kurtak
Well-known member
ashir
First - sorry I have not posted more - just been to busy
Kevin
you posted -----
200 g of silver for 5 kg ash is not even close to enough silver to get good collection of metal in a smelt
using such a VERY small amount of collector metal in a smelt WILL result in "small" beads of metal "hanging up" in the slag --- which mean "loss" of metal in the slag
There NEEDS to be enough metal in the "smelt load" for "all" the metal to come together when the load becomes molten
The smelt load - is the total weight of all component's going into the furnace
The components of your load are --- the ash being smelted - plus - the flux - plus - the collector metal
To "insure" that you get "complete" collection of the metal in the smelt you want the load to be "at least" 30% metal
That means for every kg (1,000 grams) in the load - 300 grams needs to be silver (your collector)
Your ratio of flux to ash needs to be 2 parts flux to 1 part ash
So here is an example of a kg smelt load ----------
233.333 grams ash - plus - 466.666 grams flux - plus - 300 grams collector metal (silver) equals 1,000 grams smelt load
This is why you "need" to concentrate the ash as much as possible --- if you don't concentrate the ash - you will need to use a HUGE amount of collector (silver) & "many" smelt loads - to collect a SMALL amount of gold
Kurt
First - sorry I have not posted more - just been to busy
Kevin
you posted -----
Amount of silver is related to your amount of concentrate. I think 200g of fine silver powder for 5 kg of ash should be sufficent to do the collection.
200 g of silver for 5 kg ash is not even close to enough silver to get good collection of metal in a smelt
using such a VERY small amount of collector metal in a smelt WILL result in "small" beads of metal "hanging up" in the slag --- which mean "loss" of metal in the slag
There NEEDS to be enough metal in the "smelt load" for "all" the metal to come together when the load becomes molten
The smelt load - is the total weight of all component's going into the furnace
The components of your load are --- the ash being smelted - plus - the flux - plus - the collector metal
To "insure" that you get "complete" collection of the metal in the smelt you want the load to be "at least" 30% metal
That means for every kg (1,000 grams) in the load - 300 grams needs to be silver (your collector)
Your ratio of flux to ash needs to be 2 parts flux to 1 part ash
So here is an example of a kg smelt load ----------
233.333 grams ash - plus - 466.666 grams flux - plus - 300 grams collector metal (silver) equals 1,000 grams smelt load
This is why you "need" to concentrate the ash as much as possible --- if you don't concentrate the ash - you will need to use a HUGE amount of collector (silver) & "many" smelt loads - to collect a SMALL amount of gold
Kurt