# how much sterling silver can be refined per day?



## afbrianh (Jun 5, 2011)

I guess my question is would it be economical to refine silver myself or let the refiners do it... Right now I'm bringing my refiner about 1000 ozs every 2 weeks...I get paid 96 percent of melt but have to wait two weeks to get paid.....is it worth while to dive into refining or is it too hard to process that amount of silver without expensive equipment... Thanks in advance for any feedback!


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## jimdoc (Jun 5, 2011)

It sounds you are getting paid pretty good already.

Jim


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## afbrianh (Jun 5, 2011)

I agree it's just 2 weeks is a long time to have capital tied up... I really don't know how hard it is to refine 1000 ozs so that's why i came here as I know u guys are some of the most knowledgabe people  when it comes to refining... Does it take that long to refine silver or are they milking it?


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## jimdoc (Jun 5, 2011)

They may have a backlog of customers before you, a lot of places are very busy now. The more experienced silver refiners on the forum will give you an answer on how long it takes. But I don't think you would make out better with money or time doing it yourself.

Jim


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## qst42know (Jun 5, 2011)

Even if you refine it you still have to sell it. Two weeks seems a small price to pay for no equipment, chemicals, wastes, energy, facilities, or effort on your part, and still get 96% payday.


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## Fournines (Jun 5, 2011)

afbrianh said:


> I guess my question is would it be economical to refine silver myself or let the refiners do it... Right now I'm bringing my refiner about 1000 ozs every 2 weeks...I get paid 96 percent of melt but have to wait two weeks to get paid.....is it worth while to dive into refining or is it too hard to process that amount of silver without expensive equipment... Thanks in advance for any feedback!



Your cost for Nitric and the induction melter will be the limiting factors. Oh, of course rent, electricity, water, waste treatment, crucibles, high temperature gloves, molds, graphite stir rods...oh, and labor. And that doesn't include setting up the silver cells.

Will you also do your own assays?

Who will you sell your refined silver to?

Right now it costs you $1.44 per oz for refining. Do you really think you can beat that?

If you were doing 5,000 oz per WEEK I would still say sell to a refinery. Higher volume = higher rates.

Of course, you're free to do as you wish, but start up costs might be a bit prohibitive.


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## 4metals (Jun 6, 2011)

It's not a question of how long it takes your refiner to refine the silver, you can set up enough silver cells to process all of the silver you can imagine in a week. All refiners have a finite capacity when more scrap comes in than they have capacity to process they push off payment so they're not advancing their working capital on backlog.

500 ounces a week is a small setup as silver refineries go. But there is a learning curve, you have to know analysis, waste treatment, and how to sell your refined .999 silver. Buy GSP's book and it will all be spelled out for you. 

Still 4% no headaches doesn't suck.


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## Harold_V (Jun 6, 2011)

4metals said:


> Still 4% no headaches doesn't suck.


Oh, yeah!
The main thing to remember is that once you refine as a means of income, even if it was fun before, it quickly becomes work. (When I sold my refining business, I was thrilled to get out from under the operation, in spite of my resounding success.)

The one thing almost everyone overlooks where selling is concerned is how to establish the market. Trading in precious metals, especially if you are an unknown, isn't easy. You are far more likely to find yourself selling to merchants that turn the material over to a major refiner. What that means to you is you'll invest a huge amount of time and money to save a buck, but end up losing the buck you tried to save, anyway. You will have undergone all the work, but still receive only 96% of the value (which is damned good for silver). Refine if need something to do. Sell the material outright if your objective is making money. 

Harold


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## stihl88 (Jun 6, 2011)

I know it's going to be a hard question to answer but based on an annual basis of 26,000 T-Oz approximately how much yield could one expect in PM's as a side product, would it be worth afbrianh factoring this in to any of his equations or is it just a given that his 96% return is pretty good?

Just a rough figure, let's pick say 1 T-Oz of .925 Silver which had approximately 0.02g of PM's present then 26,000 T-Oz of .925 would yield approx 520g of PM's present, approx $30,00 of Pt, so on and so forth.


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## jimdoc (Jun 6, 2011)

I think that silver picks up the platinum group metals through refining gold.
I doubt you will find much PGMs in sterling or other manufactured silver products.

Jim


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## 4metals (Jun 6, 2011)

I knew a refiner who processed sterling, lots of it, and the PGM's he recovered were from his waste treatment sludges in the form of Pd. It seems old sterling, some of it, had low levels of Pd in it. Still the waste from treating over 100,000 ounces contained only a few ounces of Pd.


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## stihl88 (Jun 6, 2011)

Ok, that seems like a negligible amount. 
I would take 96% return in a heart beat then.


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## HAuCl4 (Jun 7, 2011)

96% is pretty high payout for silver. Are you sure about the contents of the alloy you are bringing in?. Whoever is paying you 96% for those small lots is making money elsewhere.


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