Electrolytic silver and gold refining cell

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electrolytic gold and silver refining cell for extracting gold and silver contained in a material. The cell is part of a plurality of cells arranged in at least one common vessel provided with a solution feeding inlet, an exhausted solution outlet, and a stirrer. The cell is also provided with a plate cathode consisting of an acid-proof material and a plate anode consisting of the abovementioned material containing Au and Ag. The material is introduced into a filtering bag. The cathode and anode electrodes are suspended parallel to each other within the common vessel and are inserted in parallel in a d.c. supplied network. The invention is characterized by the fact that the vessel, housing a plurality of side by side cells, is provided with a hopper bottom with an outlet conduit controlled by a first normally open valve and connected to a larger conduit provided at its end with a second normally closed valve. Each of the filtering bags is provided with a bottom inclined towards its center. Each bag contains a pipe that extends along one of the vertical sides of the bag and along its inclined bottom to the center thereof. The pipe is connected outside the vessel with a manifold connected in turn with a pump assembly having a delivery pipe which is connected with the device for recovering the metal, in particular gold, which is formed on the anode.