SMB or ferrus sulphate

[andees78]

hello

found SMB = 52 USD/500g
ferrus sulphate = 44 USD/500g

is SMB a must or i can use ferrus?

 

[Harold_V]

hello

found SMB = 52 USD/500g
ferrus sulphate = 44 USD/500g

is SMB a must or i can use ferrus?

Those prices are totally unreasonable.

Harold

 

[andees78]

yes harold you are right. but thats the only thing i have now. maybe i will wait until i find another source. in where i live i cant just go to a hardware store or household supply store and find common chemicals like stump or concrete cleaners, i have to go to a chemical supplier. even i thought about buying ferrus from fertlizer shop and the smallest they have is a 50 kilo bag.
but tell me just to eleminate choices, do smb and ferrus s. do the same job?

 

[andees78]

There's no need to buy pills when you can buy a fairly large bag of ferrous sulfate from a good garden supply store. What you'd pay for an ounce of pills would likely buy a couple pounds of the material, and you'd have to process the pills in order to make them work properly. Worst of all, pills likely have a filler material, so you'd be adding unwanted crap to your gold. Stick to the real product in this case-----use pills only if you can't find anything else to serve as a precipitant.

Harold

sorry harold am just trying to find the best price for a precipitant, as i dont want to buy fifty kilo fertlizer or half kilo for
44 us dollars. so you mentioned here that one can use pills. please, tell me how?

 

[Claudie]

Can you order the chemicals you need online & have them shipped to you?

 

[andees78]

hello claudie
i think it can be done, though i never ordered anything online. i will keep that as plan b. thanks

 

[Claudie]

It sounds to me like you could save a lot of money that way. I buy many things online, it's really pretty simple.
I found some stump out for you to look at, hope this idea helps you.
http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/productdetails.aspx?sku=72769&source=GoogleBase

 

[andees78]

thanks claudie.

 

[philddreamer]

Hi Andees!

SMB is also used in the making of beer & wine as a preservative. Any brewery supplies store near you? I know you live in Sudan & maybe not.

 

[Harold_V]

yes harold you are right. but thats the only thing i have now. maybe i will wait until i find another source. in where i live i cant just go to a hardware store or household supply store and find common chemicals like stump or concrete cleaners, i have to go to a chemical supplier. even i thought about buying ferrus from fertlizer shop and the smallest they have is a 50 kilo bag.

That's the deal to explore. If the material isn't brown, and it isn't terribly expensive, go for it. Having too much is a lot better than not having enough. If you can examine the contents, as long as there's green crystals in the bag, it will work. It it has oxidized, it will have turned brown, and will no longer function to precipitate gold.

It would be a good idea to store the material in tight jars once you make the purchase. It has a long shelf life if you can keep it dry.

but tell me just to eleminate choices, do smb and ferrus s. do the same job?

Yes, they both do the same thing, precipitate gold. Unless you use SO2 gas from a cylinder, instead of SMB, there is no particular reason to not use ferrous sulfate.
Do remember---if you can purchase sulfuric acid, you can make your own ferrous sulfate. Dissolve steel (angle iron, for example) until you have saturated the solution. Filter, to remove solids, then allow the solution to grow crystals, or you can use it as a liquid.

Be certain to read Hoke, where there are instructions for the use of ferrous sulfate.

Ferrous sulfate, from pills, isn't a good idea. The pills would have to be crushed, dissolved, filtered, then used. There is precious little iron in a pill----it is, primarily, a huge amount of filler. It would be a very expensive (and inconvenient) way to procure ferrous sulfate.

Harold

 

[Oz]

If you are purchasing ferrous sulfate and sodium metabisulfate you need to take into account that it requires about twice the amount of ferrous than it does SMB to precipitate a given quantity of gold when doing a cost comparison.

If access to chemicals is the issue, it is simple to make your own ferrous sulfate. I cannot imagine many places where you cannot find iron and battery acid.

I personally prefer SMB because the gold precipitate from ferrous is very fine and a bit sticky. You need to be a bit more careful in your washing techniques as well when using ferrous as iron is rather injurious to gold. Fortunately it washes out well.

 

[andees78]

thanks everyone