# This newby about ready to start



## mikeinkaty (Dec 19, 2012)

I have 900 grams of sterling silver and I am going to (try to) refine about 1/2 of it by disolving in Nitric (when it arrives) then using the copper percipitation. I will be using the watch glass to cover the beaker and I will measure everything that goes in and comes out. I'm real interested in seeing how much nitric acid is going to be needed. I have probably 50 lbs of copper laying around here.

I'm going to store and keep the liquid after the percipitation in gallon water bottles. I will test to make sure the acid is depleted and that no more silver is left. When I get finished I'll probably drop some more copper in to make sure all the silver is depleted. Will this solution be copper nitrate? What uses might there be for it down the road besides killing roots in a sewer line?

This 1/2 will be melted and poured into 3 oz bars and I might frame them and hang them on the wall. The remainder of the sterling will be retained until such time that i can get some scrap AU.

I was concerned about cutting all that sterling up then I remembered that I have some Milwaukee electric metal shears!

Mike


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## Geo (Dec 19, 2012)

remember, just like AR, never add nitric according to calculated formula. start with half of what you figure it will take and wait until the reaction stops. if metal remains, add more. dont over use the nitric. if you have only a small amount of metal left, save it for the next batch rather than add too much. that way your copper wont have to fight the free nitric to drop the silver.


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## butcher (Dec 20, 2012)

Copper nitrate will not destroy roots in your sewer line, you would end up dissolving the cast iron sewer lines, and you could have a city official, DEQ, EPA official knocking on your door, with a warrant to search your property and process wondering what you have been polluting peoples water supply with, as they traced the toxins coming from your pipes.

Remember people down river have to drink what people up river flush, treat your waste properly.

Read dealing with waste in the safety section to learn how.

I do not think it is funny even if someone on the forum jokes about dumping their waste improperly, as members of this forum we are being watched for how we are dealing with what we do, and not only can the future freedom of all of us to be able to refine be threatened by a few peoples actions, so can our health as well as the health of others by improper actions.


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## mikeinkaty (Dec 20, 2012)

Geo said:


> remember, just like AR, never add nitric according to calculated formula. start with half of what you figure it will take and wait until the reaction stops. if metal remains, add more. dont over use the nitric. if you have only a small amount of metal left, save it for the next batch rather than add too much. that way your copper wont have to fight the free nitric to drop the silver.



Yeah, it took me about a week for that to dawn on me.


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## nickvc (Dec 20, 2012)

butcher said:


> Copper nitrate will not destroy roots in your sewer line, you would end up dissolving the cast iron sewer lines, and you could have a city official, DEQ, EPA official knocking on your door, with a warrant to search your property and process wondering what you have been polluting peoples water supply with, as they traced the toxins coming from your pipes.
> 
> Remember people down river have to drink what people up river flush, treat your waste properly.
> 
> ...




Well stated and I heartily agree with you Butcher!


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## Geo (Dec 20, 2012)

if you have enough volume saved up with only nitric acid and not any hcl, you can condense the volume with careful evaporation and then distill the remainder to reclaim whatever nitric acid remains. you lower the volume by evaporating below 100 degrees C and then place the solution in your distilling rig and add sulfuric SLOWLY according to your volume. 80/20 solution/sulfuric.test the distillate until it reacts with copper.switch your receiving vessel and collect your nitric acid.


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## mikeinkaty (Dec 20, 2012)

Geo said:


> if you have enough volume saved up with only nitric acid and not any hcl, you can condense the volume with careful evaporation and then distill the remainder to reclaim whatever nitric acid remains. you lower the volume by evaporating below 100 degrees C and then place the solution in your distilling rig and add sulfuric SLOWLY according to your volume. 80/20 solution/sulfuric.test the distillate until it reacts with copper.switch your receiving vessel and collect your nitric acid.



Thanks Geo, I'm glad you answered the question. However, If I don't see any sterling remaining I plan to lean a small strip in the beaker to see if it react's. If it does I'll leave it there until reaction stops. If sterling does remain I'll add in a few more drops of acid.

I thought lazersteve was saying he used the spent solution in electrolysis. Gotta go read that stuff again. Lots of stuff to digest here! 
Mike


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## Geo (Dec 20, 2012)

copper nitrate is used in a copper parting cell. in any parting process, the major metal in the mix needs to be like 95% of the total. so if you were parting copper Dore bars and collecting the slimes which can contain any of the precious metal, you are actually refining copper with Au,Ag,Pd and Pt being waste product.


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## lazersteve (Dec 21, 2012)

There is an electrolytic method for regenerating nitric acid from copper nitrate solutions. I pasted my experiences with the process, and was able to make useable acid with minimal effort from the process. I got the idea from a patent that details the parameters and cell configurations. As a added bonus, you get copper sponge as a buy product of the process.

Recycling Copper Nitrate Solutions via Electricity

Copper Nitrate Cell Patent PDF



Steve


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