2 newbie questions

[mlgdave]

1) I have some gold plated .925 sterling, I want to just calculate the silver content and use it to inquart some of my karat scrap with and "kill 2 birds with one stone" meaning I would get teh gold into the whole molten blob and use silver that I paid 80% of spot for inqurting with, is this advisable and feasible? (my thoughts are that it is)

2) I dont see specifically that I can reuse my cemented silver out of nitric to inquart with again? Can I just use it as it comes out of solution if I wash it with distilled a few times? or do i need to do something else before I reuse it?

Thanks loads, im about 2 days from starting my first ever refining, I just calculated that I have 16.5 ounces of karat scrap...................(will start small though)

mlgdave

 

[lazersteve]

1) Yes, the two birds with one stone way is always the best way when working with silver refining. The gold plating will end up in the gold honeycomb after the nitric reaction is completed. Any Rhodium plating will end up in the gold and partially report in the AR when the gold is dissolved and partially in the solids that remain when the gold is dissolved. This is where (when you have a lot of Rh plated items) it may make more sense to dissolve Rh plated sterling silver in dilute nitric first before using for inquarting.

2). Yes, just be sure it's washed free of copper first for minimal nitric usage in the inquarting step. In reality the amount of copper contamination should be minor, so it's not that big of a deal. An ammonium hydroxide test of the wash liquid will let you know if the copper is all rinsed out. A blue color to the ammonia test liquid indicates copper is still present in the rinse water. The cemented silver tends to accumulate PGMs as it is reused. Oz has commented that he feels the darker gray the cemented silver, the more PGMs present. 4Metals confirmed this may indeed be the case with a large scale test based upon Oz's comments.

Steve