# SSN Leach vs. ?



## Genesis (Oct 16, 2011)

I've been using the SSN Leach formula and like it. But after dropping the metals I am having a problem with the smelting. When I fire the material I am loosing a lot of values because of the aggressive reaction the nitric acid has in the kiln.
Is there another leach formula that is as aggresive as the SSN that is more kiln friendly?
Or am I not washing the material good enough before firing?
I've been around mining for 30 years but have never been on the lab side of things. The leaching process is fasinating to me and I am here to learn more about different processes. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks


----------



## Geo (Oct 16, 2011)

incinerating the material will remove nitric acid.heat till the material is a dull red and maintain this heat for up to 5 minutes to drive off any free nitric acid.


----------



## Genesis (Oct 16, 2011)

Thanks Geo,
I'm sure there are a lot more things I'm doing wrong. Could be I'm heating to fast, wrong flux or a combo of these things. 
What happens is that it boils over and I'm loosing values and in the vapors. Wonder if a lid over the crucible would help any.
I think it best to read more about other leach methods because I don't see much info here about the SSN yet. I just like it because it works great on most ores and easy to make.


----------



## Reno Chris (Oct 17, 2011)

There are a huge number of variables that possibly could cause problems, and knowing nothing of your ore, its about impossible to say. 

metals precipitated from solution should be washed in water before firing to remove as much leach solution as possible. Potentially you may be having issues with base metals as well.


----------



## Genesis (Oct 17, 2011)

Thanks Chris,
I believe your right. I should be washing the material better before firing. Base metals may be a problem too because SSN gets everything into solution. 
Having the proper equipment will also help. I just purchased a advanced assay lab from Action Mining last week and it should be here this week. I can't wait to get it set up. It will be like stepping out of the stone age for me.
I have never been on the Lab side of mining and I have a lot to learn about leach formulas and smelting.


----------



## Ferrell (Nov 26, 2011)

Genesis, I'm curious....we use the SSN leach, as well. What are you using to collect the gold or drop the metals after you leach your ore?


----------



## Genesis (Dec 27, 2011)

Ferrel,
I have been using zinc to drop the metals. However there are other chemicals that do a better job. Just more costly. Urea, Vemet, Boromet, T6 are a few but not sure. 
Hope someone else can tell us what they use.


----------



## Ferrell (Dec 27, 2011)

Genesis said:


> Ferrel,
> I have been using zinc to drop the metals. However there are other chemicals that do a better job. Just more costly. Urea, Vemet, Boromet, T6 are a few but not sure.
> Hope someone else can tell us what they use.



Genesis, we've done more research on the site owned by Novolyte (they make Butyl Diglyme which works great for capturing the gold out of the SSN). They have a PDF document with a good overview of how to use the Butyl, then dropping using Oxalic. We did a small test run today with the SSN and are going to use the Butyl and Oxalic tomorrow, but we're having trouble draining the leach off the ore. We mixed a little more leach than we did ore, with the leach (in a 5 gal bucket) being about 3 inches above the ore. But it absorbed it so completely, that it's hard to get much of it to drain, or to run it through a filter. Of the 2 gal of leach we mixed, so far we've only been able to filter off about 2/3 of a gal, if that. 

Any suggestions how to capture more? We can't use a centrifuge (although it would work great) due to the fact that nitric would destroy the metal components.


----------



## Genesis (Dec 28, 2011)

Ferrel,
I'm no leach expert by any means and hope someone can come in here to help out. I have heard of the products your talking about but have not used them yet. 
I am going to attempt to attach a pdf file of a 8 page study on the SSN leach formula and procedures. If it doesn't work let me know and I can email it to you.


----------



## Genesis (Dec 28, 2011)

Looks like the SSN attachment loaded. 
A friend of mine and a staff worked on this formula for 6 months. The purpose of the SSN was to be a substitute for aqua regia. 
Hope the attachment helps out.


----------



## Ferrell (Jan 2, 2012)

Genesis said:


> Looks like the SSN attachment loaded.
> A friend of mine and a staff worked on this formula for 6 months. The purpose of the SSN was to be a substitute for aqua regia.
> Hope the attachment helps out.



Genesis, thanks so much for sending this. My husband and I actually read this a few wks ago and got a lot out of it. So you did the study and wrote this? It's nice to meet someone who's worked with SSN and is knowledgeable about it. I'm curious what you use to drop gold/silver/platinum when using SSN, since you don't use Butyl Diglyme and Oxalic acid? 

I apologize for not responding sooner, I came down with the flu about the time this posted and am just now crawling back into the real world again.


----------



## solar_plasma (Feb 15, 2014)

Genesis said:


> Looks like the SSN attachment loaded.
> A friend of mine and a staff worked on this formula for 6 months. The purpose of the SSN was to be a substitute for aqua regia.
> Hope the attachment helps out.



:shock: In this document they tell about leaching Rh. Since I have a damaged mercedes xenon light reflector (new about 1000€), which I could imagine it was plated with rhodium, I wonder if this SSN can be used to dissolve the reflection layer. IF it is Rh, do you see any chances this would work and if so, how long would it probably take, hours, days?


----------



## solar_plasma (Feb 9, 2015)

solar_plasma said:


> Genesis said:
> 
> 
> > Looks like the SSN attachment loaded.
> ...





It is not rhodium, but silicon coated aluminium.

source: http://www.hella.com/hella-at/assets/media/Basiswissen_Licht_ist_Technologie.pdf


----------

