cost of refining

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squarecoinman

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
140
This post is about the cost of processing, what I would like to see is samples of what has been processed , and the cost of the process , safety cost and total "profit " / product. If you have samples please post them here , and if possible with photo´s.

I processed 3 kilo of x-ray photo´s ( got them for free from a hospital, I have still several kilo´s left over )
Transport to hospital and back by public transport 3 us dollars
5 liter of bleach 10 us dollars
500 gram of dextrose 9 us dollars ( I still have 90 % left over )
500 gram of caustic soda 11 us dollars ( I still have 90 % left over )
Gloves 6 us dollars ( they can be used for other refining )
Glassware 20 us dollars ( they can be used for other refining )
Glasses 24 us dollars ( they can be used for other refining )

so if I count the material and transport together I will get 15 us dollars. The total amount of clean silver I got was 22 gram.
I estimate that the smelting cost in electricity will be 1 dollar.

with the current silver price i will get 16 us dollars
Total gain in US dollar 0, but I did this to learn the process so I do not care about the cost, however I will process the rest of the x-ray photos a nice day, but would not do it again after this since I now know the process very well. I did learn a lot and got a lot more silver the second time.

scm
 
Your yield was about 0.1 oz/lb, which is almost exactly what I would expect. To profit from film requires large volume and a lot of expensive equipment. Also, producing silver chloride with bleach or HCl is a very poor way to do it, especially in a large quantity. Your cost analysis from that tiny amount you ran doesn't have much to do with a real world film processing setup.
 
goldsilverpro said:
Your yield was about 0.1 oz/lb, which is almost exactly what I would expect. To profit from film requires large volume and a lot of expensive equipment. Also, producing silver chloride with bleach or HCl is a very poor way to do it, especially in a large quantity. Your cost analysis from that tiny amount you ran doesn't have much to do with a real world film processing setup.


GSP , I realize that if the set up would be bigger that one would get different figures, But I posted this so that new people can get an idea about what it can cost.

It will be the same for gold refining, There is a huge different between a professional refining factory doing many tons every week, and a hobby refiner doing 800 gram of fingers. Since one of the few things people do not open discus "the cost of refining " I started this post. To give new people an idea what the hobby will cost.

I also know that a few Kilo´s of x-ray film is a small amount, but only if people post these small hobby cases other people can get a view of what it will cost.

kind regards Squarecoinman
 
Interesting thread to see how profitable this is NOT. Unless you can devote the time involved.

It is great for building a nice nest egg for the future or a rainy day when the little extra cash will save the day.

1 very important expense you did not mention is the labor involved.
What is your time worth?

As for me right now, it is not worth the time it will take for me to finish disolving the gold on glassware. I have done about half of the pile and have a couple few grams which I'll do a post when time allows but I just don't have enough time to finish that project.
Total costs so far:
$6 HCL
$2 Bleach
$2 SMB
Labor...too expensive at this time

I goto local auctions and spend very little on box lots. Every time is like Christmas going through the boxes and finding either gold on glass, Circuit boards ( which are everywhere if you look), and anything with a switch for silver or other PGMs.
My 1 car garage is now a mountain of electronics waiting for me to destroy to gather little bits n pieces of PGMs hiding inside.

But alas:
My "Honey Do" list has become long enough that I must spend my time and labor doing that instead of watching movies while I turn 1 item into a thousand pieces.

B.S.
... What's your adventure like?...
 
If I would have spend the hours i spend on the project working for a normal wages I would have been able to buy 10 Oz silver that is about 15 times more silver then that i did get out of the project.

scm
 
This is one reason when new members come here thinking they will make the big bucks and get big bars of gold, if we just tell them how to get out of the mess they made with aqua regia, because they need the money bad, I tell them they would make more money working for McDonald's flipping burgers.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKPpuqOYu5E

That just doesn't look as exciting or profitable as getting ounces of Gold from a few computers :|
 
butcher said:
This is one reason when new members come here thinking they will make the big bucks and get big bars of gold, if we just tell them how to get out of the mess they made with aqua regia, because they need the money bad, I tell them they would make more money working for McDonald's flipping burgers.
New members hear all kinds of tall tales about how much Au, Pt, Ag and Pd is in escrap, they think a few computers will make them a fortune. As we all know, who has done this for some time that is WRONG. If you look at the yield data it takes a lot of scrap to make ounce. This is a hobby, note; HOBBY, unless you plan on becoming a scraper in general, scraping the metal, wire, electric motors, power supplies, flat packs, CRTs, etc on a daily basics I can't see anyone doing this to support their family.

The other thing is supply of the materials.
Ken
 
Well in the beginning you will earn near to nothing; but in reality you are earring a lot of wealth; consider all the knowledge you are pumping in your brain and using it; learning, experimenting, solving problems, analyzing and applying the best methods.

It's as in any other business you start from 0 en you build your base; for their you start going higher and higher, baby steps.

The other side is that u use your brain and it's fun but very dangerous at the same time if you do not know what your doing or being careless at times.

and if you can make a living from it then you are not bound to the state any more for help :) times like these it's better to become self-sufficient.

Think before you act.
 
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