"It's really goopy down there." For those of you wondering, I am a Chemist and I can assure you that "Goopy" is in fact the correct term for that material.🤣🤣🤣
@@jakeeasterwood3204 My favorite term, and it's the one that drives the engineers crazy is "squiggly." As in, "We can't accurately model this vein because it is too squiggly." The reality is that I have it modeled in 3d to a gnat's ass, but I just like to watch the engineers reactions.
You’re welcome. I’d like to thank you for your clear concise instructional video library that covers all aspects of refining. It seems almost all of the questions you receive have been thoroughly covered in previous posts. Thank you Sir!👍👍🤟
Really enjoying all the silver stuff lately. Plus…anticipating a filter processing series! As always thanks for doing this stuff for everyone to enjoy. Endlessly fascinating and a lot of fun to watch. Enjoy your Memorial Day!
Hey sreetips you should just melt all the anode basket filters up into one big bar and hit it with an xrf gun so we can see what ends up leftover then granulate it and process it. At least that way you won't have to fight with all that carbon from the filters all the way threw the refining process!
This makes me wonder about the natural formation of silver ore and electron flow within associated minerals and the natural telluric current of the earth.
possible suggestion: use multiple ‘levels’ of cementation buckets to recover silver (transferring solutions from one cementation bucket to the next until it reaches the waste disposal). This method minimizes silver loss, while not taking too much time and effort 🤔
Can you imagine this being your your middle school / high school chemistry classes. I always liked chemistry anyway but this would have taken it to a whole other level.
I'm addicted to learning and I ALWAYS learn many new pieces of knowledge from every single video you produce I just can't get enough you could refine pot ash and make it knowledgeable and entertaining thank you for the countless terabytes of top shelf knowledge for all to learn from ... I can only imagine all the amazing job offers you've had and currently get
BTW, thanks again for all the inspiring videos. I have really learned a lot! Spent 6 hrs last night watching the platinum series. Wow! I can't imagine the work these videos must entail.
I wonder if you could puncture like a few more filter holes in the same container lid while giving enough space for Silver Crystal growth & cranking up the current by the amount of filters you've got and just feed those from the main cable. For low amperage you wouldn't need to replace the main cable but if you end up adding many filters I'd use a thicker main cable for safety measures in case it gets hot by the current. If this works then it could speed up the recovery process immensely. Also, I love your videos man, great work ! The way you explain everything always leaves me in awe.
As a vet, I can say it's not about us it about those who paid to Ultimate price and didn't come home. Not trying to be that guy but we get veteran's day. The fallin get memorial day. But thank you for your service.
I think the process of purifying the slimes/slimebags is the only operational phase we haven't seen you perform. Of course, I am happy to be able to properly use the word "slimebag". You have a fair number of hundreds of $$ in silver tied up in those anode baskets until the day they are liberated.
I got a large glass lemonade pitcher, with glass stir stick from the thrift stores for 25% off $7. Planning to use it for refining my gold filled material...someday.
The dual set up.. the numbers being inconsistent drives me crazy 😂 but I'm learning. I am truly grateful you are educating myself and so many others. Great science being shared.
Hey.. I guess if you can fish out or simply wash out the undissolved impure silver shots before nitric treatment.. You will save a lot on the nitric consumption while recovering gold and other pgm's from those anode baskets.. Lots of love❤ from India🇮🇳
I can't wait to watch the recovery of the precious metals from your old filter baskets! That's going to be fascinating. I'm really curious to see how much gold you can actually find in them since so much impure silver goes through each filter.
@@gordonburns8731 His channel wouldn't be growing the way it is if all he posted was the same vanilla video (turning scrap jewelry into a .999 ingot) again and again. Unpredictable yields, challenges and new techniques make for truly interesting content. Sreetips and most of his longtime viewers are fully aware that this recovery won't even net him minimum wage, but we aren't here to watch someone make money, we're here watch cool chemistry and learn. He'll end up with a bead of gold, a bead platinum-group metals, a few ounces of silver, liters of waste and thousands of happy viewers. This time, the journey is more important than the destination.
Sreetips, thanks for these awesome videos, I just stumbled upon your channel recently. My question is, where are you getting the material that has all this gold, platinum etc, and silver? My interest is in getting my hands on silver, but the other metals would be a nice perk. Thank you and enjoy your weekend!
Silver (and some white gold) are carriers of platinum group metals. But it’s usually trace amounts. They will tend to follow the silver. Ultimately they usually end up in my gold refining stock pot, or as “slimes” in my silver cell anode filters. Then I recover the platinum and palladium and refine them. Rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and Osmium are enigmas to me.
Have you ever thought about adding a cupelling step in your process? Removing the copper first, saving on filters and fluid changes. A little more gas and some bags of Portland cement.
Truly amazing !! I'm learning a lot by watching every video that you have. One question I have. If I don't have in pure silver like you have. What can I use instead? I'm trying to build silver cell setup like you to pay for my son school. Please let me know. Thank you
I’ve used pure silver coins or bars to make the electrolyte. I by sterling silver at local sales. I use it to refine gold. Then I recover the silver from that and run it through my silver cell. Then I add it to my savings and forget about it.
the last time you did the filters, you had a hard time getting all the remaining silver bits to dissolve why not rinse out remaining gunk into a classifier to get the larger silver bits to just put back in impure bucket to be reloaded just a suggestion may be helpful
I like watching how you refine these precious metals. I know that the copper causes the silver to drop out because it is more reactive than silver and displaces it in the solution. Silver is more reactive than gold and platinum so would it be possible/worthwhile to first put a chunk of pure silver into the solution to displace the gold and platinum group metals? Is it possible to separate the metals by first dissolving everything in aqua regia then stepping through pure metal sheets (i.e. first gold to concrete out the platinum, then silver to concrete out the gold and finally copper to concrete out the silver)?
Thank you so much for sharing your vast knowledge I have a question regarding the anode , How much silver shot do you use per run of a bowl till harvesting a bowl of grown silver Thanks in advance Kind regards Sam
Her Streetips, been watching & lurking commenting some too. Wo dering how much $ the electric bill went up running a few amps thru the cells 24/7 from the powersupplies? I have a few lbs of old silicon fast acting high amp fuse clips/ends. Industrial electrician and saved them from hoppers over the years. New ones are plated copper but old ones appear solid silver (industrial grade) that i would like to try this out on. I also have some tear out Type R thermocouples (platinum & platinum/rhodium) would like to refine back to a small ingot/bead. Also have salvaged a bunch of old Electrical Contactor "buttons" that can be refined some way.?
I would make the assumption that the dirty filter just inhibits fluid flow. You could possibly increase efficiency by adding a small pump to draw electrolyte from the larger part of the cell to pour over the granules.
I'm surprised you didn't get a complete 14 day run on that $10.00 anode basket. Looks like an extra hot distilled water boil wash or two should clean up that impure silver shot a little bit. Alleviating the filter slimes from occurring so fast. Fun stuff Sreetips...
@@williamfoote2888 If you paid attention to what Sreetips said. His impure silver shot is contaminated with mostly copper. At $10.00 a filter. You'll still get the precious metal without clogging the filter full of copper well before a simple 10 to 14 day run.
Second question, when you are doing the refinings, what is your rough expense cost? (Gold and Silver). I am not trying to get into your personal finances just curious how much it costs.
Hi Sreetips, I've been watching your video's for a very long time now, great content as always. I was thinking of getting into refining precious metals myself, but I know many dangerous fumes are given off with the processes. I was wondering about your fume hood and extraction system. The gasses that are sent outside are these treated .. I.e. with carbon filters, etc? I was just wondering about your setup and how it works... On another note, with your silver cells, I am curious and it has been making me ponder for a while now... I've noticed that your silver shot is quite large, would reducing the size of the shot make the process more efficient? Or instead of melting the silver into shot would it be more efficient to just use the cemented out material, if not what are the reasons behind this? One other thing , sorry for all the questions today, what do you do with all your silver refining liquids to make them safe for disposal.? I know the process upto cementing out the copper using iron to get ferrous nitrate, what is done after this? Thank you so much for all the great info 😀 👍 keep up the great work.
Hi @Sreetips The contact me message in this post is not from you is it? If not, I'll report it as a potential scammer link. You don't need scammers in you chat feed! Regards MysticMCWizard
I am having a heck of a time finding nitric acid and don't know what its really worth.. What do you think is a decent price for 67% Nitric (not including shipping)?? BTW have you arrived at a preferred ratio for the electrolyte for the silver cell since the early days? I am trying to make up a batch of electrolyte and kick off a silver cell of my own. Saw your original video back in the day and it really inspired me but have not had the time for a new hobby until recently (got old, LOL). Regards, Dach.
@@sreetips Thanks, just looked. Whew. Not cheap with the shipping but looks decent and definitely reliable quality. BTW, they have an affiliate program that looks real quick and easy to sign up for. Maybe you could generate a few extra biscuits to help with the overhead? Thanks Again, Dach.
What Sreetips uses here to kick the silver out of solution with copper is called the reactivity serie. PMGs (Platinum) is less reactive than gold which is less reactive than silver which is less reactive than copper. So in his silver cell, the gold and PMGs aren't "interested" to disolve because the silver in the silver nitrate is more stable in there. They stay in the basket. But the copper will disolve and kick what it can of the silver out of solution. Basicly he starts with pure silver nitrate that will allow silver ions to disolve and flow to the cathode and form cristals. The copper will remain in solution. If too much copper is present, then the flow of silver would slow down because it can't go less and less into solution anymore and reach the cathode since the copper is more stable in there. When the flow of silver ions becomes too poor, he changes the nitrate solution for a fresh one. When it happens, there's still plenty of silver in solution (but not enough for a good ion flow) and kicks it out with copper. He could the kick copper out with lead or nickel to recover it and make copper ingots, but that's another story (is copper more expensive than lead? yes. about 4 times)
So then would reversing the anode and cathode move the copper out of the solution and back up into the filter basket? ( Assume that the pure Silver Crystals are removed and a fresh filter with impure silver is installed)
What I want to know is how much does it cost for this setup and where do you get the materiel and chemicals. Also, what is the cost per ounce of pure silver?
@@ethanwilson1001 They, theoretically, could be. However, the slimes are rich in platinum group metals, gold and more silver. Recovering them requires the Dacron to be ashed in a furnaces and the metals extracted from the ash. The metal value far exceeds the cost of the filters. The same principle is in play when he ashes all his filter paper that he creates when he filters his raw gold solutions before he gets to the SMB step. The residue on that paper is going to be rich in PGM and maybe some bits of leftover gold and silver. That media is valueless compared to winning more valuable metal product.
What are the baskets themselves made from? Fiberglass or nylon cloth? I imagine cotton or another natural fiber would disintegrate in the nitrate solution? Wonder if you could do an electrode out of very fine stainless mesh or stainless steel wool. and use that to press the impure shot into solution?
Unless you're running on solar, you should be able to automate the process while also expanding the surface area of the reaction (bigger bowl, bigger basket), and If you run the power supply at about 80% of it's maximum output (strict maximum at any point in the reaction) then automate the operation within off-peak hours of your electrical company, you would get maximum yield in the shortest and cheapest amount of time.
They are averaging less than 10 watts. At $0.17 a kwh these cost $14 a YEAR to run. The savings in electricity wouldn't be worth the loss in production speed. He's already made a second cell due to throughput limitations. It wouldn't be worth spending on a third power supply to keep production up just to save less than 5 dollars in electricity a year. You'd never recoup the costs of setting up a third cell. Not even close.
@sreetips: Would it be helpfull to reduce the PGM slimes to include in the process the extra steps which are a) to use pure silver with the silver nitrate solution to precipitate those PGMs, b) then to filter the PGMs precipitates, and then you to the copper to precipitate the silver as usual? I am guessing i could have almost pure silver when melting the silver shots and then much less slime on the silver cell. I other words i am hoping it would work to apply the reactivity series of metals twice on the solution: first to use pure silver to separate PGMs, and then copper to get pure silver. could this work?
I have a question, you that you get your impure silver from processing gold. How much gold did it take to accumulate that much and where did do find your gold?
Hello Mr. Sreetips, thank you for another stupendous video, these are actually lectures to get anyone to build their skills. It is possible to optimize your anode, make it work somewhat fater, and even reduce loss: when replenishing the basked, you add one or two spoons of the shots, then add the silver bar, and then you add other 2 spoons of shots. Instead of ion flow (like an electric circuit) you would have an electromagnetic field and a large volume of ions flowing. You might need to shuffle the shots more often though. Don't remember the equation out the top of my head, if you want I can easily find your current circuitry with the one I am proposing. Just saying.
why did the 2nd silver cell filter get so bad so fast? do you think maybe it's because of whatever material that cutting board you used is made out of? i even see some what looks like some weird blue gel forming on the sides of the container on top of the board, the first silver cell doesn't exhibit such things and its cover seems to be made of a different material
Hey there, new to your channel, but I just wanted to let you know that I've really enjoyed your channel. Also thank you so much for your military service.
At the rate our copper mines are declining vs the massive increase in demand projected over the next decade, copper is going going to be worth recovering pretty soon.
I’m working with precious metals worth thousands per pound. Even if copper were ten bucks a pound, I could see wasting time with it. It’s a base metal.
We go to yard sales, consignment shops, resale stores, estate sales, thrift stores, flea markets. But got to get early and be there first. I’m up at 4am. We will depart at 5am to arrive at 5:30am for a sale that is scheduled to begin at 10am so we can be first in line. It won’t just fall in your lap. It’s work. But the rewards are lucrative.
Please forgive me as I'm not sure if someone has already asked this question. However I am wondering if it is possible to clean the filters by washing etc. then be able to reuse them?
What’s the possibility that a larger than normal slime contamination might be caused by lead that is passed down through all the other refining processes only to once again be recirculated through with the refining of the filter contents? Would sending a sample of the shot for assay help determine if it is a problem? While using lead in jewelry manufacturing is no longer allowed (I believe), it was a common enough practice that a person would have to be incredibly lucky to have never gotten an old piece or two with higher lead content then one would normally find. Just curious.
I use copper to cement the silver. Lead is higher up in the reactivity series of metals so it won’t cement out on the copper the lead will stay in solution.
@Streetips You will have to wait in line to steal my debt. I’m still waiting on a call from the Nigerian Prince. If you are gonna swipe his aviator and pretend to be him, work on your spelling. You got his name wrong you mental puff.
Is it possible to recover the acid and re use it because in norway its har to get and if i can re use the nitric acid i hope you have or can make a video how to do this safe Safety is nr 1 priority 😊 Much love from norway
The acid can’t be reused once it’s been allowed to react. I suppose that there’s a way to recover acid, but it’s costly and inefficient. Be the same as trying to recover the copper. It costs more to recover the used copper than its worth.
You should have cell number one like it is, running the silver to get the pure silver, and THEN have cell number two running the crystals to purify the silver even more until the solution stays clear.
