I,ve been approached by several people to recover the precious metal content from rolled gold and plated material in big quantities my idea on this would be to go for a copper recovery through an electrolitic cell process using sulphuric acid and copper sulphate so having valuable copper to re sell and then to recover the precious metals from the resulting sludges. Im posting this on the forum as im aware that there are many better qualified and far more experienced people on here than me and i would really appreciate your views and or any imput any of you have on my proposed method.
copper recovery
- Thread starter nickvc
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If the copper content of the material you wish to process is in the high 90% the copper cell will work well for you and if you can get the material cheap enough you will do well. The procedures for electrolytic copper recovery are well documented.
If the material you are processing contains other base metals, they will build up quickly and foul your cell. It is important to know your feedstock and blend different materials to maximize the copper content so the cell produces pure copper for the longest possible interval.
Unless you get pretty big and have a well known name, you may have a hard time getting top dollar for your copper. The big boys in the copper refining business, like Anaconda and Boliden spend a lot of money on their quality control, and it assures a consistent product and the highest prices.
If the material you are processing contains other base metals, they will build up quickly and foul your cell. It is important to know your feedstock and blend different materials to maximize the copper content so the cell produces pure copper for the longest possible interval.
Unless you get pretty big and have a well known name, you may have a hard time getting top dollar for your copper. The big boys in the copper refining business, like Anaconda and Boliden spend a lot of money on their quality control, and it assures a consistent product and the highest prices.
thanks 4 metals just running this as an idea at present ,i know i wont get top dollar on the copper but if it pays to process the precious metals it becomes a viable way of refining low grade metals and it wont leave so much waste unsaleable metals to be disposed of, good enviromental approach i hope. I find this whole business fascinating and while i totally agree with harold about new discoveries only coming with a full understanding of the subject ,using proven technologies /processes from other businesses could well prove useful in our own particular field of endeavour . Not a new method but an abstract way of viewing the problems that face us all,large quantities of base metals with little precious metal content,how to mke it a viable proposition????? I
scrapman1077
Well-known member
nickvc, I will be using the same approach. Are you getting a percent of the precious metals recovered as well as the copper? scrapman1077
this so far is only an idea on a question that i was asked, how could it be done and at what cost, it has relevance due to todays high commodity prices for metals, acid and power,not to mention disposal costs of acids and contaminated metal waste.I think this is the right way to proceed better for the enviroment and hopefully more profitable not a bad combination.Im going to trial it soon i hope and will keep you posted as to results and no doubt problems encountered. Good luck in your trials and i look forward to hearing your results.If it becomes a reality i think i would either ask for a percentage of all the metals and or a treatment charge based on costs incurred and value recovered this will be an interesting journey for us both i feel.scrapman1077 said:
