# inquarting question



## Dadiola (Sep 9, 2014)

I have a bunch of karat jewelry that I am getting ready to inquart. My calculations show that I will need 126 grams of silver to inquart with my gold to get the gold down to 6k. Well...I only have 90 grams at the moment which would put me at around 7.7k after inquarting. Will the other alloy metals still dissolve (completely) in nitric or should I just throw in some copper to make up the difference. I would rather not put any more copper in if I didnt have to....


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## philddreamer (Sep 9, 2014)

In your calculations, did you take into account the base metals already in your jewelry?

Phil


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## maynman1751 (Sep 9, 2014)

http://www.goldnscrap.com/index.php/calculators/75-gold-inquarting-calculator

Go here to calculate the silver needed.


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## Dadiola (Sep 9, 2014)

Yeah....I know how to calculate how much I need to bring the gold content down to 6k. My problem is I can only get the gold content down to 7.7k with the material I have at hand. My question was whether or not 7.7k gold is sufficient enough to run through nitric without it "freezing" over.


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## FrugalRefiner (Sep 9, 2014)

Maybe. Probably. But if you want to be ensure you don't run into any problems, you can always split the batch of jewelry. Inquart the first half, run your nitric leach, cement the silver, then use it again to inquart the second half. Then you can run all the gold together.

Dave


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## gold4mike (Sep 9, 2014)

You could run most of your material with the amount of silver you have, recover your silver, add it to the remaining karat gold, run it.

It will take more time but can be done with the silver you have on hand.


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## Dadiola (Sep 9, 2014)

Ha...nevermind..the point is moot...I lowballed a bid on ebay and won a sterling necklace for 11 bucks. weight is almost exactly what i need...A few grams one way or the other wont make a difference. Thanks for the replies..didnt think about reusing the refined silver....Im just gonna keep the silver I get from this in cement form and reuse on future refinings....


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## FrugalRefiner (Sep 9, 2014)

Dadiola said:


> Im just gonna keep the silver I get from this in cement form and reuse on future refinings....


Remember that silver is a good carrier for platinum group metals. If you you process materials that may include PGMs, you'll want to refine the silver before reusing it.

Dave


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## goldsilverpro (Sep 9, 2014)

Copper is fine. It just takes 3.4 times more nitric than silver does to dissolve it.


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## Harold_V (Sep 10, 2014)

In spite of the fact that you have the problem addressed by more silver, you should understand that you can process inquarted material that borders on 10K. It requires prolonged digestion in heated dilute nitric, and if the material is quite thick it may or may not penetrate to the center. If you pour cornflakes, you should be able to process with little trouble at over 7½ K. 

I've addressed this issue before, and have strong feelings about keeping the gold intact, although fully digested. If it is alloyed too low, it has a tendency to crumble, and if it's alloyed with junk (like gold filled) you risk having it come out as fine powder, which makes separation of the solids from the solution a nightmare, as the fine particles are very slow to settle. 

As GSP mentioned, you surely can use copper (I advise you not use brass, as you risk introducing both tin and lead), but it demands a great deal more nitric to accomplish the desired results. 

Pay strict attention to the comment about silver becoming the carrier for platinum group metals, too. If you reuse the cemented silver and there's any dental gold or palladium crowns involved, even white gold made from palladium, your silver will quickly become overladen with platinum group metals. 

Silver recovered from inquartation should not be referenced as having been refined, just recovered. It's not pure, typically containing copper, and, of course, the platinum metals we've been discussing. 

Harold


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