# Silver in Mirrors



## Strider (Jun 23, 2009)

Hello, I was wondering if it is possible to extract silver from mirrors. If so, with what method (chemicals, mechanical and so on)?

It is the only supply that I see every day, no matter where


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## Anonymous (Jun 23, 2009)

From page 198 Butts & Cox ( Silver - Economics Metallurgy and Use ) publication, A typical commercial mirror will have a silver coating of about 0.15 g per sq ft.

If it's silver your after there are higher yielding scrap sources, hot water tanks have a rheostat with silver, electric ranges, washing machine and cloths dryer all have timers using silver contacts and don't forget the thermo disks located at the rear of the dryer.

Larger silver contacts from electric motor start switches, circuit breakers from electrical panels used in the home and industry. Processing from these sources over the past year ( dilute nitric ) now have 8 lbs of silver mixed with palladium waiting for the next process.

There is also a lot of silver used in domestic and commercial refrigeration, I have been cutting and saving the silver soldered joints,from the condenser and evaporator coils. Because of the huge copper content will melt the lot into bars for electro-refining to remove the copper collecting my values as mud from the cell.

The scrap yard where the owner lets me salvage complies with Environment Canada in removing freon.You should never attempt to cut into a system which has not been evacuated, some older systems were charged with Sulfur Dioxide, Propane or Ammonia as refrigerants.


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## SilverNitrate (Jun 24, 2009)

many newer mirrors use sublimated aluminum coating.


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank (Jun 25, 2009)

Silver nitrate:

First...brake the mirror,then dip it into nitric acid....you will see that the shine surface (pure silver) goes away...so add table salt and you will see a white precipitate which is silver chloride,follow the Karo syrup process to get the metallic silver.I hope you will enjoy braking mirrors as I do....I love it!!!!
Regards.
Manuel


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## Strider (Jun 25, 2009)

Thanks allot. Could you post a picture maybe of that timing, or switches...I mean the silver components, I don't think I will identify it
So there is a lot more silver you can extract from hardware than gold?


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## SilverNitrate (Jun 27, 2009)

aluminum mirrors are superior to the silver as aluminum don't oxidize much further. the Al mirrors keep their shine in nitric. My opinion stripping silver from mirrors is a waste of time for the backyard refiner as many silver mirrors have other metallic coatings like tin and copper along with some epoxy layer and all that other stuff equals more waste material.


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## Strider (Jun 28, 2009)

true true...so it is useless, and the amount is small, thakns!


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