whoknows52
Full Member
- #1
Thread Owner
Whats the deal on HGE (electroplate) and gold filled....is there a market for this stuff as scrap...and if so, who is buying?
Need a lil info
- Thread starter whoknows52
- Start date
jewelerdave
Hero Member
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2007
- Messages
- 848
- Reaction score
- 96
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Fort Collins, Colorado
- Detector(s) used
- I just follow my nose!...where the silver and gold goes!
Minelab 5000, Goldmaster, and a few others
XRF spectrometer, Common sense.
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
ahh, found it.
There is a market for it, and it is recoverable. However to make it worth while to recover, you need a lot of it. And I mean a whole bunch. Plate is the worst. we are not talking ounces, we are talking pounds if you want an "average" recovery. It will even at $1000 gold just be worth it. If you have it by the bucket, then it can be worth doing.
Gold filled, It entirely depends on how much fill is left.
Yes, it may have once held 1/20th 14k etc when it was new. But once worn. Its the gold thats going away. Results will be all over the map. It should in theory be about %2 fine gold by weight, But figure half a % if that.
Again, to process in pounds, sometimes worth while. Otherwise if you just have a few pieces. Never going to be enough to do anything with.
I have heard more horror stories of people sending in a few pounds of plate and end up owing the refiner money to process it out.
In fact most good refiners wont take it as they dont want to jeopardize there reputations. They are businesses and the best way to do business is repeat business. If you have a 5 to 55 gallon drum of stuff to run. Then they will take interest or at least do it. If its a coffee can of stuff, dont bother. It may take a lifetime of looking to make it worth while to do plate. Filled, get a few pounds, maybe 10 pounds before you consider it. Send in one pound and you may get back $20 if your lucky.
There are many hobby gold refiners out there that do process this stuff for there own curiosity. However the yields are always unknown and they get what they get. Often spending hours and thousands in equipment to get a small couple gram bead of pure gold.
I have processed small amounts and yes its recoverable, But not worth my time. I just toss my gold filled and plate in a pile and when I get 10 to 20 lbs. Then I will work it. But I never pay for the stuff, Its always included in lots I buy. Or things that are acquired when I tell clients that its not worth dealing with, and they just give it too me. The other problem with a lot of gold plate and Filled is often it is mixed with steel. this complicates the refining and can also skew results as when you put it into an acid bath the gold you just dissolved into solution will want to plate back out onto the steel. Adding to the low yield.
Placing a rod of iron or steel into a metal bearing solution is how you get ALL the metals out of solution. Copper, Gold etc. There is a mine in Montana that gets copper by useing junk scrap iron in metal bearing acidic water. The metals plate out, grow on the iron, then are blasted off with high pressure water, and recovered and refined. Smart way to take two pollutants and make them useful, more clean, and profit from it.
But a pain in the behind if your trying to recover just the gold.
There is a market for it, and it is recoverable. However to make it worth while to recover, you need a lot of it. And I mean a whole bunch. Plate is the worst. we are not talking ounces, we are talking pounds if you want an "average" recovery. It will even at $1000 gold just be worth it. If you have it by the bucket, then it can be worth doing.
Gold filled, It entirely depends on how much fill is left.
Yes, it may have once held 1/20th 14k etc when it was new. But once worn. Its the gold thats going away. Results will be all over the map. It should in theory be about %2 fine gold by weight, But figure half a % if that.
Again, to process in pounds, sometimes worth while. Otherwise if you just have a few pieces. Never going to be enough to do anything with.
I have heard more horror stories of people sending in a few pounds of plate and end up owing the refiner money to process it out.
In fact most good refiners wont take it as they dont want to jeopardize there reputations. They are businesses and the best way to do business is repeat business. If you have a 5 to 55 gallon drum of stuff to run. Then they will take interest or at least do it. If its a coffee can of stuff, dont bother. It may take a lifetime of looking to make it worth while to do plate. Filled, get a few pounds, maybe 10 pounds before you consider it. Send in one pound and you may get back $20 if your lucky.
There are many hobby gold refiners out there that do process this stuff for there own curiosity. However the yields are always unknown and they get what they get. Often spending hours and thousands in equipment to get a small couple gram bead of pure gold.
I have processed small amounts and yes its recoverable, But not worth my time. I just toss my gold filled and plate in a pile and when I get 10 to 20 lbs. Then I will work it. But I never pay for the stuff, Its always included in lots I buy. Or things that are acquired when I tell clients that its not worth dealing with, and they just give it too me. The other problem with a lot of gold plate and Filled is often it is mixed with steel. this complicates the refining and can also skew results as when you put it into an acid bath the gold you just dissolved into solution will want to plate back out onto the steel. Adding to the low yield.
Placing a rod of iron or steel into a metal bearing solution is how you get ALL the metals out of solution. Copper, Gold etc. There is a mine in Montana that gets copper by useing junk scrap iron in metal bearing acidic water. The metals plate out, grow on the iron, then are blasted off with high pressure water, and recovered and refined. Smart way to take two pollutants and make them useful, more clean, and profit from it.
But a pain in the behind if your trying to recover just the gold.
silverthorn
Jr. Member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2008
- Messages
- 56
- Reaction score
- 0
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Detector(s) used
- Old willow divining rod... No more wire hangers !!
I've been getting about $1 for a plated chain or equivalent from GOLDKIT.COM. I think they are overpaying me!
whoknows52
Full Member
- #4
Thread Owner
Thanx JD...your a fountain of knowledge..LOL
Top Member Reactions
-
2317 -
1490 -
1355 -
1325 -
1091 -
1031 -
923 -
830 -
733 -
593 -
586 -
581 -
541 -
502 -
477
