Advanced Chemical Blog

On our blog, we have talked about a number of different refining methods we use at Advanced Chemical to help clients recover gold and other precious metals - from our expanded burn room to our efforts to protect and refine oversize materials for our clients.

Acid digestion, an integral process in our multifaceted approach to reclaim every last ounce of precious metals for our clients, is one method incorporated when melting and/or chemical stripping will not suffice.

Acid digestion is used to separate multi-layered or alloyed metals that may contain one or more precious metals. This process is not available at many refineries, but it is a service that we offer to our clients.

Without the technical expertise and equipment required for acid digestion, other processes are limited in their ability to provide a quick and efficient valuation of a customer’s material. Processing variety that presents all options for assaying, processing, valuation and reclamation of a customer’s material is an important aspect to consider when choosing a refiner.

An example of an acid digestion process is the use of aqua regia (royal water), a combination of nitric and hydrochloric acids. The mixture of these two acids, added along with other processes unique and proprietary to Advanced Chemical, will dissolve away multi-layers of metal and permit us to filter out the lesser base metals from the precious and desirable metals. Acid digestion can aid in the recovery of gold (Au), silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), rhodium (Rh) and palladium (Pd).  Thanks in part to his royal highness – Aqua Regia.

Cyanide strip solution is highly efficient at stripping off exposed gold, however it will not attack other precious metals. Acid digestion allows us to recover gold and other precious metals from deeper layers, or layers that cyanide cannot otherwise penetrate. This process is so effective that large jewelry manufacturers will use it for ‘stone breakout’ to recover their precious and semi-precious stones. It would be a time-consuming process for a jeweler to remove stones individually from ring shanks and other types of jewelry, using an acid digestion process releases the stones and recovers the precious metal quickly and safely. As we recover the stones, we wash them and separate them by color, or we invite the jeweler to sort the stones in whatever manner they prefer. They are invited right into the refinery to complete the final process of separating the stones.

Jewelers are not the only clients who benefit from acid digestion. In addition to jewelry, we use acid digestion to help refine metal from various industrial manufacturers (electronics, aerospace, dental etc.). Clients may elect to send us pictures of the material that they would like processed, so that we can determine the best process to reclaim the precious metals. If client is unsure, they can always send us samples and we can do a process analysis for free.

Acid digestion is one of the many exceptional processes we offer at  Advanced Chemical to help our clients recover their precious metals. Acid digestion helps refine the refining process.

Since our founding in 1972, Advanced Chemical Company has steadily built an outstanding reputation as a leader in the refining of precious metals for a wide variety of industries. The value of precious metals is increasing by leaps and bounds. Our processes include capturing what other refineries may overlook or destroy.

In our burn room, we recapture gold and other precious metals. After a mix is ball milled it will go into a sifter that works similar to a colander for pasta - the water flows out of the bottom and what’s left in the colander is the pasta. After a mix is sifted, what’s left up on top is basically metal that could not be pulverized, which is called oversize. Most oversize contains magnetic material - it could be stainless steel material that was part of the lot that was incinerated that becomes magnetic during the processing.  We take the magnetic material out, leaving the precious metal available for melting.

We can either melt the oversize immediately or store it to melt with another lot. Advance Chemical clients generally know what they’re doing and handle their oversize correctly.  Some know that most of the value may be in their oversize others may know there is only a trace amount of value. If they want to process it, we’ll process it. However, we take the time to look at the variables involved in processing their oversize to ensure that the processing cost doesn’t outweigh any potential return. If the cost is too high, the customer can store the oversize with us until they have a larger batch to make a more cost-effective melt.

Security for the storage of each oversize batch is essential. The oversize is stored in a sealed container with the client name and lot number. Records signify, for example, a specific oversize is seal number 751. When the owner returns, they can check that seal number and they know it has not been opened.  Each client can even provide us their own seal to further ensure the protection of their property.

Under no circumstances is a seal broken unless authorized by the customer. Rarely is the seal broken for any other reason than to process the oversize, although the customer may occasionally need to examine the contents for some reason. We never break a seal without the company’s permission.

Advance Chemical is not just the leader in the precious metals refining industry - we’re also the experts. Our ultimate goal is to satisfy each customer and exceed all expectations by continually improving upon our performance. Processing and storing oversize to retain the best value is only a small part of how we operate to assist our clients in protecting their bottom line.

Advanced Chemical has always been committed to providing the highest quality services to our customers. We have a variety of gas and induction melters to meet the needs of our customers, and several months ago, we were able to increase our productivity and capacity by purchasing and installing a new melter in our facility. The newest member of the Advanced Chemical family is an Inductotherm 2500 Troy Ounce Melter, otherwise known as a tilt furnace.

The main advantage to induction is efficiency; we can do the same melt in less time. Induction also creates its own mixing current, whereas gas melting requires some manual stirring and mixing. When done correctly, however, gas melting yields the exact same result. We’re excited to add this technology alongside the methods we’ve been using since we started doing business and are pleased to say that the induction furnace won’t represent any sacrifice in the final yield quality that clients expect from us.

The efficiency of the tilt furnace offers a real advantage for customers with large batches who want to watch the melt process. We have an open-door policy at Advanced Chemical, so customers are welcome to come to the facility and watch the whole melt and sample process from start to finish. One of the primary benefits of the Inductotherm 2500 tilt furnace is its size. Precious Metal Refineries with only smaller furnaces at their disposal may have to split up the melt, adding time to the whole process.

When a customer with a large batch is watching the melt, we don’t want to take more time out of their day by having to do the process twice because only a smaller furnace is available. With this larger capacity tilt furnace, we can do large batches all at once, let the customer watch the entire process and take their samples with them in a reasonable amount of time. Our new tilt furnace allows us to better meet our clients’ schedules and needs.

We are very proud of our continued efforts to offer flexible solutions to our customers. We are excited about our new tilt furnace and the commitment it represents to explore new technologies that allow us to provide our customers with the most efficiency and the best possible end product. If you’d like to learn more about our new furnace feel free to email me at jantonacci@advchem.com.

Stay tuned next month for ‘Always Looking to Improve: A look at our new Burn Room’

… but our utilities did not. At Advanced Chemical, the only impact that Irene had is a single downed tree, and even that didn’t damage anything as it fell.

However, we are impacted by the same utilities outages that most of Rhode Island are. We are currently without power and telephones, but have been told that crews are working around the clock to restore systems.

We are ready to begin work again as soon as our utilities are restored and we wanted to let all of our clients know that our facilities are still in the same perfect conditions they were in before the storm hit. We are looking forward to getting back to work soon and want to thank everyone who expressed concern during and after the storm.