Iridium

Hello to everyone one.
I am in contact with one of forum member, living near to me , he is getting some ores from a Mine with absolute IR rh values,
I am thinking to recover values from ore!
He already assayed it so I do not want to spend time on papers which already had been collected !

Sodium peroxide is not suitable for industrial grade recovery
So we first want to recover IR,rh from ore, what will be the suitable process to do so
We have the furnance with maximum capacity of 2000 ° c, which is not capable of making ir shots from ore with out further molten salts ,
Will lead fusion work?

Iridium is virtually insoluble in lead even at high temperatures, and use is often made of this fact in preliminary steps in chemical analysis.

Fabrication Characteristics:

Iridium can be arc melted (inert-gas cover), electron beam melted, or consolidated by powder metallurgy techniques. It is hot worked using procedures similar to those used for tungsten.
http://www.centralmetals.co.uk/Iridium.php3

Iridium can be arc melted (inert-gas cover), electron beam melted, or consolidated by powder metallurgy techniques. It is hot worked using procedures similar to those used for tungsten.
http://www.centralmetals.co.uk/Iridium.php3
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That's informative
Here is another topic I read few days ago
https://www.technology.matthey.com/article/52/3/186-197/
Here we have limited sources, might be not able to get any of 3 ways of melting IR in start, may be later on,
We may be try to melt few 100 grams of samples at first with gas torch. Further we will look for some advance setup, any tips to start?

The point Lino was trying to make is that PGMs really don’t melt well using traditional torches or furnaces, using copper or silver as the collector metal may work but you need someone used to working with these metals to advise you on that.

nickvc said:

The point Lino was trying to make is that PGMs really don’t melt well using traditional torches or furnaces, using copper or silver as the collector metal may work but you need someone used to working with these metals to advise you on that.

Click to expand...

Your words make me to understand lino more batter, thanks.
And about advise from some one that handel such material, that's why I start a topic here.
Oxy torchs hardly melt it , we are looking some sort of arc or electric furnance supplier,
I need more tips to start, the assay report which was through xrf, xrf commonly show false result about ir, but it shows on IR and rh, some time PD.
We want assay it and want to saperate pgms to assure the results before starting it on an industrial level

Ashir my advice for what it’s worth is get a proper assay before spending any more time or money as it may well be that the xrf is inventing what it scans, I have seen it many times :shock:

Ashir, how was the assay done? Chemical, or by XRF?

Especially arsenic can be falsely detected as Ir if the assay were done by XRF. See
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=28009

Trying to smelt an ore with arsenic releases arsenic trioxide with the smoke. Inhaling it can be deadly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_trioxide

Göran

nickvc said:

The point Lino was trying to make is that PGMs really don’t melt well using traditional torches or furnaces, using copper or silver as the collector metal may work but you need someone used to working with these metals to advise you on that.

Click to expand...

Usually, the PGMs get brazed together with Gold and form a mass which, the more you heat it, the higher the melting point gets, until, eventually, you are left with an infusable klinker which resists all effort to disassemble it.
I collect specimens of native PGMs and have found that removing the silica and aluminates, releases the PGMs and produces nice specimens that can be separated using just the difference in specific gravity. Color is also a good indicator. Iridium and Rhodium have a distinct Rose color which is very unique and can be found associated with each other. Ruthenium and Osmium are also found together and have a vivid sky blue color. The real secret, is finding them in the first place, in quantities large enough to be practical. Crystals big enough to see with the naked eye also elude detection.

nickvc said:

Ashir my advice for what it’s worth is get a proper assay before spending any more time or money as it may well be that the xrf is inventing what it scans, I have seen it many times :shock:

Click to expand...

Love this idea,
I am not satisfied with xrf reports, going to do a fire assay, having problems to assay it, but will try to get the goal

g_axelsson said:

Ashir, how was the assay done? Chemical, or by XRF?

Especially arsenic can be falsely detected as Ir if the assay were done by XRF. See
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=28009

Trying to smelt an ore with arsenic releases arsenic trioxide with the smoke. Inhaling it can be deadly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_trioxide

Göran

Click to expand...

Thanks Goran and happy to see your words.
I am keeping it in mind to deal with arsenic and may b a little osmium, we will take good care of both,

And it was xrf report, that's why I have decided to do an assay and saperate the metals to see the reality behind the reports.
I will need more guidance from you

Ashir

I was there with Goran when this issue with the XRF came to light. Interestingly the XRF in question had not only precious metals but the base metals library as well.

I hope this helps you because there have been quite a few people coming and believing their XRF results only to find that in fact they have lumps of high concentration Arsenic.

I truly hope you are the exception to the rule. 8) 8)

Jon

The problem is "Metal". An XRF used for metal analysis often doesn't cover oxygen, silicon, calcium, arsenic or sulfur. All non-metal elements that can form massive deposits.
What the XRF doesn't understand it tries to map to whatever it does recognize. It might just ignore it or suggest another element it does know. It all depends on how the software in the XRF is written.

We often see this when people comes back with an assay of a rock, showing a lot of different elements but no Si, O, Ca, S... and so on. That's a clear sign that the assay is wrong when dealing with rocks.

Göran

g_axelsson said:

The problem is "Metal". An XRF used for metal analysis often doesn't cover oxygen, silicon, calcium, arsenic or sulfur. All non-metal elements that can form massive deposits.
What the XRF doesn't understand it tries to map to whatever it does recognize. It might just ignore it or suggest another element it does know. It all depends on how the software in the XRF is written.

We often see this when people comes back with an assay of a rock, showing a lot of different elements but no Si, O, Ca, S... and so on. That's a clear sign that the assay is wrong when dealing with rocks.

Göran

Click to expand...

Right.

Top picture looks a lot like a sulfide ore, pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and white arsenopyrite.

Bottom picture is just a rock to me, I would never suspect it to be an ore.

Göran

Iridium ore 0.05%, iron about 90%. Watch the sparkles (XRF reading 0)

ashir said:

g_axelsson said:

The problem is "Metal". An XRF used for metal analysis often doesn't cover oxygen, silicon, calcium, arsenic or sulfur. All non-metal elements that can form massive deposits.
What the XRF doesn't understand it tries to map to whatever it does recognize. It might just ignore it or suggest another element it does know. It all depends on how the software in the XRF is written.

We often see this when people comes back with an assay of a rock, showing a lot of different elements but no Si, O, Ca, S... and so on. That's a clear sign that the assay is wrong when dealing with rocks.

Göran

Click to expand...

Right.
See some pics
Screenshot_20190925-192507.pngScreenshot_20190925-192516.png

Click to expand...

What about first one? What should be the preparations of ore for assay? Treating sulphides and arsenic first, to get more clean material to work?

Lino1406 said:

Iridium ore 0.05%, iron about 90%. Watch the sparkles (XRF reading 0)

Click to expand...

First one looks promising. 2nd one is might be osmium or only a rock I think picture is not good, it's shape is more like sandy silverish ore

The two last pictures shows two obviously melted pieces of metal and the xrf analyze of the metal blob.

How was the metal button made? By the lab or by someone else? Do you have a proper assay of the ore?

In a normal ore the precious metal is measured in grams per ton, how much ore were used to create those buttons?

Generally speaking, the XRF test of the pure metal is not an assay of the ore, it is an assay of the button. The composition of an ore usually affect how to process it. That is why an assay is usually done that not only shows the amount of precious metals but also shows the other elements, especially problematic elements as arsenic and mercury. Other things that might be of interest is in what kind of size do the metal occur? For example if the metal is concentrated in few but big grains the ore can be ground to a coarse size and concentrated by mechanical means (for example a shaker table) If the metal is following a sulfide mineral then flotation might be the most effective way to create a concentrate that can be smelted... and so on. There are a lot of different ways to process ores.

To just put it in a kiln and try to smelt it might work or it might fail, but the more you know about the ore the easier it is to select a working process.

Göran

Lino1406 said:

Iridium ore 0.05%, iron about 90%. Watch the sparkles (XRF reading 0)

Click to expand...

Nice one, and if your numbers are correct, an extremely rich ore... 500g/ton.
Compared to the annual production of iridium of 3-5 tons / year it makes you wonder. Is that ore from an active mine?

Göran

Sorry I can't give mine details. I brought the photo to show 1) how iridium ore is expected
to look, and 2) XRF reading when there is a very big peak (iron) against a very small one
By the way, the iridium was found by XRF after an oxone (KHSO5) extractiion and enrichment. It is assumed
that the smallness of iridium particles helps in extraction