Suggestions on extracting this lead

[Davandron]

OK, I have a potential source of lead but only if I can figure out how to get to it.

My pistol range has a solid steel deflector plate. Beneath the plate, the ground is white; lead splatter. This is outside, and water flowing past the berm has mixed the lead with a fair amount of dirt. The weight of a shovel full of the stuff says it's got potential. I ran a torch over it and little silver beads appeared all over.

So the question, how to separate it? I'm worried there is so much dirt and clay in the mix that it would soak up half the lead.

Can lead be dissolved and then precipitated back out? (I'm still researching the chemistry, and it doesn't look hopeful, but perhaps someone here already knows.)

[Rusty W]

I'd try to pan it like gold. Then I'd try screens and sifting it. Once you get the dirt somewhat separated from the gold, I mean lead, I'd melt it and let the dirt float using plenty of flux. Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you.

[Bent Ramrod]

You might get a sluice box or dry washer and try that. It would at least separate most of the lead from most of the dirt. The water is recyclable and they can be run off a car battery.

I think of such things whenever I pass the steel silhouettes on our range. The ground is gray from the lead spatter, but recovery is not cost-effective for me as long as enough people keep missing and putting slugs into the dirt berms.

[Blammer]

may want to think about a way to vibrate the mixture, the heavier particles will sink to the bottom,the light stuff skimmed off.

then just melt the bottom section, the lead will sink to the bottom and you can skim off everything else while it's hot.

[mpmarty]

If you can rent a commercial size compressor such as used for hard rock drilling you can blow off the dirt and expose the lead. BTDT.

[randyrat]

I've melted a bunch of range lead and i found the easiest is to smelt in small amounts. The dirt seems to insulate some of the lead and you end up with a bunch of lead in the dross if you have too much in the pot at once.

Any attemps at separating the dirt from the lead seemed like double work. You could do a double melt with the dross but your back to doubling your work. Introducing water seems dangerous unless your in a dry climate where things dry out fast
One handfull of wet material in a HOT pot your gonna have a visit from the Tinsil Fairy.

[Johnch]

LOL
Screen out the big chunks
Then let water do the rest

On a concreet driveway , cover it with plastic sheeting as to not stain the drive if the driveway has a slope
Or on decent slope someplace where the dirt will not be a problem and you have acess to water
Pour out a bunch of the lead dirt mix
hose it down good
The dirt will quickly wash away leaving the lead

Let dry and colect the lead off the plactic

Some junk will still be there
But 90+% will be gone

John

[Kskybroom]

+1 an Rusty W Dig up the potential dirt sift it, Start with 2in lead in dutch oven,the dirt will act as a flux. Use a paint stir stick,(Wood from home dopot) Smelt chucks an dirt, Keep pot coverd with a piece of steel,And have an to a HOT pot ALWAYS START WITH A COLD POT... Good Luck Ken

[Bloodman14]

Get some scrap lead and put it into your pot; while it is hot and molten (the lead) add a scoopful of dirt/lead mix. Let it melt, and skim. Repeat as necessary. It will take awhile, TRUST ME! But, hey, I got almost 50 lbs. after two hours work.

[Frank46]

Make up a wooden frame out of 2"x4''s use 1/4" mesh wire and shovel into the frame. use the shovel to break up the clumps of dirt and lead. Lift the frame to let the dirt out and dump into bucket. I used a plastic mortar pan and dumped the stuff in it and washed with a hose. Got some heavy black contractor type 6 mil plastic bags as a ground cover and dump it on the bags where the rain won't get at it. Make sure its dry and smelt. Flux well to get the dirt that remains up to the top. Cast
into ingots. Frank

[JIMinPHX]

This would be the best way to do it -
http://mcneeleyenterprises.com/page.php?5

If it were me, I'd just cook the living daylights out of it in the middle of a big bon fire, then clean up the chunks of lead out of the ashes. They used to make lead out of galena ore by putting it in a tree stump & then setting it on fire, back in the 1700's. The lead will not soak in. It will run out of the pile when it gets hot enough.

[lwknight]

A rotary concrete mixer to disolve the clay then pour the whole batch through a coarse screen.
Cook the peewaddley out of whats left in the screen.

[nighthunter]

I've reclaimed quite a bit of range lead over the years and I have tried several diffeerent methods of seperateing the lead from the dirt, stones and pieces of rubber mats. A friend of mine recently divulged his method to me and it is far superior to anything I have ever used. The powdered metal industry is very big in the area I live in. All those powdered metal parts must be sintered after forming in the presses. My friend runs his salvaged lead through the sintering furnace in suitable containers. When it exits the furnace all the lead is on the bottom of the pot and the trash is either floating on top or burned off. I know how my next batch is going to be rendered. I guess it pays to have friends that are smarter than myself even if it only shows ocassionally.

Nighthunter

[mooman76]

Lots of good ideas here. Either way it's going to be allot of work. If you have the time it is worth it though. I have done it and it doesn't seem to matter which way you go so much because either way is a lot of work. Gunnerds way was pretty much how I did it. Pick out the big unwanted stuff and scoop a big couple spoonfuls into a pot. Make sure you already have melted lead in it bcause the melted lead will extract out the solid lead out of the dirt. Make sure it is absolutely dry first. This will make allot of smoke and smell because of the heavy dirt content but there is almost no way around it.

[OLPDon]

This has been discused here often Don't recall who it was but they just piled the lead dirt mix into the back of the pickup truck the rain and vibrations driving around did the trick. Now as to how long it took don't recall. But it sure is simple enough.
Don

[Davandron]

Thanks everyone. I don't think I explained the situation well enough, but also may just be over estimating this project.

To clarify, this isn't berm soil; it's the ground under the steel plate, and the lowest area in a clay basin that retains runoff. The fine particles of lead splatter, after being repeatedly exposed to rain water (with its mild acidity), may have formed white lead that has mixed with clay to produce something almost homogeneous. Like Bent Ramrod mentioned, you may have seen it at steel target matches.

I haven't discovered a way to extract the lead from the clay; it fact it sounds like I never will (acids were a tricky possibility). However, the mixture most likely has excess lead since clay can only saturate so much. The cook-it-out methods are probably the most straight forward method of getting this lead. I'll count myself lucky if I can get 1/3 of the weight in lead. I'll see what heat does to this one bucket full but I doubt I'll be going back for seconds.

[clintsfolly]

use a length of channel iron set a a angle over a wood fire. heat ,stir the lead runs out the bottom and the dirt ,junk is pushed out the top end then remelt flux pore in to ingots. a buddy and i did 1200lbs in a day this way Clint

[bigdog454]

Get a length of corragated pipe, set it on a slight angle (10 to 15 deg), place crumbled material in upper end, take a garden hose and wash the material down the pipe. What's left in the pipe will be material containing mostly lead, You won't loose much lead out the other end.

[Bloodman14]

OK, just did some basic research; forget chemical extraction, it's just to dangerous. Lead will dissolve in NITRIC acid, forming Lead Nitrate. You then precipitate the Pb(NO3)2 in a cyclohexane, and then you have to smelt (safely!) the resulting lead mush. I don't think it is worth it to go that route.

[mooman76]

If you have allot to do the best thing would probably to build an old fashion slough box like they used for extractin gold dust.

[TAWILDCATT]

you already got an answer use rabitt wire screen 1/4 in mesh.if its mush now forget it.but if chunks shift it . we used to have a ash shifter.pour the mix in the hopper and crank the handle,the lead came out one end and the trash came out another.the lead dropped in a barrel.:coffeecom