Smelting Galena to Lead and Silver

[Traffer]

This is very interesting to me. I thought it may be interesting to others here also:

https://youtu.be/MU8dnNm2tNY

[358429]

I want to throw beeswax in the glowing pot of molten metal.

He says he is adding couple pounds zinc to the lead pot to attract and separate the silver from the lead, and then he can separate the lead and zinc with a spoon when it's molten and the pyramid mold when it's frozen, is that correct how that works?

I [emoji39]want to go raid a bucket of zinc wheel weights now.

[45workhorse]

That was pretty cool!
A lot of work though!

[358429]

[emoji39]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211107/4b87e78c9ec88c24f4e383baed5d2d54.jpg[emoji848]

[GregLaROCHE]

Very interesting. Something I would like to try, if I didn’t already have enough projects going. Thanks for posting it.

[358429]

The rocks there must be noticeably denser than the rocks here, if he is getting 30-50% heavy metals extraction by weight, melting the crushed pebbles.

[legend 550]

Interesting. In the video he states that lead and zinc are like oil and water a won't mix. He even uses the zinc for flux and skims it off the top of the lead as the zinc floats on top of the lead.
So my question is why are we so concerned about zinc if it won't mix with lead and we should be able to just skim it off?

[358429]

I [emoji848]wonder if werewolves are actually mortally susceptible to Zinc Bullets as opposed to Silver Bullets.

[Traffer]

Interesting. In the video he states that lead and zinc are like oil and water a won't mix. He even uses the zinc for flux and skims it off the top of the lead as the zinc floats on top of the lead.
So my question is why are we so concerned about zinc if it won't mix with lead and we should be able to just skim it off?

You will notice how hot he is heating his batch. Zinc will float on lead but you have to get it pretty darn hot...Far hotter than most people are used to when casting bullets.
That being said...I like Jason's straight forward get er done approach ...With his knowledge of metalurgy he is one of my go to youtube guys to learn about that stuff.
it is also worth noting how hot his little kilns get being made of ceramic wool and propane. I have never made one ...One reason I haven't is because so much "advise" by naysayers as to how hard it is.
Armchair quarterbacks give input and know nothing about what they are talking about.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I guess it would be the way to check the yield of the ore. Quite toxic at those temps......(lead@1700 deg.)

[358429]

Hey traffer does lead and zinc actually stay separated when molten and frozen?

[Traffer]

Hey traffer does lead and zinc actually stay separated when molten and frozen?

I don't know.

[imashooter2]

Really interesting video! I’m not sure what those sacrificial crucibles cost, but between the propane, flux, crucibles and the rest, there’s not much profit there.

[Traffer]

Really interesting video! I’m not sure what those sacrificial crucibles cost, but between the propane, flux, crucibles and the rest, there’s not much profit there.

This was more of an assay test. That mine was making money when it shut down but now there is no refining facility to take the ore to anymore. I don't know if there are ANY galena refineries left in the USA. Because of the fumes and yada yada....and the fact that there is enough lead in circulation to just recycle, it is not cost effective to refine galena at all (from what I have ascertained)
The mine that this ore was from was taken over by a "hobbiest" who is looking at using it as a museum and potentially making enough money from it to keep himself going. Still to get better than 50% yeild from ore to lead with a bit of silver is pretty rich ore.