# My first troy ounce.



## Meh1 (Sep 23, 2012)

So this is my first attempt at recovery and refining...slightly more than one ounce in the picture from sterling material...terrible at melting and pouring but im pleased with the purity i was able to make... :shock: thank you to everyone that posts here your information is amazing...I should hopefully have a button of gold this week if im not to busy with school...ill post a picture of that when i have it.


----------



## Oz (Sep 24, 2012)

Given the lack of oxides I see, it is a rather pure sampling of silver. Do tell use please the steps you took to achieve it. You have every right to be proud of your accomplishment.


----------



## Meh1 (Sep 24, 2012)

Thank you for the vote of confidence...i really appreciate the attitudes on this forum...Its nice to have an exchange of ideas and no one trolling...that said thanks again for sharing your knowledge it is invaluable if a person takes the time to learn instead of asking for someone to hold their hand...I have alot of e-waste to recover...but i wanted to start with a test run to familiarize myself with the processes involved...I will no more than break even maybe a little extra :| on my investment into some sterling material and gold scrap rings...Something that Hoke suggested was that you familiarize yourself with known variables in example sterling and 14k rings...that being said the procedure i followed is to a letter the information I found on this forum...I started by treating the materials in nitric acid at around 55-60% concentration it varied because i have 70% so i added a bit of water to bring the concentration down as well as to save on the expensive nitric...this was allowed to simmer on a hot plate covered with sand for a few hours...after the silver had completely dissolved I filtered the solution to get the gold material out...I then took the nitric acid and added a small amount of urea to help neutralize the solution...Then i took single strand copper wires and allowed them to sit over night to remove the silver from the solution...i was expecting less than an ounce recovered but i low balled myself because I hate to be disappointed lol...This was treated in the normal fashion where i removed what was left of the copper wires and ran the liquid through a filter to collect the silver powder...this was allowed to dry...and i then melted and poured the rough looking blob...but it did end up with a nice color and very little contamination...now back to the gold...I washed it a couple times in hot water...then once in hydrochloric acid and then filtered again...from there i used the normal method of covering with hydrochloric and adding small amounts of nitric at intervals if the action was slowed or stopped working...then i filtered the solution to pull anymore impurities and was left with a very nice green clear liquid...i let this sit for a day to allow the nitric to work its way out naturally...today I added a small amount of urea :shock: I know this is sometimes frowned upon but i was impatient to see the gold drop...so once i was relatively sure the nitric was mostly dissolved i added sodium metabisulfite...my work area is in a small spot in a friend of mines well ventilated workshop (i have full ppe as well)...the green turned into a great almost chocolate milk color with the gold beginning to settle at the bottom...This is going to sit one more night in his shop...and hopefully i can recover the gold tomorrow..does this all sound about right?...anyone see where i could improve?...im already building a small home forge so i can get better temperatures and a better pour..other than that let me know where i can improve...because i hope to start recovering the mountain of e-scrap i have accumulated..Thanks for any tips and for the information on this forum.


----------

