# Large scale Ag and Au collection from clean Aqua Regia



## Kylethomas (Jun 28, 2013)

Hi there, 

I work for a geochemical analysis company. I analyze clean solutions of Gold in 20% Aqua Regia with silver Precipitate. I use Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, wwhich produces produces about 40L of waste a day containing containing only gold, silver, AR and water. 

We use silver nitrate as a part of the fusion process to digest these samples, and collecting the Ag inside of the solution and converting it to silver nitrate would save the company over 100k a year. AA tests show that each of our solutions contain ~30ppm silver. 

Can anyone share some insight on how I could go about precipitating the AgCl from mass amounts of this waste in a cost effective manner? 

Also interested in getting the Au as we also use it for inquartation. 

Thanks everyone.


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## solar_plasma (Jun 28, 2013)

438g Ag for "100K" ...US$??? What exactly are you talking about?


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## g_axelsson (Jun 28, 2013)

Are you sure you really want to hunt for that amount of silver? 30 ppm is only 30 grams per cubic meter or $20 every 25 days. Like 80 cents a day.

Solar_plasma is correct, something doesn't add upp here, how can 80 cents a day add up to 100k per year, there is something missing in this equation. If it is in the making of silver nitrate then you could just buy silver and make the nitrate yourself but then you only save 99.4k per year.

Göran


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## Kylethomas (Jun 28, 2013)

Sorry, I may have worded things poorly. 

My lab runs about 6000 samples a day, each is either 4 or 10mL containing 30ish ppb silver. 
My manager told. Me we spend 10-12k a month on silver nitrate (slightly lessthis yyear because we are slower than usual). 

But anyways, the cost of AgNO3 is significant and I'd like to find a way to reduce it if necessary. 

Thanks again, 
Kyle


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## solar_plasma (Jun 29, 2013)

I don't know, why it is so expensive, maybe extremely pure or extremely exact meassured solution. The material is not that expensive. You can buy 15 silver ounces for 300 $ instead of 100 000 $ wherever you get maple leaf, eagles, philharmoniker or whatelse.


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## samuel-a (Jun 29, 2013)

There are reasons why you lab purchase pre-made AgNO3. Purity, Consistency, Accountability and Traceability. And that cost money..., planty. 
With your work scale, i'm pretty sure you already are getting the best prices your supplier can afford.

Recovering these metals for credit is the best option IMHO (which you probably already doing).
Do you know how much you buy the silver nitrate ?


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