UTC
Titanium
I have a bunch of 6/4 and beta-c titanium. Was wondering what the best process is to melt it down into 1LB bars .
14:58 UTC
Need some advice
Hello! So I own a pawn shop and I buy gold at 30% below scrap, i sell about 1-2kg of mostly 9ct gold to a scrap man every month. Would it be profitable for me to start refining that gold? Would I be making more than its scrap worth? Sorry if this is a silly question. I just can’t help but feel like I’m throwing money opportunities away 😅
Thank you for reading.
19:20 UTC
Process Question
Hello, I am wanting to start refining and am curious what to do with all the “used” acids? I havent started anything yet and am curious as to the additional steps that aren’t in the vids. Thanks for the info and help!
23:33 UTC
Saving nitric acid
May be a stupid question, but, when dissolving copper inside nitric, nitrogen dioxide is produced, can‘t i just bubble it through water to make nitric acid, then distill? I‘m aware it‘s not efficient, but you save the acid basically for free.
14:23 UTC
Recommended refiners
So I have close to 30lbs of gold test pins , and close to 100 motherboards , about the same on CPUs . Who could I send this to have it all refined ?
01:08 UTC
Solid white gold in rotary switches - gold and palladium recovery and refining
04:53 UTC
Is there a good read on where to start when wanting to refine copper, gold, and silver?
I have a smelter and LOTS of computer boards, wires, and various aluminum and silver scrap. I'm just getting into this hobby. I'd like to refine all of it to .999, especially the aluminum because I need that to be pure for other projects. I do NOT want to plate anything. I want to take each one and purify it so I can use it for other projects down the road that require purity. Although I've watched a lot of videos and have a good idea of things, I'm very much beginning this journey.
Is there a good place to watch videos and read content that will allow me to purify these metals, refine from scrap computer parts and various other sources, and build each machine from scratch so I'm not buying expensive electrolysis equipment and such?
Also, to keep purity, is it necessary to have dedicated crucibles for each metal? And do you need a crucible for alloy copper vs pure copper? Or does that make a difference?
00:08 UTC
I melted and poured some scrap silver into these bars. I have no idea what I'm doing, so what is that dark stuff on the top of the bars? Is it slag that I didn't remove or is it just discoloration?
14:21 UTC
Need Advice
i have 25kg of motherborads should i depopulate them and separately process chips,bga and pins for gold and sliver, Would it be profitable to recover gold from it or sell the whole motherboard to computer shops for profit or should i collect some more motherboards like 50kg and then process it for gold [ Im very new to this just recently started collecting e-waste]
05:49 UTC
15 pounds of mixed GF, GP, and SS watch crowns ... omg ... I don't know what to do :(
So I got a package in today from a buddy wanting to know if I could refine some GF watch cases and parts. I was expecting that ... what I was not expecting, however, is that there was exactly 1 watch case, 4 pounds of GF Cap bands, and almost ELEVEN POUNDS of crowns - all of them mixed up between GF, GP, and SS.
I don't even know what I should do at this point. Send it back? Should I even TRY to peel the crowns? Blast thru my stock of Nitric and just dissolve ALL the base metals and say fuck it?
What would you guys do? There's not a snowballs chance in hell that I'm going to sit here and scratch test thousands of watch crowns, though ...
22:32 UTC
Is it possible to remove CZs from silver jewellery by melting it
Hello everyone, I don't melt metals my self bit was wondering if it is possible to remove small stones such as CZ and glass and pretty much all those worthless stones from silver but just melting instead of taking time to take out and break off the stones from each piece ?
19:44 UTC
Hi all I’m from the uk and just stumbled across this page. I’m in awe of what I can get from broken electronics, you guys seem on the button where do I start with all this. I want to start but what do I look for.
10:23 UTC
What are the odds a circuit board like this contains gold? Is there a way to test on these contacts?
15:58 UTC
Help with pouring
I thought I would try my hand at refining so I purchased an electric furnace. It heats up well and fairly quickly.
My problem right now is the upper potion of the crucible is not getting as hot as the lower portions and when I pour some of the metal hardens before I can get it poured into a mold.
17:33 UTC