Good morning everyone,
Just a quick story to share on something that recently occurred that could possibly help someone if they are experiancing purity issues when having their samples tested via XRF.
I started refining silver from sterling a few months back as a hobby. Over these past few months I've been trying to work on the various techniques of the refining process with the goal of achieving at least 99.9 silver and pouring my own bars. Through the process of this, I would take my various samples to a local refinery that has an XRF machine to have the purity tested. The results were not great; 96% was the best I could get so I decided to build a silver cell as my finishing step. The silver came out beautiful and I was confident I had achieved my goal. Unfortunately the XRF only showed 98% purity. Frustrated, I decided to run the silver crystal back through the silver cell with electrolyte made from dissolving pure silver minted bars, ultra clean. I had the sample retested and it was the same purity of 98%. I then decided to melt a pure silver eagle stamped 99.9 as a test and use a new crucible with no possibility of contamination. I also remelted my crystal that had been ran through the silver cell twice, and took them both to be tested. The results clearly showed what I had began to expect; the XRF machine was not giving accurate results.
In the attached photos you can see the melted silver eagle coin which is a known 99.9 from the US Mint. It tested just over 96% and had several others trace metals contained. Obviously this shows the results of the machine are not accurate. The other picture shows a bar I poured from the refined silver crystal which tested higher than the silver eagle (YES) but still only shows a purity of just over 97% but with no other trace metals.
Conclusion is that I believe their machine is either mis-calibrated or malfunctioning, but as long as I have a known sample of 99.9 that I am testing against on the same machine, I can still judge the purity of my product.
Help this story helps anyone who may be experiencing the same issues.![IMG_9389.jpg IMG_9389.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/goldrefiningforum/data/attachments/49/49238-f2636d25ba1cfef8a34432559473a1b6.jpg)
![IMG_9388.jpg IMG_9388.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/goldrefiningforum/data/attachments/49/49239-b6ce25879f7e81c40646b08cf3a2f324.jpg)
Just a quick story to share on something that recently occurred that could possibly help someone if they are experiancing purity issues when having their samples tested via XRF.
I started refining silver from sterling a few months back as a hobby. Over these past few months I've been trying to work on the various techniques of the refining process with the goal of achieving at least 99.9 silver and pouring my own bars. Through the process of this, I would take my various samples to a local refinery that has an XRF machine to have the purity tested. The results were not great; 96% was the best I could get so I decided to build a silver cell as my finishing step. The silver came out beautiful and I was confident I had achieved my goal. Unfortunately the XRF only showed 98% purity. Frustrated, I decided to run the silver crystal back through the silver cell with electrolyte made from dissolving pure silver minted bars, ultra clean. I had the sample retested and it was the same purity of 98%. I then decided to melt a pure silver eagle stamped 99.9 as a test and use a new crucible with no possibility of contamination. I also remelted my crystal that had been ran through the silver cell twice, and took them both to be tested. The results clearly showed what I had began to expect; the XRF machine was not giving accurate results.
In the attached photos you can see the melted silver eagle coin which is a known 99.9 from the US Mint. It tested just over 96% and had several others trace metals contained. Obviously this shows the results of the machine are not accurate. The other picture shows a bar I poured from the refined silver crystal which tested higher than the silver eagle (YES) but still only shows a purity of just over 97% but with no other trace metals.
Conclusion is that I believe their machine is either mis-calibrated or malfunctioning, but as long as I have a known sample of 99.9 that I am testing against on the same machine, I can still judge the purity of my product.
Help this story helps anyone who may be experiencing the same issues.
![IMG_9389.jpg IMG_9389.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/goldrefiningforum/data/attachments/49/49238-f2636d25ba1cfef8a34432559473a1b6.jpg)
![IMG_9388.jpg IMG_9388.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/goldrefiningforum/data/attachments/49/49239-b6ce25879f7e81c40646b08cf3a2f324.jpg)