What is the most unusual thing about gold? If you think about that question for a minute, chances are your answer to it will be, “Gold is beautiful.”

Of course, that answer is right. Gold really is beautiful, which explains why it has been the most sought-after metal on earth for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians and Assyrians loved it, as did the Vikings, the Incas, the king and queens of Europe, and everyone else through the ages. Chances are your grandparents and parents had gold wedding rings and if you are married, chances are you and your spouse have them too. And if pure 24K gold weren’t beautiful enough on its own, it can be made into rose gold, white gold, and even green and pink gold by adding other metals.

Silver can be found in many kinds of liquids, including printing inks, cosmetics, medicinal creams, chemicals used in a variety of industrial processes, and more. And as we have written on this blog before, Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners has the expertise and experience to separate silver scrap from the liquids where they are found. In many cases, that process is simple - we introduce a chemical which causes silver to precipitate out of the solution. That’s another way of saying that the silver falls to the bottom.

Platinum has many wonderful properties. It is bright, shiny and resistant to oxidation.

But did you also know that platinum combines with a number of other elements to form chemical mixtures that are useful as catalysts in chemical processes, and also in plating and other industrial processes? And did you also know that in many cases, the platinum that those compounds contain can be extracted by a precious metal refinery like Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners?

If your liquid chemicals contain gold, silver, platinum or other precious metals, how can they be separated (precipitated) out of their solutions and tuned into solid metallic form again? Several different processes can be used to precipitate previous metals from liquids...