# How am I doing??????????



## Absolutsecurity (Jan 26, 2008)

Just finished my first 5 pounds + of silver pulled off my silver plating media balls. I still have some more to go so I might add another pound + to the gold pan soon!!!

Let me know what you think - I used LazerSteve's cementing method from his web site - I disolved all the balls in 9 pound batches with 50/50 70% nitric and distilled water (consuming approx 7 LBS of nitric acid) and filtered the blue green solution and diluted with distilled water and then hung coiled up heavy 12 gauge copper wire in the solution to get it to cement out - I have a stock pot ( 5 gallon buck full of waste that I am going to process for the remaining silver via silver chloride method and then recoup my copper so I can use it again also - I should be left with ferrous nitrate solution that I can neutralize and dump! Please let me know if you have any tricks or if I missed something - I want to do it right - I also want to thank all the SAGE wisdom on this forum that has gotten me this far ( I used to dump my silver now I reclaim it  ).

Next I go after the GOLD!!!!!!!!! :twisted: :twisted: 

Thanks Steve, GSP, Harold and everyone else TONS of appreciation! :wink: :wink: 

Glynn


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## Noxx (Jan 26, 2008)

Looks real nice :lol:


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## Absolutsecurity (Jan 26, 2008)

Thanks Noxx!

G


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## SilverNitrate (Feb 3, 2008)

After the step you dissolve in nitric acid, you can add in a stiff solution of KOH or NaOH to the bucket then (this turns it to AgOH/Ag2O) 
then pour in a prepared sol'n of Caustic Syurp (sugar dissolved in hydroxide water) 

This is a highly exothermic rxn and should be done outsides. It will drop your silver (works for gold too!) in seconds! and you'll get 100% of your silver out and theres no 'heavy metals' to dispose of!

When using the caustic syurp on gold... you will have to treat it with conc. HNO3 and you'll have about 1% gold to recover from that sol'n.


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## Platdigger (Feb 3, 2008)

Sounds interesting. So, what is the procedure for gold? 

Will this work from AR solutions and the like?
Randy


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## Absolutsecurity (Feb 3, 2008)

Dont even wast your time converting nitrate to chloride - chloride is more dangerous and toxic - just leave it as silver nitrate straight from the nitric acid and cement out with copper - if you do it right you get 100% of the silver - I proved it to myself by doing it right with copper replacing the silver in nitrate and when I got no more dissolution of the copper and no more silver cementing I filtered and added HCL to my waste and got no silver chloride - all you have to do is calculate the appropriate amount of nitric acid for the amount of silver you are taking into dissolution and the nitric is consumed and the silver wont get stuck in solution - if you still have strong nitric with your silver nitric you tend not to get a good return and then the nitric is spent consuming the copper instead of exchanging. Then you can add waste steel or iron to your waste solution and end up with copper sponge in the bottom and salt water .

A LOT SAFER THEN SODIUM HYDROXIDE laden water with caro syrup in it and maybe toxic silver chloride - how do you properly dispose of that highly basic solution?

Keep it simple dont try to complicate things - I would suggest listening to some of the old timers on this forum - they have helped me do things the easy way.

I just finished my last batch of silver now moving on to the gold!

Glynn


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## Platdigger (Feb 3, 2008)

Well, he did not mention adding any chlorine or a chloride. So, how will there be any silver chloride?

He said to add sodium hydroxide.....yes?
And any basic solution can be neutralized with an acid....right?

So I am at least interested........
Randy


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## Absolutsecurity (Feb 3, 2008)

Yeah your right I miss read! But doesnt that make silver hydroxide then??
or silver oxide??
Glynn


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## Absolutsecurity (Feb 3, 2008)

Then what the suryp then turns the hydroxide or oxide silver to silver metal????

Glynn


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## Platdigger (Feb 3, 2008)

Yes, and then he is reducing it with the sugar hydroxide solution....I guess.


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## Platdigger (Feb 3, 2008)

HAHA.....your post beat mine.....
Randy


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## Absolutsecurity (Feb 3, 2008)

Dam it to all hell - just after I finish all my silver someone comes in with a good one!!

LOL!!!!!


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## Absolutsecurity (Feb 3, 2008)

- I does sound good - I miss read and thought he was talking about making it silver chloride not OH - that takes allready dangerous silver nitrate and converts it to another dangerous silver chloride - one more step to get to the end - but the way it read the second time (the right way LOL) its going from silver nitrate to silver hydroxide/ silver oxide and the reduced with the dextrose to silver metal RIGHT!!

Pretty neat!   

Glynn


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## Lou (Feb 3, 2008)

I don't know how dangerous silver chloride is: it's very low solubility, so not much risk from ingestion, and it should be handled wet, so minuscule risk of inhalation. I do not think it is skin absorptive either.


By the way, you don't add the base to your sugar solution, instead add it to the AgNO3 or chloride (not Ag2O, that is not achieved from aqueous chemistry, at least significant amounts) then add base to get silver powder.


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## Platdigger (Feb 3, 2008)

So Lou, are you saying, sugar water to silvernitrate, and then sodium hydroxide to that?
Randy


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## Absolutsecurity (Feb 3, 2008)

Yeah thats what I think Lou is saying - just like doing silver chloride right!

Glynn


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## SilverNitrate (Feb 3, 2008)

Silver chloride is not more dangerous that anyother silver ion solution.
Silver chloride because it is insoluable in water can settle on to your metal pipes and eat right thru them! that goes for steel,copper,lead,stainless steel but not pvc. silver nitrate will attack copper pipes.

So Whats happening here is you are making a silver metal oxide and that oxide is a catalyst to many reducing aganes. the easiest of all is an aldehyde, a strong solution of dissolved carbohydrate in lye works well. 
you can use sugar or corn syurp either one dissolve in water but flour and corn starch can work too, do this when its really hot. the hydroxide hydrolyzes the carbs (only 5% or so will react) making a small precentage of an aldose. This realtive small amount of chemical can reduce a large amount of silver oxide.


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## SilverNitrate (Feb 3, 2008)

sodium hydroxide in the environment turns into baking soda. hence heating baking soda will make sodium hydroxide. 
You can actually make some by placing Arm&Hammer in a steel pot and heat it for hours.

Refining companies that process silver chloride uses baking soda to react and pour off pure molten silver into ingot moulds. that way table salt is its flux.


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## Absolutsecurity (Feb 3, 2008)

Cool avatar SilverNitrate!

I was just thinking you already dealing with a hazard with silver nitrate so why convert to another hazard silver chloride - BUT then Randy drew my attention to my misread - I understood after I re-read your post! MY BAD.

Glynn


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## Lou (Feb 4, 2008)

I just say add the base to the silver because that is how I do it, plus if you add base to straight up sugars it will get very hot and can spatter all about. Not good for your eyes. 

It doesn't really matter I suppose, it's just my preference and I feel (somehow) it's safer. 

I don't think I'll ever bother doing this modified Tollen's again. Using copper metal is so much easier...the copper impurities are not that bad at all.

Interesting way to get rid of copper, nickel, zinc, and other metals is to heat the silver nitrate til it's molten and hold it at about 440C. Everything else will oxidize under those conditions. Let it all cool, crush it up, dissolve in water, and filter your silver nitrate solution. The residues on the filter are oxides.


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## Anonymous (Mar 9, 2008)

where are you getting silver from


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## Absolutsecurity (Mar 10, 2008)

MY SILVER?

It came off of silver plated electro plating conductive tumbling media!

Glynn


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