# I bought over 200 pounds of jewelry.



## user 12009 (Dec 9, 2014)

I bought this as junk jewelry from a place that is now out of business. It was a cash for gold type mail in business. You throw your jewelry and anything else you think is gold/silver in a bag and mail it in. When the company gets the bag they toss everything not gold/silver in a box (I bought those boxes) and then they send a check for the gold/silver to the bag sender. Through some google research that check is usually 10-20% the value of the metal. BBB rating F minus minus.

Two years ago I bought over 300 pounds from the same person. I went through every single piece and found a LOT of AU, AG & GF. I knew the owner had more so every 6 months or so I would send a short text that I was still interested. Well fast foreward. Out of the blue he text me and is moving and wants to sell the rest. I bought the 200 pounds, he had maybe 325 total but wanted more than I wanted to spend. So I made an offer on about two thirds and he accepted. 

Well to make a long story shorter, I am going through every piece and pulling out lots of little pieces of gold-silver-gold filled. I am also separating the broken junk jewelry in one box and the nice costume in another box. I have already sold, on ebay, 6 pounds of junk jewelry as MIXED CRAFT JEWELRY. I am starting 3 lb auctions at $35.00 with BIN for $50.00

I know most of this is gold colored, might even be gold plated. If I packaged this in 3 pound lots and sold it for SCRAP GOLD RECOVERY do you think it would be worthwhile for someone to buy and try to extract gold? I would keep the same price unless you think it is worth more.


----------



## Anonymous (Dec 9, 2014)

Why don't you just send it to a trusted member and get them to refine it if you think it's worth as much as you're charging?

That way you'd both win. Just a suggestion, unless of course you're not convinced of the value of the PMs within the product.


----------



## user 12009 (Dec 10, 2014)

spaceships said:


> Why don't you just send it to a trusted member and get them to refine it if you think it's worth as much as you're charging?
> 
> That way you'd both win. Just a suggestion, unless of course you're not convinced of the value of the PMs within the product.



I have no idea this is worth processing, that is why I am asking. I do not know how much yellow colored costume jewelry really has gold plating.


----------



## its-all-a-lie (Dec 11, 2014)

cyberdan said:


> I am starting 3 lb auctions at $35.00 with BIN for $50.00



I would list a few lots of maybe 5 pounds with a starting bid of $.99 and see where it goes. Describe the contents as best you can and let the bidders decide what it is worth. I have seen lots of junk plated jewelry that were only worth a few dollars in gold sell for a couple hundred dollars. Feebay bidders are not very smart it seems when it comes to the yellow stuff and they will pay stupid prices for nothing. A good example of what im talking about would be the infamous "gold drops". For 15-20 grams of gold plated copper there were fools paying sometimes 3 figures for this stuff, even when the seller described in full detail what was up for bid. :roll:


----------



## user 12009 (Dec 11, 2014)

its-all-a-lie said:


> cyberdan said:
> 
> 
> > I am starting 3 lb auctions at $35.00 with BIN for $50.00
> ...



not a bad idea, might do that this weekend. I need to take better pics. I will keep it at 3 pounds because that fills a small priority mail box.


----------



## rickbb (Dec 11, 2014)

I wouldn't advertise it as being for gold recovery or refining though. As was said, just describe the contents as accurately as you can and let the buyers decide what it's worth.


----------



## necromancer (Dec 11, 2014)

rickbb said:


> I wouldn't advertise it as being for gold recovery or refining though. As was said, just describe the contents as accurately as you can and let the buyers decide what it's worth.




honesty is always the best policy !


----------



## Rougemillenial (Mar 19, 2017)

Nice . my suggestion is to process a sample of the gold plated stuff and the gold filled stuff. the process I'd suggest is to melt the material down with a bit of scrap copper and stir w/ a graphite rod. Then pour into a shallow container. Put it into a CuSO4/H2SO4 parting cell and electrorefine the copper to remove it. the zinc is dissolved in the acid so an excess might be needed. the slimes on the bottom are washed with water and dissolved in HCl/CuCl2
to remove remaining base metals. then, dissolve the silver in nitric acid then the gold can be dissolved in AR.


----------



## goldsilverpro (Mar 19, 2017)

Rougemillenial said:


> Nice . my suggestion is to process a sample of the gold plated stuff and the gold filled stuff. the process I'd suggest is to melt the material down with a bit of scrap copper and stir w/ a graphite rod. Then pour into a shallow container. Put it into a CuSO4/H2SO4 parting cell and electrorefine the copper to remove it. the zinc is dissolved in the acid so an excess might be needed. the slimes on the bottom are washed with water and dissolved in HCl/CuCl2
> to remove remaining base metals. then, dissolve the silver in nitric acid then the gold can be dissolved in AR.


I hate to be so abrupt, but I think that your entire recommendation has zero merit. I would suggest you think about this more thoroughly. What would be your second choice?


----------



## haveagojoe (Mar 20, 2017)

I would be interested to hear different methods to process this kind of mixed/unknown grade material. Sorry Rougemillenial but I think I agree with Goldsilverpro that your suggestion is not the way to go.... 

If I were to attempt to process something like this I would probably start by dumping everything into AP and see which pieces release foils. When a reasonable amount of foils are visible I would filter them out, and then separate out the remaining pieces which show no visible change; these I would process as gold filled by inquartation followed by nitric. The stuff which is releasing foils is plated so can go back into the AP to finish off.

What do others think?


----------



## snoman701 (Mar 20, 2017)

I dont' know if anyone else noticed, but this is a three year old thread...so I imagine any responses are purely hypothetical at this point.


----------



## goldsilverpro (Mar 20, 2017)

Since all the gold is on the surface, I would definitely use a process that would strip the gold from the base metal. Personally, I would use cyanide/peroxide but that isn't very accessible to the amateur. Second choice would be the sulfuric acid stripper, but only if I had the ability to tumble the parts. I certainly wouldn't use a process that would dissolve the base metal or put it through a copper cell. Too much work for a small amount of gold. The best choice might be to sell it as is, since it looks a lot better than what it would yield.

One time, we had at least two 30 gallon drums of Swank gold plated jewelry manufacturing waste that we stripped in cyanide using a portable cement mixer. At least 1000 pounds. If I remember right, one guy had it all stripped and zinced out in one 8 hr. day.


----------



## Rougemillenial (Mar 20, 2017)

goldsilverpro said:


> Rougemillenial said:
> 
> 
> > Nice . my suggestion is to process a sample of the gold plated stuff and the gold filled stuff. the process I'd suggest is to melt the material down with a bit of scrap copper and stir w/ a graphite rod. Then pour into a shallow container. Put it into a CuSO4/H2SO4 parting cell and electrorefine the copper to remove it. the zinc is dissolved in the acid so an excess might be needed. the slimes on the bottom are washed with water and dissolved in HCl/CuCl2
> ...



Being an experianced chemist and having tried this myself, it does indeed work if the base metals are high in copper. Though if it's not the method you'd want to use, acidic dissolution is the way to go for filled items. Acidic base removal will not work for plated items. You'd have to use cyanide or a sulfuric acid cell. The issue with acidic dissolution of base metals in plated items is that the plating is sometimes so fine that it will mostly go into solution as colloidal gold. Not to mention the amount of waste would be enormous. You'd end up spending way more money disposing of gallons of toxic waste than your yield's value. That's if you get any yield at all. There are multiple methods that can be used though I'd highly suggest separating plated from filled items. Good luck!  :mrgreen: :G


----------



## Topher_osAUrus (Mar 20, 2017)

What's a pound of costume yield even?A gram? Half a gram?


----------



## justinhcase (Mar 20, 2017)

Topher_osAUrus said:


> What's a pound of costume yield even?A gram? Half a gram?


it depends on the ware of each item.
I pay about £20 a kilo and it works out to about 1g a kilo in the long run..


----------



## snoman701 (Mar 20, 2017)

Rougemillenial said:


> goldsilverpro said:
> 
> 
> > Rougemillenial said:
> ...



If the base metal is high in copper...which it rarely is. Much more common is brass, bronze, nickel, zinc, steel. Costume jewelry has to be made to a price point, so they use base metals that behave well for casting/forming. Copper tends to oxidize too regularly in the melting process. 

Not to say you couldn't melt then flux out all the metals lower than copper, but I have a feeling you'd be adding quite a bit of copper.


----------



## goldsilverpro (Mar 20, 2017)

Most gold plated costume jewelry is copper base = brass, bronze, German silver, which are all copper alloys. That's what "copper base" means in this context. I don't think I've ever seen pure copper used for plated costume jewelry.


----------



## snoman701 (Mar 20, 2017)

I think we are discussing the same thing. By copper based, you mean a copper alloy...but by mostly copper, I meant 95%+ so that it will work in a copper refining cell without fluxing out the junk at smelt.

I have seen pure copper base on costume jewelry, but it's almost always been repousse. Usually early artisan work, when silver is accessible but gold is still too expensive.


----------



## patnor1011 (Mar 20, 2017)

Copper alloys used in costume jewelry are nowhere near 95% copper content. Not even close.


----------



## justinhcase (Mar 21, 2017)

snoman701 said:


> I think we are discussing the same thing. By copper based, you mean a copper alloy...but by mostly copper, I meant 95%+ so that it will work in a copper refining cell without fluxing out the junk at smelt.
> 
> I have seen pure copper base on costume jewelry, but it's almost always been repousse. Usually early artisan work, when silver is accessible but gold is still too expensive.


I have seen hand made plated jewellery from India made form copper.
It is when they use what ever scrap metal or wire they can find.
only the odd bit though,mass produced items will always be an alloy as they can be tailored to the needs of production.
The only economical way to process I have seen is a large drum mixer and one of the cyanide methods.


----------



## upcyclist (Mar 21, 2017)

Color of the base alloy is also a factor--which is why you see brass so much. Close to gold in color, easily worked, fairly cheap. The same reason it's used in gold-filled wire & sheet.


----------



## Rougemillenial (Mar 25, 2017)

snoman701 said:


> Rougemillenial said:
> 
> 
> > goldsilverpro said:
> ...


 you can part steel with a sodium bisulfate solution[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZQ67POLiqg[/youtube] though as for the zinc, a sodium zincate solution or zinc sulfate solution can be used. though as I've said, this works best for gold filled scrap. gold plated material needs a different process. A sulfuric acid cell or cyanide solution is really the only sensible way to go in my opinion since the percentage of gold in plated material is well under 1% by weight according to streetip's video on the subject. https://www.scribd.com/doc/40289717...cs-Computer-Telecommunication-and-Other-Scrap


----------



## solar_plasma (Apr 12, 2017)

Rougemillenial said:


> Being an experianced chemist and




In the palladium nitrate thread you stated you are an am*a*teur "Being an ametuer chemist, "

Now, you have become an experi*e*nced chemist already. What's next? A chemist is someone who studied chemistry at a university college or a university and finished it with an academic grade or diploma. And btw all chemists I ever met, are able to spell "experienced" and "amateur" correctly. Please don't call yourself a chemist at all, if you aren't. Users might mistakenly understand your postings as a professional opinion.


----------



## Rougemillenial (Apr 12, 2017)

solar_plasma said:


> Rougemillenial said:
> 
> 
> > Being an experianced chemist and
> ...


 I apologize for the contradiction. I am experienced in terms of lab time. I was simply attempting to convey that I'm not just some random joe sitting in his basement seeking for attention by stating things I have no clue on for unearned intelligence points. Though many of my posts mention more unconventional methods of recovery I personally tried. Might not be as effective, but I'd rather state things I've actually tried rather than making potentially baseless suggestions.

As for the misspelling, I don't have autocorrect on my phone and I honestly wasn't paying attention to the spelling that much. I by no means am an English master. I am actually an experienced amateur chemist. I've ran my own lab for around 10 years but still have yet to get a degree. Though that's why I didn't say I was a professional, as that would be a flat out lie. Also, if anyone did mistake me as a professional, I apologize for the unintentional misconception I made. I admit that I'm not even a bachelors degree chemist yet neither do I have supervised lab experience. I'm entirely self-taught. I'm entering college next fall actually to major in Biochemistry so that won't be for long.


----------



## 4metals (Apr 12, 2017)

In case you were wondering Rogue who this Solar Plasma guy is, he is a teacher in Germany, chemistry, physics and a few other subjects. 

And I would bet money he has a diploma to prove it.


----------



## butcher (Apr 13, 2017)

Rougemillenial,

There is no doubt you have learned a lot about chemistry. so have I, but here is a difference.
When I came to the forum I knew a little about chemistry (mostly from jobs and schooling myself, when I came to the gold refining forum, I used the chemistry I learned to learn more, I knew I knew very little about recovery and refining of precious metals, and paid attention to the forum and its members (many of which knew nothing about chemistry but knew the reactions and how the chemistry worked, Those non-chemist have taught me a lot of chemistry along with my own study. I did not come here to teach I came here to learn. I learned and I shared what I learned. If I would have come here teaching (what little chemistry I know I would have been laughed off the forum or booted off. by learning, I expanded my knowledge tremendously in chemistry and gained an education in the chemistry of precious metals that many professional chemists would pay to have.

many of our members have no chemistry background, but can they can teach you more about chemistry than you can get from years in college. Some members have a good understanding of the chemistry, and some are professionals in the field. even professional chemist come here to learn more about the chemistry of this professional field of precious metal recovery and refining,.


You are smart no doubt, you have learned a lot. you have some chemistry background (that is a big plus her), but you do not know your butt from a beaker when it comes to precious metal recovery and refining.
Coming here to teach (something you know nothing about just make you look dumb, You and I both know you are smarter than that.

I suggest you stop teaching and continue learning (then share what you learn).
At this point you have been a major disruption of the forum, you are spouting educated nonsense (for this field), and this makes it difficult for other to learn, it wastes the time and resources of the forum, where educated members have to clear up the confusion or misleading info.

Your name is close to the ban button.
Not because you do not have anything to contribute (because I believe we could learn a lot from you), not because you're causing trouble (you are a gentleman and have taken criticism well that is a big man in my eye).

But because your enthusiasm to teach or show what you know yet you really have no clue of the subject, yes you learned some chemistry but you do not know recovery and refining and try to teach it. which is causing way too much disruption of the forum.

please take this as a friendly warning, Please spend more time studying and less time trying to show what you think you know. I would like to learn from you and think you could be one of our better members if you took a little advice from your friends.

Think about it.
Be safe stop using mercury in your lab.


----------

