Recovery gold or silver from antique adobe furnace

[ALEX LOPEZ]

Hi everyone


Here in Mexico , I find a lot of lead from old adobe furnaces , the furnaces dates year 1800s , Im looking a method to recover the gold or silver , thanks.

 

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[onfire]

2000 degrees and some ash

 

[goldsilverpro]

An old standard way is the Parkes process (Google). I think it was used extensively in Mexico. In general terms (the actual process is more complicated and requires specialized equipment), the lead is melted and some zinc is stirred in. The zinc collects the gold and silver and comes to the top. This is skimmed off and treated further to separate the gold and silver. The melting points of both lead and zinc are less than 700F, but the operating temperature would be somewhat higher, surely not 2000F, though. Due to the lead fumes, this is a very dangerous process without proper exhaust. I have read that the people doing the skimming in the old days didn't live too long. The hotter the lead, the more fumes.

There are other methods (large scale cupellation, e.g.) but all I can think of require molten lead. Personally, I would forget about using any of them. Too dangerous!

 

[Sammy14]

Thanks for your useful information. It was very informative.