Silver Reclaiming

Try a jeweller who casts, perhaps? I carried a few ounces of powder which I electrolized out of AgCl around for several years (nobody, including me, was very much convinced it had really worked right, as it dodn't look much like silver), and then finally hooked up with someone with a torch ('twas in my youth, I was poorly equipped), whereupon I got a big lump of identifiable metal. Have to do something with that one of these days, though I suppose it will be quite soft, as it should be essentially pure.

That makes no sense. Silver chloride is a white substance that is photo sensitive. Silver can not be in solution in the presence of chlorine, it is precipitated as silver chloride. Can you better describe what you have? Did it come from photographic solutions? There are precious metal refineries that will buy from you, but it would be a good idea to know what you have before making any decisions. Luckily (for you), most of the refiners are on the East coast.

Harold

"Dan White" wrote: (clip) Does anybody know of a company (preferably in NJ) who buys stuff like this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Check with a large print shop or X-ray lab, and find out where they recycle their used film.

Hmm. OK. I precipitated it out of solution about 20 years ago, so my memory might be off. I had another solution, which I know for sure was gold chloride, which I recall was AuCl3. I thought it was also a silver chloride, but if you say it is insoluble I'll believe you. What about silver nitrate? I thought that was the one used for photography. I'll have to see if I have any old bottles with a label on it. It came from a high school lab. (OK I stole it just to see if I could get gold and silver). The gold chloride bottle was very small and I only got a little gold, but that was one heavy little bottle!

Are these refineries online? I may be dense but I don't seem to be able to find quite the right thing.

thanks, dwhite

Yes, I was surprised to learn that gold comes in many colors like black and I think even purple. If you dry out the "sludge" of gold or silver and press it with the tip of a screwdriver you can see the typical color come out in the pressed metal.

dwhite

OK, thanks,

dwhite

Silver chloride is soluble in ammonium hydroxide, which is an excellent test to distinguish it from lead sulfate. Silver nitrate would be a definite yes. One could easily remove silver from a nitrate solution by electrolysis. I used silver nitrate as the electrolyte for parting silver when I refined precious metals.

Gold chloride is readily soluble in water, so that one makes all kinds of sense. The fact that silver and gold can't be in solution together except in a basic solution is one of the things that makes separating the two metals so easy. Recovering the gold can be as easy as reducing the chloride with zinc, or it can be precipitated with many other reagents, including sulfur dioxide, which was my choice.

Here's a couple links for refiners or brokers that may be interested in dealing with what you have.

Good luck!

Harold

My guess it is silver chloride that electric current was passed through and liberated the chlorine gas and plating silver on electrodes.

Hum.

Mart>>Hi. I'm not sure if this is the right newsgroup, but I'll try:

EASTERN SMELTING & REFINING CORP

37-39 Bubier Street Lynn, Massachusetts United States, 01901 Phone: +1 617 599-9000 Fax: +1 617 598-4880

Beware of this company though. I have never used them, the talk around the trade is that they take honesty not all that seriously. It's the only one I could find though.

I send my refining scrap to David H. Fell in Los Angeles.

Abrasha

Interestingly, I did have one business dealing with them and they conveniently *found* only half the metal that was known to be in the material submitted to them. I couldn't endorse them in clear conscience.

Harold

Hmm. Kind of a double edged sword. I'll give them a call and see what happens.

thanks, dwhite

Not insoluble in hot ammmonia solution. Been there, done that, researched a means of getting it dissolved, got the lump of silver.

Or try these people:

I do business with Hoover and Strong. I buy metal from them. I have never used them for refining my scrap.

Abrasha

It doesn't even have to be hot. I mentioned above that it is soluble in ammonium hydroxide. You could have easily reduced your silver chloride by putting in a piece of aluminum and a little HCL. I recovered a lot of my silver as chloride when extracting the gold and platinum group metals from the silver cell slimes. I reduced the chloride by the aluminum method. By using large pieces instead of small bits, you can remove that which is not consumed in the process, a necessary evil in order to minimize contamination by aluminum.

Harold

thanks a bunch.

dwhite

(preferably

Thanks for the suggestions.

dwhite