where does the refiner make money

[Ayham Hafez]

I'm not proficient in cupelling.
But what I have read is that Copper is not wanted on the button since it do not oxidize well under the cupelling conditions.
Additionally I believe the oxide do not permeate well into the cupel itself.

Really interesting, if copper will not be oxidize that mean we can use lead for purifying copper anodes in same time lead is a very good collector metal.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Really interesting, if copper will not be oxidize that mean we can use lead for purifying copper anodes in same time lead is a very good collector metal.

I did not say Copper do not Oxidize, because it does.
But the way and conditions it oxidize under do not fit well with Cupelling.
It will destroy/foul the cupel relatively fast I believe.
Lets hear from the more experienced folks here.

 

[Ayham Hafez]

I did not say Copper do not Oxidize, because it does.
But the way and conditions it oxidize under do not fit well with Cupelling.
It will destroy/foul the cupel relatively fast I believe.
Lets hear from the more experienced folks here.

One professional refiner told me that 1 Kg of lead oxide only oxidize 200 gram of copper, in some countries they try to fully oxidize copper cause nitric acid is expensive and they don't use copper cell, so they use too much lead, and they have cupellation furnace design that can make cupollation of 200 kg of lead per batch

 

[Shark]

Under some conditions the copper will oxidize at a higher rate only after other metals are removed. Similar to sparging a melt. As some metals are removed it leaves enough oxygen to allow higher metals to oxidize and then be taken up by the flux’s. You really should read up on 4 metals posts on smelting and the ones on copper cells. They will give greater understanding of how the smelting side works even if you never use a cell.

 

[Goldenrod757]

maybe those remote controls are for the fellers that lose them. i wouldnt put more than five cents worth of gold on them there remotes. they are worthless. they should give em away for free. i see them at my local thrift store for a buck a piece. are they crazy or something? sheesh! people sometimes. they need to get rid of their pricer. why would the price at thrift stores go up?

Thats just The Market Effect. Demand is King. Cost and price relationship vary a lot. Sometimes is just about analysing labour not worth it to the individual or the need for speed of resolution.

 

[Owltech]

Cu : Pb ratio should be 1 : 20 or Cu <5% in order to completely remove it during cupelling in one go... At least those were my observations. If Sn is present I use NaOH and NaNO3 to remove the tin oxide layer which hinders the cupellation process otherwise no flux is added.

 

[Ayham Hafez]

Cu : Pb ratio should be 1 : 20 or Cu <5% in order to completely remove it during cupelling in one go... At least those were my observations. If Sn is present I use NaOH and NaNO3 to remove the tin oxide layer which hinders the cupellation process otherwise no flux is added.

Thanks for your input, I already tested it with mentioned ratio and its work well, since I don't have enough silver I just stop cupellation before lead fully oxidized then use dilute nitric to dissolve lead and get gold, but I don't know how Asians do cupellation and got copper alloy, there are many videos doing that, after many tests I got copper alloy similar but don't know how, I only used 3 parts lead and 1 part E-waste alloy.