99.5%? Is it possible?

[4metals]

I'm sure being approved for London gold delivery has its privileges, exactly what those privileges are seems to be a closely held secret. It seems they can get rid of all the gold they want to at will, but that is just my observation from my little corner of the world.

 

[HAuCl4]

Two of the big 4 aren't members of the London cartel. I'm curious how and what terms the spot market operates under in the U.S. for those players, and how do they get rid of their production efficiently.

 

[nickvc]

When it comes to selling on the London market I'm fairly sure that all the big players act as brokers to those that aren't members so the seller gets spot price and the fixing banks take. 1/4% as their fee which is the price that you can buy fine gold for in volume on the market.
From what I can gather they basically offer for sale or want to buy what gold is available if there's more sellers than buyers the price drops until someone buys it and vice versa if there's more buyers the price rises. Can't lose either way as they still get their brokerage fee :roll:
They can also sell metal they don't have as physical delivery isn't usually demanded until 30 days later.....good wheeze eh?

 

[HAuCl4]

My real goal here is to produce, from a cell, 99.99 silver. By going in with a product from a reverb, low in copper and traces of most other metals, (except silver and a few PPT gold and Pd)this is possible. Going in with sterling I can get 99.95 but the electrolyte needs more changing. True the copper is the major contaminant and is easily collected to get it into marketable form, but making 99.99 can fetch a $.10 premium and 50,000 oz a week that's $5000.

First objective, silver with a premium.
Second objective, where's the gold?
Third objective, what about that 8% copper?
Down the list but not forgotten, where's the Palladium. Never much but some.

4metals: With new high prices today, again, I was wondering how this story ended. How did you finally produce the 9999 silver electrolytically?. How are you doing the QC to make sure the process stays 9999+ ?. Did you get the copper and all of the gold/palladium out?. 8)

 

[4metals]

This story had a very happy ending, .9999 is attained electrolytically from cells but the feedstock is cleaned up considerably before it sees the cell. The melt capacity is 5000 oz for pouring bars so every molten lot of 5000 oz is dip tube sampled and run on an in house ICP for purity. Currently that is 2 pours a day. Then the corresponding bars are stamped and numbered. The plant as it was built has exceeded capacity and we are currently expanding to produce more. The end buyer has a preference for electrolytically produced silver over chemically refined silver even if they both assay at .9999.

The next project for this operation is recovering copper which is now going out in slag. As the price of silver goes up the quality of silver goes down (incoming alloy) this has to be watched carefully but the copper content has risen (almost doubled) in the feedstock. Copper recovery will require a different pretreatment. Gold and palladium are all accounted for and everybody's happy!

 

[HAuCl4]

The people at Union Miniere in Brussels are always hungry for copper slags, if that interests you. 8)

Do you have to do a lot of gymnastics to get 9999 with a silver cell?. I thought it wasn't possible till now that you say it is. :shock:

 

[4metals]

A silver cell is like a computer, garbage in garbage out.

A good quality feedstock at or over .995, good rinsing, and a stainless steel centrifugal drier make a big difference. Getting rid of clingons so to speak.

 

[HAuCl4]

The end buyer has a preference for electrolytically produced silver over chemically refined silver even if they both assay at .9999.

:shock: :roll: :?:

 

[Lou]

It's probably how the consistency and melt characteristics are--the silver crystal is easier to melt than the powder, and the ship volume is less. Plus, less aqueous waste!

 

[HAuCl4]

...but 4metals ships 5,000 oz bars already melted... maybe the buyer is someone from greenpeace? :shock: :lol:

 

[4metals]

No, they ship 1000 ounce bars but they pour 5 at a time because the melter has a capacity of 5000 ounces of silver. Every melt is sampled and assayed.

The buyer brokers the metal and I guess they are old school when it comes to high purity metals. For a very long time gold refined electrolytically was a prerequisite for Good Gold Deliverable status. I guess that was also true for silver. They required it, we delivered it, and they're satisfied.

 

[HAuCl4]

Whatever the customer wants, at a price!. 8)

 

[HAuCl4]

Hi. 99.75 is possible. :lol: