Can You Extract Gold, Silver and Platinum by Burning Things?
The idea is simplicity itself. You take a pile of stuff that contains precious metals and reduce it to ash by burning it, then process the ash with a strong chemical that removes everything but the metal. Wow, you just turned a pile of worthless-looking stuff into a small quantity of bright precious metal.
Does this simple process work? It really does. But how much gold, silver or platinum can you get by burning stuff in your backyard and then sending the ash to a qualified precious metal refinery like us? In most cases, you will not end up with enough gold, silver or platinum to repay all your efforts.
But let’s explore a bit further.
Burning Brush and Plants
Some plants, including mustard plants, can soak up and contain trace quantities of gold. The problem is, they can only pull up gold that is contained in the soil where they grow. (In other words, they do not manufacture gold, only collect it.)
And then there is the fact that when plants grow in soil that contains a large quantity of precious metals (like in the soil that collected near the site of an old gold or silver mine where those metals were processed), those plants are only likely to contain small amounts of them.
But even though burning plants that contain precious metals really does work, the quantities of metal that results is almost always very small. So it you want to burn your way to profits in precious metals, you might want to read the next sections of this post.
Burning Photographic Film and Paper
Now here is a more profitable way to burn your way to profits in precious metals.
The fact is that because many of the materials that were used in photography and x-ray processes in years past (before the dawn of digital photography) contained silver, you can extract that precious metal by burning those materials and collecting the silver that the resulting ash contains.
Be on the lookout for piles of photographic and x-ray printing papers (both unused papers and those that contain images), and for processed and unprocessed film.
They contain quantities of silver that can be extracted. Be aware that in order to make much money, you are going to have to collect a very large quantity of those materials – think on the order of tons – and that you are going to have to process an awful lot to make just a few dollars. And another thing. Instead of burning those materials yourself, send them to us and let us do the burning and processing for you. Call Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners at 800-426-2344 and we can tell you how.
Burning Floor Sweepings and Industrial Dirt
Of the processes we describe in today’s post, this is the most likely to repay you with significant dollars.
The idea is to collect a quantity of dirt and scrap from a jewelry factory, a dental lab, or another business and send it to us to be tested and processed.
How much money can you make? It depends on what your scrap contains. But sometimes even a small quantity of dirt from the right source – think only a few hundred pounds – can contain a surprisingly valuable amount of gold, silver or platinum.
So Before You Strike that Match . . .
Call Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners at 800-426-2344 and tell us what you are thinking about burning. Our expert consultants are here to give advice and, if possible, outline a recycling process that will put the most money in your pockets.
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