Strange pieces - Does anybody know wether they have precious metals or not ?

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Uciocciu

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 30, 2018
Messages
53
Hi guys,

Ciocciu is back !

My way of speaking and writing English language has not changed...
It' is always funny.šŸ˜„

Seriously, I would like to know wether there could be some precious metals within the pieces I scrapped yesterday.
See attached.

Thank you in advance,

U Ciocciu ( which) means " the ow in Corsican Language3.jpg2.jpg1.jpg:giggle:l")
 
Looks like aluminum. Drop them in a small bit of HCL. My guess is youā€™ll only have some slimy film left over.
 
The little 'hot dogs' can be deceptive. The leads attached to the electrodes are often nickel-plated and so are magnetic. But the electrodes themselves may NOT be! I found that out from very carefully scraping off the leads from the electrodes. Sure enough, some of the clean capacitor electrodes weren't magnetic, and thus silver or palladium!
 
First photos no value in PM. Use your snips regularly, just like in the case of the first two pieces. If you see roll of foil, toss it into the bin. Ceramic is obvious and you cannot miss it. Also silver-tantalum.

I usually test ceramic caps with acid. I crush few of them to the composition resembling sand, add few drops of nitric and let it react on heat. If necessary, add more nitric till reaction is gone. Then, add few drops of HCL and cook for few more minutes. If you want, before adding HCL you can test for Ag, but I donĀ“t do it. Mixed batches always contain silver, and I am not specifically after few grams of Ag.
If there are detectable PMs (PdPt), you will see positive stannous test. Some high-yielding Pd caps are obvious just from the look on the colour of the solution. Nickel ones together with copper legs colour the solution to the greenish hue. If Pd is present, you will clearly see dirty brown-green colour, result from mixing red-brown Pd and greenish CuNi.
 
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