# silver,silver chloride and lead chloride and perhaps cucl2



## arthur kierski (Jan 23, 2009)

again i have 4kilos of powedered and lumps of the above mentioned-----it is not my specialty---how do i begin to purify? thanks again to all


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## lazersteve (Jan 23, 2009)

Arthur,

The process below assumes your material contains *no sterling silver*.

Start off by breaking up any lumps into fine powder and sifting to be sure no large chunks of silver chloride are protected from the following steps. If the material has not been allowed to dry out since it was formed, you can skip this step.

Next cover the material in very hot tap water, stir vigorously, let settle, and pour or siphon off the liquid. [edit]If the presence of copper I chloride is suspected this step should include two or three HCl acidified washes as well.[/edit]

Repeat the above steps until the liquid no longer shows any color and a test drop remains clear when ammonium hydroxide is added. If copper is present you will see a blue color with ammonium hydroxide. You can test the liquid with sodium/potassium iodide for dissolved lead- yellow precipitate means lead is present.

Finish up the rinse cycles with a final hot water stage.

Next transfer the solid material into several layers of filters and squeeze or press out all the liquid. Be careful not to break the filters when pressing.

From here you will convert the silver chloride in to silver metal using any one of the methods outlined in video format on my website (lye-dextrose or base metal-acid). I prefer using iron and 5-10% sulfuric acid.

Be sure to throughly rinse the resulting silver metal several times more with hot water and follow these rinses up with a hot very dilute HCl (5-10%) wash cycle to remove any stray iron. Lastly, a few good water rinses, and finally pressing again.

Now you have 99%+ silver. To further purify you will need cast into ingots and set up a silver parting cell as outlined by GSP and others here on the forum.

Steve


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## arthur kierski (Jan 24, 2009)

Steve,thanks again for the valuable help you once more gave it to me


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## arthur kierski (Jan 29, 2009)

i did exactly what steve explained and got 2.5kilos of beautifull silver flakes which i sold today for $1000 dollars---thanks again steve for your wonderful tuition-----


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## lazersteve (Jan 29, 2009)

Arthur,

I'm very glad it all worked out for you.

Steve


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