Best practice of filtering copper anodes slimes

[Ayham Hafez]

Copper anode slimes filtering is very hard and almost impossible without gravity method, but to make slimes settle down it take couple of hours and at the end we will not get a dry slimes.

Hope someone in the forum have a good technique for filtering the slimes without missing any value.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Copper anode slimes filtering is very hard and almost impossible without gravity method, but to make slimes settle down it take couple of hours and at the end we will not get a dry slimes.

Hope someone in the forum have a good technique for filtering the slimes without missing any value.

How about treating them in dilute Sulfuric with a gentle boil.
That should dissolve all Copper and let the rest agglomorate.
Then siphon off all the liquid and process in Nitric for the Silver and Pd?
AR for the rest?

 

[nickvc]

I nicknamed slimes swines for a good reason , they really are a pain to handle whatever you do they get everywhere and block filters as if it’s second nature .
I have one thought that could be worth a try , if you can reduce the volume of solution by settling you could add nitrate powder the same as in poor man’s to create nitric which should remove the copper and the silver and any other base metals leaving the gold which I assume is your goal , if you decide to try this do a small test and see if it works for your purposes .

 

[Alondro]

Copper anode slimes filtering is very hard and almost impossible without gravity method, but to make slimes settle down it take couple of hours and at the end we will not get a dry slimes.

Hope someone in the forum have a good technique for filtering the slimes without missing any value.

Try putting the anode in a tightly-woven cloth bag and submerging that in the electrolyte. Depending on what electrolyte you use, you'll need to choose an appropriate material for the bag that won't break down.

The bag will keep all the slimes inside. Sreetips on Youtube does this with his silver electrolysis, but to keep the waste slimes OUT of his pure silver crystal. It does an excellent job of keeping all the ultra-fine slime out of the electrolyte, so it would certainly work for saving the valuable slimes as well.

Something like a nylon filter bag might work for most electrolytes as long as they're not too acidic. Nylon, since it's an organic material, can then be ashed, and the slimes will be a dry powder mixed in with the ash. Nylon itself, being entirely carbon-based, should leave very little ash when totally incinerated. Most of the powder you're left with will be the PM slimes.

 

[Ayham Hafez]

I nicknamed slimes swines for a good reason , they really are a pain to handle whatever you do they get everywhere and block filters as if it’s second nature .
I have one thought that could be worth a try , if you can reduce the volume of solution by settling you could add nitrate powder the same as in poor man’s to create nitric which should remove the copper and the silver and any other base metals leaving the gold which I assume is your goal , if you decide to try this do a small test and see if it works for your purposes .

I tried before with nitric acid, it was a nightmare, all gold converted to colloidal gold and filtration took more than one week, its not work don't even think about it believe me.

 

[Ayham Hafez]

Try putting the anode in a tightly-woven cloth bag and submerging that in the electrolyte. Depending on what electrolyte you use, you'll need to choose an appropriate material for the bag that won't break down.

The bag will keep all the slimes inside. Sreetips on Youtube does this with his silver electrolysis, but to keep the waste slimes OUT of his pure silver crystal. It does an excellent job of keeping all the ultra-fine slime out of the electrolyte, so it would certainly work for saving the valuable slimes as well.

Something like a nylon filter bag might work for most electrolytes as long as they're not too acidic. Nylon, since it's an organic material, can then be ashed, and the slimes will be a dry powder mixed in with the ash. Nylon itself, being entirely carbon-based, should leave very little ash when totally incinerated. Most of the powder you're left with will be the PM slimes.

Filter bags must be coated with rubber at the bottom of it to avoid loosing slimes, rubber will also prevent electrolyte from go through it, so at the end you will end up with liquid slimes, and don't forget rinsing the anodes with water.

 

[Ayham Hafez]

How about treating them in dilute Sulfuric with a gentle boil.
That should dissolve all Copper and let the rest agglomorate.
Then siphon off all the liquid and process in Nitric for the Silver and Pd?
AR for the rest?

I replied yesterday but I don't know why my post not appear, maybe because I was log out.

Anyway, I tried to deal with slimes by acids, any acid will increase the issue, the only way is to filter and dry.


Really I wonder how big companies deal with slimes, I have 500 amps cell and weekly I have to spend 2 to 3 days for filtering with missing some small slimes particles.

 

[nickvc]

The other option is to increase the size of the filter bed and use gravity not vacuum filtering , with slimes they tend to block the filter if you add a. Acumen pump very quickly.