Stock pot (everything, including the kitchen sink)

[Refinerjohn]

Hello, I’m John. I’ve got a few got a question about what’s going on with my stock pot. I’ve been refining now for a good number of years but in this world, I’m still learning all the time.

Anyhow, I suppose I’ll start by saying the first year or so I was refining. I was ignorant to really digging into the meat and bones of it all. I researched the basics and that was about it. I knew I wasn’t supposed to dump chemicals down the drain so I saved them. So I’ve got two buckets I’ve been moving around the shop and ignoring/dreading until now. I’m planning on getting the solution into fresh buckets as I can’t speak to the integrity of the buckets it’s in now and figure now is the best time to take care of them.
At that time I was putting everything in them. My gold waste/silver waste and whatever else might have been tested out at that time went right into those bad larrys, probably a little spent stannous and AP solutions. They’re kind of a chemical medley of sorts. If I had it to get rid of it went in.

So my question is, can I precipitate out on copper and process like I would normally handle my stock pot materials or is there an extra step or two that might make it a little easier?
Or if there’s a thought to how the stannous or AP solutions might affect the outcome, that’d be cool too.
I don’t want to take any chances so any insight or advice will be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Golddigger76]

To start off did you add any waste like sodium hydroxide for the lye sugar method ?

If so you'll need the waste to be acidic so you can cement any precious metals out of solution with copper.

 

[eaglekeeper]

Hello, I’m John. I’ve got a few got a question about what’s going on with my stock pot. I’ve been refining now for a good number of years but in this world, I’m still learning all the time.

Anyhow, I suppose I’ll start by saying the first year or so I was refining. I was ignorant to really digging into the meat and bones of it all. I researched the basics and that was about it. I knew I wasn’t supposed to dump chemicals down the drain so I saved them. So I’ve got two buckets I’ve been moving around the shop and ignoring/dreading until now. I’m planning on getting the solution into fresh buckets as I can’t speak to the integrity of the buckets it’s in now and figure now is the best time to take care of them.
At that time I was putting everything in them. My gold waste/silver waste and whatever else might have been tested out at that time went right into those bad larrys, probably a little spent stannous and AP solutions. They’re kind of a chemical medley of sorts. If I had it to get rid of it went in.

So my question is, can I precipitate out on copper and process like I would normally handle my stock pot materials or is there an extra step or two that might make it a little easier?
Or if there’s a thought to how the stannous or AP solutions might affect the outcome, that’d be cool too.
I don’t want to take any chances so any insight or advice will be appreciated.
Thanks.

Were you concerned about recovering the copper or do you want to drop everything out?

Here where I live, we have what they call "Amnesty day". If I remember correctly, it's twice a year where the residents can dispose of all their chemical wastes....no questions ask. Just don't roll up there with a 55-gallon drum, they consider that commercial waste and probably will not take it. Check with your county office and see if that program (or similar) is available in your county.

 

[Refinerjohn]

To start off did you add any waste like sodium hydroxide for the lye sugar method ?

If so you'll need the waste to be acidic so you can cement any precious metals out of solution with copper.

there’s no lye/sugar. I didn’t want to mess around at the time. I mostly cemented out on copper if I thought there was enough silver to after after dropping gold from a solution. But most of the time I just added without retrieving anything else.
I’m hesitant to let it go because I didn’t have a temporary storage after smb so I’m kinda mostly curious as to how much gold made its way in there.

 

[Refinerjohn]

Were you concerned about recovering the copper or do you want to drop everything out?

Here where I live, we have what they call "Amnesty day". If I remember correctly, it's twice a year where the residents can dispose of all their chemical wastes....no questions ask. Just don't roll up there with a 55-gallon drum, they consider that commercial waste and probably will not take it. Check with your county office and see if that program (or similar) is available in your county.

I don’t want the copper after.. maybe. Haha I’ve been thinking about trying to recover the copper in my iron buckets but mostly just for my own amusement. I’m definitely not attached to it.

I was thinking if I can drop everything that’s in them out I could go after specific metals and leave whatever I can in solution, if I can and then going to the next step of waste treatment.
But it may be more trouble than it’s worth for sure.

 

[Alondro]

Sreetips is doing a new series of videos processing his stockpot wastes. It's very informative, especially showing how difficult separating and dropping low concentrations of PGMs can be, even when you have good equipment and know what you're doing!

 

[Refinerjohn]

I took a small sample of solution from each bucket and added some some copper shavings to it and let it sit for a while. I ended up with this nasty looking deep red/brownish paste. My first thought was iron, but copper is less reactive so that wouldn’t make much sense I suppose.
It’s like a thick pudding crusty pudding.
If anyone’s got any idea on it, im open.
Thanks.

 

[Alondro]

I took a small sample of solution from each bucket and added some some copper shavings to it and let it sit for a while. I ended up with this nasty looking deep red/brownish paste. My first thought was iron, but copper is less reactive so that wouldn’t make much sense I suppose.
It’s like a thick pudding crusty pudding.
If anyone’s got any idea on it, im open.
Thanks.

Mix in a few human souls and you'll get a Philosopher's Stone! :O

 

[Martijn]

I took a small sample of solution from each bucket and added some some copper shavings to it and let it sit for a while. I ended up with this nasty looking deep red/brownish paste. My first thought was iron, but copper is less reactive so that wouldn’t make much sense I suppose.
It’s like a thick pudding crusty pudding.
If anyone’s got any idea on it, im open.
Thanks.

Dissolve in AR and test with stannous. When cemented on copper, you have only a couple of possibilities imo.