Sit back there, cowboy. If you're serious, then you have a lot of work to do. Mostly reading. Do yourself a huge favor and put everything aside until you know exactly what you need to do. That may prevent you from losing values in the long run. As long as your values are safely stored in a box on a shelf, you won't lose any. Start by reading Hoke's book. It's a free download here on the forum. Then read the sections of the forum dealing with safety and waste disposal. Recovering all the silver and gold in the world won't do you a bit of good if you, a family member, or neighbor dies from the fumes or the chemicals you are using.
Many people just like you have jumped in and started experimenting only to make a huge mess that they have to dig themselves out of. In the long run, their mistakes have cost the time, money, and the chemicals which they bought and didn't need. Trust me on this because I speak from experience. The forum is full of posts just like yours from others who have made the same mistakes.
EVERYTHING you need to know to process your contacts is right here. Nobody will sit here and waste they're time repeating for you what they have repeated time and time again for almost every other person who has come here. On this forum, the onus is on you. You want answers? Then you must be willing to show us that you are truly interested in learning about recovery and refining of precious metal whether it be just one metal or a whole spectrum of precious metals by putting forth the effort to learn the various processes and how they work.
While you're at it, read the announcements section which is usually found at the top of every forum section. It is there for a reason. Those in control of the forum (certainly not me) do not like abusive language, foul language, texting lingo, or for that matter posts written in all caps. It is considered shouting, and is not acceptable. Also, be as precise in your writings as possible. Although they are spelled almost the same, there is a huge difference between sodium metabisulfite and sodium metabisulfate. If you are trying to precipitate gold from a solution, one will work and one simply will do nothing.
Welcome to the forum. Pictures are nice as well. You say you have a very large quantity of these silver copper electrical contacts. To me, a pound would be a lot. To others on the forum, a couple of tons would be a lot. Don't expect more than what is reasonable. A pound of AMC CPU's for example will not yield a pound and a half of gold. Nor will it yield a pound of gold, or even a half pound of gold. If your lucky and do things right, you might get 1.1 grams of gold.
If you're serious about recovering silver from your contacts, you've come to the right place. Do some reading and then start asking your questions. All the answers you could ever need are right here, you just have to do a little digging.
