Silver Refining Process Without Acids

In this video, learn how to refine silver jewelry sweeps by smelting and cupelling without the use of acids. The sweeps are separated into a metallic fraction for direct refining with lead by cupelling. The other silver containing material is first smelted down to a metallic button and then further refined to pure silver. At the end of the video the two buttons are combined into one single silver bar.
Patreon Account: / mbmmllc
Hats, Shirts, & Merch: my-store-c2b49...
AFFILIATE LINKS
What's an affiliate link? If you use our link to buy something, MBMM gets a small percentage of the money you spend. This DOES NOT mean you will spend more money using our link, you will spend the SAME AMOUNT of money while also supporting a small business and channel.
Complete Smelting Kits:
Complete smelting furnace kit: amzn.to/3WdvHHS
Cupelling furnace: amzn.to/42ZOWXV
Fluxes:
Chapman’s flux: amzn.to/3Of4JO0
Anhydrous borax: 1lb amzn.to/3M6EhUh 5lbs amzn.to/3pLRx9i
Silica sand: amzn.to/3Mv0TiG
Soda ash: 1lb amzn.to/41Ctg2N 5lbs amzn.to/3BtrhDg 50lbs amzn.to/3oaI6Qf
Lye: amzn.to/3Mx8OvD
Litharge: amzn.to/3OhtHwi
Lead: amzn.to/3MARq9t
Bismuth: amzn.to/45uuSPk
Smelting Supplies:
Crucibles: #4 amzn.to/3M92QQk 10# amzn.to/42XIsIY fire clay amzn.to/42K3laN
Cupel: amzn.to/437F8L6
Electric furnace: amzn.to/430C6cd
Tongs: amzn.to/3BB2dKp
Heat safe gloves: amzn.to/41MxMeQ
Gold pans: amzn.to/3pRIzra
Gold screens: amzn.to/3pTjo7j
Scales: 0.01 amzn.to/3BB2FZ7 0.001 amzn.to/438NrXh
Magnets: amzn.to/42MFLde
Pan for roasting sulfides: amzn.to/3pNGQTN
Respirator: amzn.to/3IqbclD
Microscope for phone: amzn.to/3OsAdQM
Furnace Building Supplies:
Kaowool: 2” x 12.5’: amzn.to/3BB9IRO 1” x 25” amzn.to/3Wd7ktO
Water glass (sealant): amzn.to/45desuv
Fire bricks: amzn.to/3Ogx86v
Shop vac: amzn.to/434rOXV
Propane: amzn.to/3pTj60d
Propane regulator and burner: amzn.to/3pG4p0w
Refractory cement: amzn.to/3Ok75ex
Underground Mining Equipment:
Hard hat with light clip: amzn.to/3Iss7nL
Head lamp for hard hat: amzn.to/433G5US
Hammer drill: amzn.to/3ofHFUM
Hammer drill bits: amzn.to/3MjLf8A
Safety glasses: amzn.to/439w8Fo
Gloves: amzn.to/45ceXoF
Feather and wedge set: amzn.to/3Om1kNz
Respirator: amzn.to/3IqbclD
Filming Equipment:
Samsung Galaxy 22 Ultra: amzn.to/3ol4nuM
Long tripod: amzn.to/3WpKWgW
Short tripod: amzn.to/3IVYdZl
For more info please email or call:
Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]
Website: mbmmllc.info/253
Facebook: / mbmmllc
Instagram: / mbmmllc
Twitter: / mbmmllc

[@michaeldenison7339]

Thanks for doing this Jason. I decided to keep my pyramid, for now, vs melting it down. What was in this . . . copper slimes from reverse electroplating silver, as well as the silver. Sweeps from a silversmithing class, including filings, snips, and balls. Also . . . a lot of solder chips that are always getting swept up. Plus some contaminated water cast silver with I believe nickle. I removed as much of the magnetic material as possible. Which was from files, broken saw blades, and steel wool.

[@uspockdad6429]

You mention slimes from electroplating silver. I always use electrorefining to purify my silver, and often times end up with a bit of PT group metals in the slimes. Have you had the pyramids tested with an XRF to see if there are any other PMs other than just silver? I’d be curious to see how pure this method actually gets silver.

[@michaeldenison7339]

@@uspockdad6429 Not electrorefining, though I do want to get a set-up to do that, I love the look of silver crystals. This is just putting silver plated items in a salt bath and hooking them up to a battery charger. It gets messy real fast. Those green clumps in the video are the copper + other base metals slimes, or salts.

[@dynomania]

The molten flux as it cools is a thing of beauty 👍

[@j_freeman3230]

It looks like the sun. The mechanics are the same, too.

[@scrotex6592]

@@j_freeman3230 those convection currents!

[@j_freeman3230]

@@scrotex6592 very beautiful, from a safe distance(:

[@aliwitwit2217]

What is the difference between the gas and the electric furnace

[@scrotex6592]

@@aliwitwit2217 you can be more precise with the temperature with the electric

[@joshp6061]

Your videos are always so interesting, you pretty much never see this stuff from industrial let ALONE hearing a competent explanation of the process

[@drennanhutton7864]

I’m just now getting into collecting silver and gold , but this right here is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen !!! I’m gonna try it one of these days

[@mikeconnery4652]

Great video. Thanks for showing the temperature and a nice explination of how this smelting operation workd.

[@Hartcore11]

Thank you for putting out a good stream of videos. They are packed full of information that will save me from making some mistakes in my new hobby.

[@akernelofwheat4016]

Thank you. I came here to understand how God refines His people as silver is refined. Very informative.

[@shaneyork300]

I gotta say that, that was really cool. I've seen several vids on this before but the silver sprouts was something I've never seen! Have a GREAT Day!!!

[@JimNichols]

Amazing video and we are still using chemistry to remove the Ag from the mix, just not HNO3. I love the videos and while I presume I will never use this you have started me on my usual quest for knowledge. I found that Cupellation actually uses this chemical reaction to work Ag(s) + 2Pb(s) + O2(g) → 2PbO(absorbed) + Ag(l) and the first Cupel were made out of bone ashes while the best material was obtained from burned antlers of deer although fish spines could work as well. Amazing to me! Thank you very much!

[@EddieVBlueIsland]

I was told the best Cupel materials were made from human bone.

[@kaiseredge]

I was told to add potassium nitrate to purify the silver further with the same fluxes from a older gentlemen who used to do refining, I may be wrong but it seemed to work last I tried but I was working mainly with sterling and coin silver.

[@rogerreiner1846]

Me too, I actually still have this flux that has 20% potassium nitrate in it -- works great.

[@morganandreason]

Silver dissolves less oxygen as you raise the temperature beyond the melting point, so if you want to avoid "sprouting" when it cools, just bump up the temperature at the very end before you terminate the process. Of course, cooling it down slowly also helps, as you did with the second button.

[@stephenanderle5422]

I think you are wrong. The hotter it gets the more oxygen it absorbs.

[@morganandreason]

@@stephenanderle5422 It's a well studied phenomenon. The solubility of oxygen increases with temperature in solid silver, peaks at just above the melting point, and then decreases with increasing temperature beyond that. At 973°C, the solubility of oxygen is 3050 PPM, at 1024°C it has gone down to 2950 ppm. As the temperature is increased the molecules gain in average energy and so are more able to overcome the attractive potential that keeps them in solution and thus the vapour pressure of the solvent increases and the solubility of the gas decreases. Ideally, of course, you would like to have an oxygen-free environment for a little while at the end of the process, to draw the oxygen out of the silver before it solidifies.

[@Yodiyst]

It’s so nice to watch it cool down in the triangle

[@silverunicorn2645]

I'm a new subscriber. Really informative stuff here. So cool to be able to see the process and have an explanation at every step. 👍❤️🦄

[@dilmanabdullah5042]

Nice one. Ho to refine gold from ore with out using acid, can you make a video about that? Thanks

[@lancemillward1912]

114g is about $147 of silver here in New zealand. You can see how this would scale up with a larger quality and be more profitable

[@BackYardScience2000]

I always thought that the sprouts were from the silver cooling faster on the outside and shrinking while the inside was still a bit molten. Squeezing the silver out as it cools into the sprouts. I know that bismuth does this as well. Copper will shrink inward, I'm guessing because it's such a good heat conducter, and form pits while silver and bismuth form these sprouts. But I never knew that it was due to dissolved oxygen and not from the outside cooking faster than the inside. Very cool! 😎

[@livesonjura]

I like those silver sprouts. I've refined silver and poured small bars but have never seen any sprouts. But when my silver is pure I do see concentric cooling lines that show up on the exposed smooth, shiny surface of the bar as it cools after pouring. I use a torch and borax for melting. Thanks for the many informative videos.

[@LongTrout]

I have an affinity for melted metal. Good job.

[@matthewsemenuk8953]

watched for the ideas, stayed for the bird chirps

[@jashall3804]

I love Americans he used the .................B.B.Q. Tongs or was it he salad tongs. Great video!.

[@sreetips]

Cool video thanks!

[@sureshdoshi6021]

@Rudy Zechariah h

[@cdevidal]

Actually it was quite hot

[@OneOfDisease]

i wish you would have run a tester on the product you had at the end to give us and idea ho much silver vs other metals were in the block

[@michaeldenison7339]

I had it shot with an XRF. It is almost entirely pure silver, with contaminants of mostly lead, with copper, other metals, all less than 1% total. I was hoping it would show traces of gold, as some people work with gold. but no gold popped up.

[@denniswhite166]

@@michaeldenison7339 Ive read two of your comments where you used XRF. What does that mean? Google was no help at all.

[@maxblay6833]

I'm not in the metal refining business but this is a lot of fun to watch

[@richreynoldsCIT]

Great video and amazing how good your hands look!

[@Kheops.]

7:34 that should be the thumbnail, looks so mesmerizing.

[@jimbanister1214]

I understand what your doing .doing the basics given a genral idea on what to expect

[@SlippyTweasel]

Ok you said some of the metals were platinum and maybe gold. So the pyramid isn’t pure silver..it’s a weird alloy?

[@janellesonoda7484]

Chemical reactions, cool.

[@bloomingtonian7529]

Jewelers rarely work with pure silver, but most commonly sterling (.925), sometimes others (.900 and .800) One of the metals used to alloy pure silver into sterling is copper. Thanks for another great video.

[@michaeldenison7339]

Much of what is in what I sent him is sterling, with silver solder chips, and some copper and brass, as we work with all. But I also had the slimes and silver plate from reverse electroplating silverware. There certainly is some pure silver in the mix. As most bezels are pure silver, and some jewelry is made with pure silver. We tend to not work in less than sterling.

[@cobaltdreaming]

I loved watching this simple process, thanks

[@nameyourchannel7844]

Just about 1800 degrees... "Honey, where's your salad tongs?"

[@Upde667]

Hi Jason Thank You for you time and share, Gonzalo From Baja Mexico

[@trackpackgt877]

That's about 95 bucks of Silver!! Not bad especially considering silver is way undervalued!! Cool video!!

[@markselten4985]

I liked the sprouts. Good info to have though. One day I'll melt my black sands. Great vid!

[@pedrocoelho469]

I don't understand why when you put this vids don't you tell the people how much that worth it!!!! Gosh!!!

[@dzmecanic5157]

I use torch (propane +air compressor)

[@markbrown6236]

These are great videos, very informative.

[@NandiCollector]

*Your videos are so addicting and relaxing mate. Thanks. :)*

[@user-md2pd8zz8g]

Bro, if you r using grams, start using Celsius. But good video

[@sirfishslayer5100]

At about $90 worth of silver, what was your cost in crucibles, materials & gas to extract?

[@bernardmacarius2635]

He did not answer did he? That is what I thought.

[@sirfishslayer5100]

@@bernardmacarius2635 Well, I know he does stuff at a loss. His channel makes him money, which is why he does it. I was just wondering.

[@bernardmacarius2635]

@@sirfishslayer5100 I appreciate him sharing for sure!

[@paschoaltavares5134]

@@sirfishslayer5100 profit will come only on large scale

[@johnulmer1622]

@@paschoaltavares5134 Exactly. I'm sure he does it more than once.

[@michealklonowski5267]

nice thank you for sharing the adventure and information on this smelting

[@davidbarnett5931]

It would be really cool to watch you melt down a roll of war nickels. I'd like to see the 35% Ag content validated.

[@davidbarnett5931]

I'd be happy to donate the roll as well.

[@spiderdude2099]

You could determine that with a handheld x ray spectrometer. They’re expensive but it can tell you the metal composition of a sample without destroying it

[@JemSquash94]

But the nickels are worth WAY more than the suggested Ag

[@rogerreiner1846]

Shoot off an email to the mint or large coin dealers and they will verify and validate this -- these are standards that have been known and used for over 8 decades, and the coins are collectible and worth much, much more than the silver within them.

[@JOHN-6-45-i-dont-belong-here]

I would love to see you do a specific gravity test on that

[@sirridok]

Does it leave any trace lead..in other words could this process be used to purify sterling into 99.9 or better for use make something ingested such as coloidal silver?

[@sparksmcgee6641]

Seriously stay away with the colodial BS. Ingot is the best final product.

[@Newlife-ol6pk]

​@@sparksmcgee6641There are lots of studies about the "bs". But even doctors are not informed so ..

[@Euri_EE]

Really great video! Cool process and thanks much for sharing.

[@martywebb1487]

That's badass tho how the color looks in the flux

[@OwlTech333]

@10:35 the large button on left still have some impurities (most probably Cu, adding more lead and re-cupelling should remove it completely ) the other button is pure you can tell by the silver sprouts

[@mbmmllc]

Thanks for the tip

[@MagdaleneHenricus]

Thanks

[@Juan_Doooh]

Good video, very informative.

[@matthewmccarley9621]

What purity of silver can you expect to get after cupelling until the cupel cannot hold anymore base metals?

[@3ATTR1X]

Thanks, enjoyed the process! amazing.

[@JSongPresentsChartroom]

Will this technique work for gold?

[@pneumatic00]

You ended up with 26.73 grams on the first button. That is precisely the weight of a US silver dollar; which is of course 90% silver and 10% copper, but it's an interesting coincidence!

[@murlbailer3755]

It's easy when you know how and have the resources. Still enjoyed the video.🐎

[@stansaju4392]

Merry Christmas 🌲Nice video

[@guywilson2394]

Really cool your videos are very informative and fun to watch.

[@ryaldeveau207]

Cost of cuppels (probably spelled wrong) and other stuff vs final cost of silver?

[@bobcansee]

Well done! Love this stuff!!

[@damianpotter8742]

Dude you f----ing rock. Appreciate you so much...

[@charlesreeves6766]

Outstanding

[@mouradkara3152]

Welcome to Algeria, my country has many resources, but I lack experience

[@rogerreiner1846]

So do most people everywhere.

[@gingerdude94]

Great channel, keep em coming Jason

[@paintyouup8247]

Ha hey Jason I was one your field camp at Western with Liz. Fun times. Hope things are well. I think in GIS class I told you to sell your gold at 1k.....hope you held on.

[@RalphReagan]

Loved the video.

[@CuriousEarthMan]

Very interesting! Thank you for creating and posting! I believe you have an xrf, if not mistaken. It might have been cool to read the silver sample at the end to see if it confirms the purity of the silver! (for those of us new to this) I haven't read up on cupelling. Does the lead go airborne, or is it all absorbed into the cup? Also, concerning your cat refining for PGMs, is the xrf any help in reading crushed honeycomb, or is the concentration to small? Did you ever use a LIBS handheld? Are they better for your needs? Thank you!

[@markangus1515]

Hi mate just wondering if you next time buy super wool and not Kaowool because better and safer love the silver

[@RobinhoodCoins]

How do you know how much lead to silver ratio to use?

[@azzakean]

Have you ever tried to seperate sliver from carbon? I would love to see a video about this, it doesn't seem to be a common process I've found in my research.

[@matthewmartinez1091]

There's a video on KZbin about some youngster who separates silver from graphite pencils. 🤔 You might want to check that out that's pretty close to carbon

[@lonjohnson5161]

I wonder if we might see a video of when it's worth trying to recover silver, copper or other metals. Maybe it might even be interesting to see when it isn't worth trying to recover gold or platinum.

[@michaeldenison7339]

I would like to see what it cost him to do this. With the cupels, the brand new crucible, the fuel and power used. The silver itself, right now, comes to about $65. I could have just picked out the larger pieces that I knew were silver and used them in my jewelry making, which would mean a much smaller yield. But I included them to be certain that it was all silver in the end. Removing the larger pieces, that would leave the filings, the solder clips, the reverse electroplated silver. I doubt it would be worth it to refine without those other, larger silver pieces. As for copper, nah. I don't think it will ever be worth it to refine on such a small scale.

[@gomanatala8558]

تبخير الرصاص بي النار صح كده استاذ العزيز

[@mychicosocial]

Can u possibly do a video refining silver from lead free solder dross

[@dopaminedrip]

thank you, sir.

[@larsnielsen4798]

Looks easy. I haveing lots of silverpeaces can i refinde it to Sterling. Just melting down ? 1 kilo of mix silver stuff from plated silver to Sterling.

[@firoozehtorki4608]

Thanks for your video. I have a question. What is percentage of this purification method if Ag? Is this purification for Juewlery aims?

[@jimbanister1214]

I have a 10 oz bar mixed aluminum and some silver is there a easyer way to separate it

[@Regdiggs]

What would you say the purity of the silver was at the end? Would it be .999 or .925?

[@SquareCoinTalk]

greatvideo Jason Thank you for sharing

[@PurpleJeep]

So what is the next step with the “buttons”? Is there a way to separate the gold from silver? I don’t do any mining or refining but I do find your process and videos highly interesting. Keep up the great work.

[@spiderdude2099]

Yes, if an alloy is mostly silver with 25% or less of gold, the alloy is treated with nitric acid which will leave the gold and dissolve the silver. The silver solution can then be filtered off the gold and precipitated into silver chloride with HCL or sodium chloride and reduced into pure silver metal with potassium hydroxide and sugar. The gold can be melted too. Then you end up with the silver and gold separated

[@DryLakeMiningCo49]

You could also leave silver chloride in sun outside to reduce to silver metal without sugar potassium hydroxide

[@David35445]

I think it's funny that you use a restaurant grade carbon steel frying pan, probably worth more than your #5 crucible .

[@rogerreiner1846]

Whatever works -- I did such things years ago and simply picked up a lot of stuff at auctions or second hand stores, or even throwaways. I once made a crucible out of a very old large cast iron tractor/combine piston. It worked very well until I put it on a blacksmith forge one night and it melted the bottom out of it. I now have a bucket of mixed pieces of gold and cast iron that one might now call refractory ore. It could probably be melted at 6-8,000 degrees to separate it but I don't have such a furnace nor do I expect to get one. Cast iron skillets also work well for many of these processes.

[@alabonga]

I've been playing with acid but I'd like to give this a try, have any idea on the purity?

[@chouseification]

If you already know the acid process, stick with it, as your recovery rates are astonishingly higher and your waste is much less. This process is meant to be used to understand if there's anything good in a _sample_ from a potential mine, but is not used to extract metal commerically, as it misses a lot and most importantly you need to add all that lead (and deal with cupels soaked with lead oxide afterwards, not counting however much you breathed in).

[@Dirtyhandscleanmoneys]

Have any of you guys tried cupeling silver contacts from electrical components

[@bpark10001]

You use no acids, but what do you do with all the lead waste that is in the cupels & the slag?.

[@gomanatala8558]

بيتم تبخير الرصاص بي النار

[@ProspectorTripp]

Very nice Jason Thanks ✌️PT

[@TheMontyYoakum]

Would the flux recipe change because you're not having a deal with sulfates/sulfides?

[@dustinm2364]

Good video, but is the final result %100 pure silver?? Or are there other metals in it?

[@philais]

Good job!

[@duncanhorne962]

I can't help but like your moulds etc. Yea, I am a newbie to smelting. Thanks for your Information / Is there any way I can make a mould of my fist ✊ as that Is my aim amongst my kith & kin, "BROTHERS"? Thanks again most for the Informative Information. No Mess, No Fuss, Just Pure Impact, In a Great Way & Great tips!

[@jedijeff5732]

When I first got into collecting and melting sterling silver, I used to occasionally confuse it with pewter, so I have a number of ingots tainted with pewter. I thought about sending them off to a refinery, but I’m not really sure of the purity, so I’m wondering if there might be a way for me to refine it to a higher purity at home. I don’t have a furnace, so I’m restricted to a crucible and a torch.

[@lancemillward2462]

i sent some silver to the refiner. they test with a machine and pay based on the precious metal percentages only. even some gold that came out 7ct was worth a fair bit.

[@Rusvi1]

Thank you for the video dude, I never did any kind of smelting. So, can you price out how much money you can get from those silver "buttons" you extracted and how much money you spent on the smelting process (heat, lead, other additives, etc.)? Excluding equipment ( because it's the initial investment ).

[@james.j1066]

Awesome

[@themacz1671]

🤜🤛 thank you for sharing 💪💪

[@kamalsinghvig2076]

I have an alloy mix of 50%silver and 50%tin how can i recover silver from the alloy

[@ooosoo8727]

about what exact percentage of purity is that final silver pyramid at the end? Like 99%? 99.95? 99.995? 99.999? Thanks

[@michaeldenison7339]

It came to 99.5%

[@castaway9214]

Cool.

[@abudlmohsun2656]

Sir, you should give the name of the chemicals you use on the screen. So that it becomes easier for others too

[@jfirebaugh]

Silver does oxidize. Why doesn't it get absorbed in the cupel?

[@dennishinkle5010]

I make copper brass and aluminum ingots now I wonder if they are even close to pure. I use flux when melting but still it may not be very pure.

[@benadams5557]

Measure their density and compare to the density of pure aluminum or the various alloys for brass/bronze whatever, not the diffraction and you can figure out what % purity it is

[@rogerreiner1846]

@@benadams5557 I inquired about melting down aluminum cans and was told they would pay much less for ingots than for the cans themselves.

[@prospectvic]

Very informative ty, can I refine .500 silverware the same way to get pure silver? I love the simplicity of your way, I am sooo scared of using acids. Cheers mate

[@sparksmcgee6641]

He has one on Sterling

[@ianthomas3653]

I have some scrap silver filled epoxy. It is about 75% silver, and was curious if just melting it with some borax would yield pure silver as there is no other metals in it.

[@WalmartRich]

What if I have copper bits.. how can I remove impurities and non copper to make fine copper?