# buying sodium metabisulfite



## wimpiedoedel (Dec 6, 2012)

I'm living in Belgium en just started with recovering gold (just for fun, not for money).

I have found the hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide in my local diy-store.
Only the metabisulfite is not to find. Can I buy it in my pharmacy or are there people from Belgium that knows where to find it.

grtz
Wim


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## butcher (Dec 6, 2012)

I would think Belgium should have places to buy supplies to make beer.

SMB is used to sterilize bottles when making wine or beer, if you have places that sell supplies to make beer.

Sodium sulfite can also be used (found as pool or spa chemical).

Sodium bisulfite can be used or made into SMB.
Sodium metabisulfite can be prepared by evaporating a solution of sodium bisulfite saturated with sulfur dioxide:

2 HSO3- --> H2O + S2O52- 
Which leaves solid Na2S2O5 

There are two types of stump remover useful to us, one is KNO3 potassium nitrate, the other is SMB sodium metabisulfite or also called sodium pyrosulfite.

You can make ferrous sulfate (copperas), from iron transformer iron laminates and 10% H2SO4, it will work to precipitate gold from chloride solution, or can be used to test for gold in a spot plate, you want green crystals, garden supplies sell ferrous sulfate, but it seems to be oxidized brown (it must be green crystals not brown), it is easy to make, I have made several posts of how I make it.

Take note of the ending in the name of these chemicals, ide, ate, ic, ous, these endings in the chemical name are very important, they can tell how many oxygen’s, or the oxidation state, define an acid from a salt and so on.


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## patnor1011 (Dec 8, 2012)

If you will have problem to find it out there in belgium I can get it fairly cheap and send it to you, considering that you will pay for it and for postage. Here is where I do get mine.

http://www.homebrew.ie/proddetail.php?prod=202&Young'-s-Sodium-Metabisulphite-100g


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