Is there a market for selling copper powder?

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scrapparts

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 23, 2016
Messages
142
I was looking on ebay and noticed that people are selling copper powder. I was wondering if there is a market for it because I have over 300 lbs of it and my friend said that he would process it for me for a fee. What I don't understand is how do I get the powder to a 300 or so mesh?

Earl
 
I should have been more clear. I have the weight in scrap copper pipe that my friend will process for me.
 
IThanks for the reply. I just came from ebay and typed in "testing sieve" and within the results there are No. 40, No. 60, etc, . Do I need to get the one that says No. 325? if I need the mesh size to be 300?

Earl
 
anyone doing anything with silver recovery via cementation or just precious metal recovery will love it and it is worth a premium over copper scrap.
 
Lou said:
anyone doing anything with silver recovery via cementation or just precious metal recovery will love it and it is worth a premium over copper scrap.
Are you saying that I should just scrap the copper to the scrap yard and try to refine silver instead? According to the stock market, copper is going for approximately $2.14 lb, but I see 1lb or less of copper powder selling for $17 - $20+ lb on ebay. I must be not understanding something about the copper powder and copper pipe. How could I make such a profit with scrap silver? What would I need to aquire in scrap in order to get silver?

Earl
 
Silver refiners almost always need quality copper. Lou is suggesting to find a silver refiner who will often pay better than scrap yards will for good quality copper. I work with smaller amounts of silver as an example, so I usually just buy copper pipe from a retail supplier such as Lowe's.
 
What Lou is saying that copper of the -300 mesh size is worth a premium because of how much easier it makes cementation of silver.

So if you can get your copper atomized into powder and screen it to -300 it is worth more than the scrap copper was worth. Whether it is worth what your cost to atomize is the big question. I personally feel copper powder is worth a few dollars a pound over copper scrap price just for the speed and ease of use over slabs, bars or flattened pipe.
 
Shark, really? You buy copper from Lowes for cementing? I should just send you some. How much do you want and what form? I have some thin sheet from a large transformer that should work real nice.
 
Thanks for the replies. I have a better understanding, but what does it mean to atomized the silver?. Is that a special process and is it hard to do?

Earl
 
scrapparts said:
Thanks for the replies. I have a better understanding, but what does it mean to atomized the silver?. Is that a special process and is it hard to do?

Earl

Copper is atomized, silver is in a nitrate solution.

Copper is higher on the reactivity series, so it will effectively push (cement) silver out.

You have much to learn grasshopper, but this is the place to do it.
 
Platdigger said:
Shark, really? You buy copper from Lowes for cementing? I should just send you some. How much do you want and what form? I have some thin sheet from a large transformer that should work real nice.

I do very little silver, so use very little copper along those lines. But I am always looking for copper for the stock pot where most of the scrap copper I can get hold of ends up at.
 
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