CW Ammen

[Seamus]

This book is great for prospectors like me. I also have Hokes book for a better understanding of refining.

 

[rusty]

I've never seen Ammen's book, but I have no doubt it's a good one. In spite of that, unless someone can tell me differently, I don't think it would serve the novice as well as Hoke's. Hers is written such that a person that is not the least bit familiar with chemistry can learn to refine precious metals. She takes you through making solutions for testing, how to test, how to refine various varieties of waste materials, and even provides excellent guidance for processing platinum and palladium, all in language that anyone can understand. It doesn't go in to depth with silver, but that information is readily available in a book written by Butts & Cox.

On the negative side, it was written long before electronic scrap was available, so it is not covered, but the basic principles of refining remain the same. You can glean all the information for stripping gold by various methods right here on this forum.

It might be a good idea for those that have Ammen's book to speak out----on the outside chance that I am handing out bad advice. Don't think I am considering I knew nothing about chemistry or refining in general and learned enough from her (Hoke's) book to found a small refining business that was exceedingly successful.

How about it readers-------any comments on Ammen's book?

Harold

edit: added name for clarity.

IMHO once you've read and understand Hoke's then Ammens would be your book of interest as he takes you well beyond Ms. Hoke's teachings.

Yes Ammens begins on a more technical level, if you've already read Hoke's this would not be a problem for most then he has also written his book in easy to read layman's terms, with the Internet you can easily fill in the blanks.

For instance Ammmens now has me interested in thin layer chromatography, which I'm finding to be a very fascinating subject.


Separation of black ink on TLC plate.

 

[rickbb]

As usual I've done it backwards. I read Ammen before Hoke, lol.

I found it a good read as I was thinking of prospecting before I realized what an ***** I was for paying an ewaste hauler to carry off my companies old PC's.