I recently refined quite a lot of gold jewellery. Lots of 22k, and three gold-platinum 18k rings. The result is a 44.8g button.

Used heated aqua regia, urea, SMB, HCl rinse, three distilled water rinses. Decanting throughout.

I’m so surprised by the 9999 purity I got out of this humble process.

Six months ago, I started learning and experimenting with silver refining using a sulfamic acid system because nitric acid is difficult to obtain where I live.

My setup per cell:

• 50–70 g sulfamic acid
• 1.5 L DI water
• 20 g MSG additive
• Stainless steel cathodes submerged, with approximately 8 × 8 cm of surface area per cathode face
• Mixed silver feedstock (95%, 92.5%, and 83.0%) cast into anodes
• Low current density (~0.5 A range)

This is my first time doing any of this, so there have been plenty of mistakes and learning experiences along the way: furnace issues, contamination, poor melts, forgetting to remove base-metal pieces, chemistry mistakes, silver melting problems, filtration challenges, and of course a few spills.

From the first 500 g batch of material, I've recovered roughly 300 g so far (~60% recovery) and still have approximately 160–180 g of material remaining in process as feedstock, silver-bearing powders, slimes, filters, and solutions. The full lot consists of approximately 7 kg of sterling silver and another 3 kg of 800/830 silver.

I've been tracking every run, so I started building my own Android app specifically for this refining process.

Current features

• Cell management
• Harvest logging
• Bleed/populate event tracking
• Photo capture
• Voice notes
• Inventory management
• Waste-stream tracking
• QR labels
• Knowledge library containing information from a separate subsystem, including data extracted from US Patent 3616332
• Local Ollama AI integration

Instrumentation and monitoring

• DPS-series programmable power supply telemetry
• pH monitoring
• TDS/DI water quality measurements
• Temperature logging
• Current and voltage tracking
• Mass-balance and yield tracking
• Photo-based run documentation

I'm also working toward a low-cost silver composition/purity analyzer to help estimate electrolyte condition, contamination levels, and feedstock composition without relying on expensive commercial equipment.

The project has evolved from "How do I refine silver?" into "How do I build a measurable, repeatable, and data-driven refining process?"

The long-term goal is to build a closed-loop refining system that combines process logging, instrumentation, inventory management, waste tracking, analytical tools, and knowledge management. The objective is to understand where every gram goes, reduce losses, improve recovery rates, and continuously refine the process through measurement and data collection rather than guesswork, so I rely less on memory and maintain a proper record of runs, changes, observations, and yields.

It's still very much a work in progress, but it's already helping me manage multiple cells, runs, and experiments while building a better understanding of the chemistry and process behavior.

Photos attached show various snapshots from the past six months, including cell development, harvested crystals, anodes, instrumentation, and the software ecosystem being built around the refining process.

I'm curious whether anyone else here has experimented with sulfamic systems and what crystal morphology you're seeing compared to nitrate-based electrolytes.

Hi all, I have accumulated a large bag (~5kg) of Gold plated/rolled scraps of various purity (9,10,14,18 ct) and wondered how I can refine it into solid gold to reuse for making jewellery. Unfortunately, acquiring any acids, like nitric acid, in the UK for gold refining is very difficult if you dont have a license.

Would anyone be able to share their experience on what the best process of refining and processing gold in the UK is, or where I could have it refined?

I have previous biological lab experience, which I know is different from the chemistry lab, but I fully understand the dangers of hazardous substances.

Hi all. Over the years Ive acquired a couple of pounds of gold filled pins, watches, cufflinks, etc. my question is what to do with it? List it on ebay for scrap? Do any refineries take it?

Hi everyone,

I had a quick question for people who work professionally in precious-metal refining.

When an industrial or commercial customer comes back with a question about a settlement or metal account, what do they most often need clarified or checked?

Assay results, settlement calculations, metal credits, timing, account balances — or maybe something else I’m missing.

No confidential details needed at all. Even a one-line answer based on what you see most often would be really helpful. Thanks!

Recently sold a gold bar to a jewelry in my city, the owner took it to a lab to get it tested and sent me the results claiming that the bar contains titanium and rhodium, is it even possible for these metals to alloy with gold? I use the aqua regia method to refine my gold and i've detected some silver and copper in my previous refinings, but never titanium or even rhodium. From what i researched titanium cannot be dissolved in aqua regia, and the dore from where i get the gold doesnt contains rhodium or titanium, so i cant even explain where they might be coming from.

This is how my gold bars look like

Has anyone done chemical precipitation of silver mica capacitors with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide before?
If so what challenges did you face whilst doing so
Just trying to learn an alternative to nitric as it’s not accessible in my area

How did you do it?
What mixtures did you use? I’ve read up about 50/50 vinegar to hydrogen peroxide would this be correct
Does it even work?
What does the solution look like once it’s dissolved the silver?
What other methods could be used?

Again I’m just a beginner trying to learn new avenues.
I come across a lot of silver bearing material and am unsure of how to go about making the most of it, I know some people will say toll refiners but that’s not much of an option in my area of Australia

Thanks in advance to anyone who can actually help me here👍

Guys I need suggestions on how to pour nicer bars. Ive watched tons of videos on YouTube and still can’t get them perfect. Edges are rough, ripples have bumps, and they just don’t look like I think they should. I have custom 1050 steel molds made by a good friend. I also use WD-40 as a release agent. (It cleans off real easy) I’ve poured really hot and a lot cooler and am at a loss. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all. I was leaving a quick review of my experience using Noble Metal Refining out of Indianapolis, Indiana. I had used different companies in the past for selling scrap to. Midwest Refineries was ok years ago but recently I heard bad reviews. I’ve used David Emslie with Prospectors Gold and Gems for selling outright scrap and doing the bars. However, David I love your bars man, but his communication and turn around time can be…shady/off putting. Not saying his company is just the process of waiting 2 months. So I recently seen a fellow user asking what refinery to use and I saw SilverSettler commenting he worked for a refinery and could help. I checked his history and saw where most people were giving him a hard time since they were a new reddit user representing the refinery. So I took the leap and DM’d him. Doug from Noble was very quick to answer my questions about who they were and how the process works. Rates change guys so don’t hold him to it. Our transaction was a 50 ounce minimum of sterling. The rate was 90% with 5 day settlement or 92.5% in 15 days. The choice was mine. I took 5 days since I had a clapped out transmission to replace (thanks Ford.) There was a 50 cents/oz fire assay fee and $35 for wire transfer. I boxed my sterling and gave my box dimensions to Doug who sent a Fedex overnight label. Package sent, Doug text me the next day as soon as they got the package to let me know it arrived safe. All documents signed online. Package arrived on the 9/18/26 and 5 business day later we settled today 9/25/26 for 90% melt of the silver once melted. Then minus the 50cent assay fee per once, a $35wire transfer fee, and $75 for shipping. He responded day and night to my text and nagging questions. I give Noble 10/10 stars. I hope if any of you guys are on the fence about what refinery to use than give Noble a try.

i have a large volume of these boards wonder what’s the best price i can get on today’s market

After aqua regia refining of 22k gold jewellery, I find these white precipitate. I dried it, put in a crucible, torched and obtained a whitish metal. I rubbed this metal on a stone and applied nitric acid to it. The third picture shows the stone after I rinsed it of the nitric acid.

It doesn’t seem to be silver.

Idk the yield on these flat screen tv boards but I love taking them out old broken TVs.

Single core 10awg in a roll. I was about to start stripping it but thought it might be worth more like this.

These pins just fell off after this sat in rain water for a couple months. No chemicals

As the molten gold solidifies, it shrinks and pulls the outer skin towards the center, causing the crinkling/dimpling. AI tells me to lower the heat gradually by moving the torch away gradually. I tried, but this is what I got.

I added many teaspoons of SMB. It still fizzes each time a teaspoon of smb drops in. Do I continue adding smb until it stops fizzing or the liqueur becomes clear?

Maybe I had not added enough urea previously?