Refiners in Europe

[Anzelmas]

Hi, m8s!
I am new here and this is my first post
I live in Stockholm, Sweden. I am preparing for my little silver refining hobby now.
I've got some scrap silver that I'd like to sell while I'm working on setting up the refining workshop. But it's not as easy to do in Europe as it seems at first glance. I sent several emails to the refiners I managed to find googling, but unfortunately no luck. Some doesn't answer at all, some wanted min amount 500 kg, some sending from one to another, some managing to answer every question in 2-3 weeks time. So I didn't manage to find one...
Maybe somebody knows a refiner in Europe? Ideally the one that could cast bars from my scrap.
Thanks in advance.

 

[nickvc]

Welcome to the forum.
You probably need to find a collector of scrap or small gold dealer who will then ship to the refiners, from a quick google search I found 3 possible dealers to try in Sweden.

 

[Biom]

How much scrap do you have . And what exactly kind of scrap. there is some one in France .he may be interested

 

[Anzelmas]

nickvc, can you send me the links to these dealers you have found? I will check have I tried to contact them.
Biom, 2-3 kg of .830 silver scrap at the moment. Spoons, forks, plates, cups.

 

[Biom]

It's not much you can do it your self . And get it purified .and then sale it locally. There is a place in France and Switzerland they do this kind of silver scrap .it's called e wast .iwill send you the owner what's up .but I think they buy big lot you can contact theme .he may help you and give you more ideas good luck

 

[nickvc]

nickvc, can you send me the links to these dealers you have found? I will check have I tried to contact them.
Biom, 2-3 kg of .830 silver scrap at the moment. Spoons, forks, plates, cups.

Just do a simple google search for gold or bullion dealers Sweden that’s all I did .

 

[Anzelmas]

It's not much you can do it your self . And get it purified .and then sale it locally. There is a place in France and Switzerland they do this kind of silver scrap .it's called e wast .iwill send you the owner what's up .but I think they buy big lot you can contact theme .he may help you and give you more ideas good luck

I will be very grateful

 

[Anzelmas]

Just do a simple google search for gold or bullion dealers Sweden that’s all I did .

I checked all these "dealers". Unfortunately they are third maybe tenth hands to the real refiners

 

[nickvc]

What percentage did they offer?

 

[justinhcase]

Dam Britax.
Why did the majority of england decide to leave Europe?
It is beyond me. Good cheese and wine have gone up 30% already and we can no longer help other people in our geological proximity.
A rather large body of water hampers trade in the other direction.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I checked all these "dealers". Unfortunately they are third maybe tenth hands to the real refiners

Well, with only 2-3 kg of scrap silver, you're not going to be dealing directly with large refiners. You accumulate 2-3 kg. The next guy up the line accumulate 20-30 kg. The next guy accumulates 200-300 kg. When someone gets up to a few truckloads a month, they can get the attention of the "real refiners". That's just the way business works.

Dave

 

[Anzelmas]

I know a little about how business work. But silver is not potatoes that can be bought in tons...

 

[4metals]

I know a little about how business work. But silver is not potatoes that can be bought in tons...

I’ve set up electrolytic Silver refineries producing 100,000 oz a week. That’s 3.1 tons per week. They don’t keep that beast working by feeding it 2 or 3 kilos at a time. Believe what you were told and go to a collector.

 

[Zhazham]

I might be interested. Living in Helsinki, Finland. At the moment i'm traveling in Asia but be back after a month. If you don't find a buyer at closer range, contact me. Usually scrap silver sell well in sites like blocket.se.

 

[swaminair]

Just try it yourself in the time you wasted on searching and mailing,you sure would have been tired, it's better to learn the process and do it yourself which makes you better learned and enriches your hobby.Finding refiners of tiny quantity is like hitting the wall with head.
so best is to refine.

 

[justinhcase]

I’ve set up electrolytic Silver refineries producing 100,000 oz a week. That’s 3.1 tons per week. They don’t keep that beast working by feeding it 2 or 3 kilos at a time. Believe what you were told and go to a collector.
View attachment 51806
View attachment 51807

I can recognize most of the kit.
But what are the sixteen or seventeen stainless steel units underneath the gantry, conical shape with bright orange high-pressure pipework/large manual valves top bottom and viewing ports?

 

[orvi]

I’ve set up electrolytic Silver refineries producing 100,000 oz a week. That’s 3.1 tons per week. They don’t keep that beast working by feeding it 2 or 3 kilos at a time. Believe what you were told and go to a collector.
View attachment 51806
View attachment 51807

Yeah. Pretty awesome experience. I´ve seen something similar, but sadly, only copper electrolytic plant

 

[4metals]

But what are the sixteen or seventeen stainless steel units underneath the gantry, conical shape with bright orange high-pressure pipework/large manual valves top bottom and viewing ports?

Justin,

Below is a photo of one of those drop valves straight on. The cells in these units all have tapered bottoms which drop the silver needles into these valves. The way they operate is while the cell is producing silver the top valve remains open, allowing the needles to fall into the chamber below. When the chamber is filling up, as observed through the porthole, the top valve is closed and the bottom valves is opened, dumping the harvest into a collection vessel which allows the silver to be collected and the electrolyte returned to the cells. There is also a rinse valve to prevent needles from gumming up the seal on the valves. Once the silver is harvested, the bottom valve is closed and the top valve opened until the next harvest, usually 24 hours. These valves are large because they have to hold a little less than 1200 ounces generated every 24 hours. They are designed to hold at least double that because who wants to go to work to harvest silver on a weekend. Operators of these cells quickly realize that the most difficult day to harvest is Monday because the drop valve is pretty full. Daily harvesting with these types of valves is the most effective way to go during the week and dealing with it over weekends allows for weekends off.

Justin,
I notice that you blow up photo's to their maximum size to see what information you can glean from close observation. That habit has also served me well.

 

[4metals]

The system pictured above is from a large producer, actually there were 2 of these systems on site. The systems utilizing these dump valves are always on a raised deck with the valves emptying below. For smaller producers they are available in systems with weekly capacities of 6,000 oz per week, 12,000 oz per week and up to 24,000 oz per week. Those systems look like the photo below.
And all of these systems were manufactured in Italy by Italimpianti.

The 2 cells are on the left, the sump is next to them on the right and the right side is the power supply. This is a. 6000 oz per week system. And the dump valves look like this;

These smaller valves expect to see about 430 oz in a 24 hour period, and again can accommodate filling over a weekend.

 

[4metals]

While I'm at it I may as well include systems for the smaller producer running at 3,000 oz per week. These systems are all on the floor level and the silver crystals are manually raked out of a trough in the front. This is the system all covered up and running. The harvesting tool is shown to the right leaning against the wall.


The top of the unit looks like this, which is a good view of the buss bars and agitators that break off the needles.

And this is the trough in front that the Silver crystals are scooped out of.

Hopefully these images can give you an idea of what some of the commercial Moebius cells look like.

OH, and for Anzelmas, the original poster, with 2 - 3 kg of silver, the guy you are looking for likely has one of the smaller systems.