How To Make Silver

In this video I experiment making silver from lead with the Parkes process. This is an interesting process for removing gold and silver if your ore has a lot of lead/galena in it. It doesn't turn out quite the way I'd like it to, but I learned some good lessons and now have some ideas on what to do better next time.

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[OwlTech]

Great video! The dross skimming you mentioned @15:54 I think this is were you lost most of the silver. When I process Parkes crust I'm melting it in stainless steel tray (large surface area) with NaOH then I I'm blowing air above the melt with constant stirring to oxidise the zinc, once all the zinc has oxidised (everything becomes like powder and has stopped producing blue zinc flames) I'm adding more NaOH which liquifies the powder, when that's done I'm left with slag, silver and a bit of lead which is cupelled in the usual manner.

[nicknewberry]

Jason. I have done this process before. You pulled the zinc off of the lead too soon. Wait for the zinc to solidify completely on top of the molten lead. I used to poke the surface until it solidifies and then u can grab it with pliers. In my experience you will still have a small amount of lead come with the zinc but it isnt much. When you are doing this dont worry so much about the oxides. If you try to get rid of the oxides you can lose a lot of your silver.

As an alternative you can also pour the lead and zinc mix out into tall skinny mold. Like a round stock mold. This will make lead be on bottom and zinc on top. Then u can find the place where each layer separates and cut them apart to get the zinc with most of the lead away from it.

[stevecasvan]

I melt lead all the time to cast balls and bullets for my black powder. When my lead is melted and the dross is on top I throw in some wax. It kind of acts like a flux but it also reduces the oxides back into metal. I've seen fairly thick crusts reduced to very little and the surface become bright and mirror like. Helps to stir it around too. I also use a 50/50 mix of household vinegar and drug store hydrogen peroxide to remove the leading from my barrels. This works great! I think the metallic lead becomes lead acetate. A black slime that just wipes out of my barrel. Just a little food for thought! Keep up the good work!

[nickb]

Great effort. The fact you recovered about half your silver back with such a cumbersome process was a success. Looking forward to you producing some silver from the Cerro Gordo ore. You have acquired a great deal of knowledge with your research and patient approach to experimentation.

[StirlingLighthouse]

Excellent! 👍
Another cool process experiment!
I'm looking forward to the Cerro Gordo recovery.
Thank you Jason 🍻

[ToddDunning]

How cool would it be to set up a working mount baker processing plant at Cerro in unpainted steel - so it would rust nicely and almost look original. Visitors could run some material and even smelt. Look at the popularity of tourist placer panning for example.

[samw]

I think by trying to melt small pieces of solid zinc in the lead in order to collect PMs, you are losing considerable values. At industrial scale, as I recall, molten lead containing PMs is introduced into a bath of molten zinc. On the scale you are doing it at, try first melting the zinc, probably 1/3 the amount by weight of the lead bearing the PMs. Then, pour in the molten lead containing the PMs--this will ensure a much better transfer of PMs from lead to zinc than by just stirring in some solid zinc. After the metals have been thoroughly stirred and drossed, as you've done, I would pour the molten metals into a column--even a soup can will work. Once cooled and peeled away from the can you will see a clear separation between the 'lead' layer on the bottom, and the 'zinc' layer on top: their crystalline structures are very different, Finally, you can hacksaw the layers apart very accurately (careful not to breathe the stuff), and dissolve away the zinc with HCl, leaving any PMs as residue.

Looking forward to your next posts!

[ralphpatrick]

My first video and I found it fascinating! I’ll continue, thanks!

[rpow]

Glad to see you making videos again. I love learning more about these processes.

[frankmonroe]

I don't think Hewlett Packard ever dreamed their mice would be used for this. Like following your projects. Keep em coming.

[ILoveLearn]

Becareful with zinc and acid man I had a bad experience with zinc and nitric once and it was a very close call.... Some metals and acids explode. Always have protective gloves and mask. May seem overkill sometimes but the time something happens you will be glad you were prepared.

[iolithblue]

Hey Jason, love the videos, thanks for showing us you using your ppe, and keeping safe with lead and other heavy metals. Smelt on!

[klausnielsen]

I have enjoyed the video as well as all your other videos.
And I like your way of thinking and how you go about all these processees that you try out and iterate over and over while documenting and giving all of us a peek into this dangerous and fascinating world.
I dont know exactly why - but you seem like the kind of guy who will wear it out, use it up, make it do or do without. So you make it do what you want with all your knowledge and testing.
I just like to follow along for your successes 🙂

[stevetreloar]

I love that you share all this with us. Thanks Jason. I'm at a loss with silver, I have a pile of galena grading around 4500gm/tonne but there is so much arsenic. I'd love to be able to drive the arsenic off in a bomb still but can't bring myself to just vent it.

[JasonSmith-wels]

You explain this process so well. Your videos are so enjoyable because you do something that, if you’re watching these videos you’re obviously interested in, and you explain it thoroughly and it’s easy to follow. Keep up the good work bro!

[ChrisRalph]

I'd suggest 1) heat the lead and zinc hotter, then cool. At higher temps lead and zinc will alloy, but as they cool they separate. Skimmings come off the cooling step.
2) do a two stem zinc addition and skim. Add a couple percent of zinc, then skim, then add another percent and skim in a second step.
When I do this (one of these days) I am going to add about 10 percent zinc, then heat to well above the zinc melting point and allow the whole thing to cool slowly, hopefully giving me a two metal final solid where the zinc has fully separated from the lead like oil and water. I have some other info I collected, send me an email if you want more info

[thomascraddock]

i dont think i would have tried to do a parkes process, jason. there is a better way that boosts ore recovery and gives a product you know how to manage as well as i do right in the crucible with flux.

here is what you do:
grind your ore to 40 percent or so @ 50 mesh and 60 percent 200 mesh.... set it aside. it doesnt have to be 60 percent 200 but get close to that number. but in your hands it should feel like really fine all purpose flour.
go buy an aerator head for a high speed drill (hand drill, but not a screw gun.) or fabricate one, and get a 2 gallon bucket to set inside a five gallon bucket.
*OR...cannibalize an old milkshake machine for a small batch recovery system (assay lab stuff).

then, go read/watch about flotation systems, and the solution they use to float the precious metals over the edge in a froth. the concept is pretty simple and making your own is pretty straight forward after you see one work.

the process: froth flotation.

most froth flotation systems are ginormous. but youre just a small guy who wants to make a small amount, so i think that you could really benefit from designing your own froth flotation machine, and building it too. it could be a good video too. :) lab flotation machines are horrendously expensive. DIY 100%

[hellohello]

Hello Jason, I actually have something that will help you, I can send you 5 kilos of this material. We collected old miners molten material found in our property back when the Spaniards and Indians were mining over 400 years ago. When melted and poured it actually separates into 3 layers, lead, rare earth metals and silver, gold and platinum group metals. Enjoy your kilo of silver gold and platinum group metals. Free. All I ask in return is a video of it. I have gathered over the years roughly 1 ton of this material found in our property about a foot deep plowing dirt for crop.

[joshredding]

if you pour the molten lead into a large tub of cool water, it will form little lead pellets called lead shot (you may know this already)...then you can use the quantities of lead you want more manageably. ;-)

[Jkauppa]

ionizing matter, then electric/magnetic field trajectory separation, mass spectrometry filter, different mass/charge ratios strike different target surfaces, effective atom/ion level separation