>Depends on the compound of silver in the ore. If it's silver sulfide, you
>will get poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas as it dissolves. If it's silver
>oxide, you will almost have to boil the nitric acid to get the silver
>compound to dissolve. Silver sulfate won't dissolve at all, and must be
>calcined with charcoal (or equivalent) to extract the silver, which can
>then be dissolved.
Boy, does that bring back memories of my metallurgy lab work back in the
50's! I remember now, after you brought up calcining with charcoal. We had a
lab experiment with silver ore (it was relatively cheap back then), where we
had to use a blow pipe and a block of charcoal. The goal was to get 95% or
better quality silver the first time around, and then chemically refine to
get 99+ % silver. It was ok as a lab experiment, or if you want to assey
ore, but not practical if you want to extract very much silver.
It would be a moral accompolishment, however, to refine your own ore, then
make your own silver nitrate, apply it to the paper (why not make your own
paper while you are at it?), and print something. May not win any awards,
but you could brag on and on for the next fifty years.
Don
(by the way, I have a masters in Metallurgy, but that was in the 50's and
60's)