# 12.5g Pt Button



## lazersteve (Sep 27, 2010)

Thought I would share a photo of a Pt button I finished refining today for a customer:







Its 12.5 grams, not too big, but very pretty. 

The photo does it no justice.

Steve


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## qst42know (Sep 27, 2010)

Very nice.

What was this recovered from?


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## Mrslow55 (Sep 27, 2010)

Looks like it"s big enough to get Roosevelt smiling  . 
Very nice indeed!
Rick


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## shyknee (Sep 27, 2010)

nice job Steve


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## lazersteve (Sep 27, 2010)

qst42know said:


> Very nice.
> 
> What was this recovered from?



Thermocouples.

Steve


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 27, 2010)

lazersteve said:


> qst42know said:
> 
> 
> > Very nice.
> ...



What were the thermocouples from?


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## lazersteve (Sep 27, 2010)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> What were the thermocouples from?



I have no idea. 

I received them in the form of a multitude of tiny (1 mm - 2mm) hoops, I assume they were some form of thermocouple devices, but maybe I'm wrong.

Steve


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 27, 2010)

lazersteve said:


> Barren Realms 007 said:
> 
> 
> > What were the thermocouples from?
> ...



Interesting, never seen one that looks like that kind of desighn. But there are many out there.

Thanks.


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## rfd298 (Sep 27, 2010)

I like it!


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## jimdoc (Sep 27, 2010)

They may have been from inoculating loops;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation_loop

Jim


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## Chumbawamba (Sep 28, 2010)

Steve,

Would you mind posting a brief abstract of your process/procedure, starting with preparation of the source material?


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## jimdoc (Sep 28, 2010)

Probably like this;

http://www.youtube.com/v/_9QprlWA-xM

From his Platinum Refining slide show post in the platinum section;

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=3723

Jim


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## metatp (Sep 28, 2010)

qst42know said:


> Very nice.
> 
> What was this recovered from?


They are actually scrap markers for radiopacity that mostly are 90% Pt / 10% Ir.


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## shadybear (Sep 28, 2010)

could they be medical, sounds like the little rings on those
things they stick in your viens


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## HAuCl4 (Sep 28, 2010)

Maybe the only suggestion I can give here is to melt and alloy the original material with another metal to make digestion faster. 

7 hours watching boiling A.R. must be no fun whatsoever.

Alloying with 20 times the amount in silver or copper would make digestion in nitric acid a flash, and whatever is left would go relatively fast in AR as well. 

Maybe a smaller amount with copper or gold would work well too with digestion in AR skipping the nitric?. There must be an optimal amount of metal to alloy. Lou must know. :?:


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## metatp (Sep 28, 2010)

shadybear said:


> could they be medical, sounds like the little rings on those
> things they stick in your viens


Yup


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## goldenchild (Sep 28, 2010)

HAuCl4 said:


> Maybe the only suggestion I can give here is to melt and alloy the original material with another metal to make digestion faster.
> 
> 7 hours watching boiling A.R. must be no fun whatsoever.
> 
> ...



It may go faster but then you would be introducing another contaminant into the mix. And like Harold says, silver will probably be your biggest enemy in refining.


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## qst42know (Sep 28, 2010)

Anyone found anywhere to sell the iridium fraction? 

There must be some place to sell iridium.


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## lazersteve (Sep 28, 2010)

HAuCl4 said:


> 7 hours watching boiling A.R. must be no fun whatsoever.



Luckily I didn't spend the entire time standing over the beaker watching the reaction. I divided the dissolution up into three shifts and only visited the reaction periodically to add nitric.



HAuCl4 said:


> Alloying with 20 times the amount in silver or copper would make digestion in nitric acid a flash, and whatever is left would go relatively fast in AR as well.


 I don't like adding metals to known alloys unless absolutely necessary and my customer was not in a hurry. If the alloy had more Ir in it I would have alloyed with 10 times it weight in silver and used 35% nitric to dissolve the alloy. The residual Ir is very difficult to dissolve in hot AR, even in a very finely divided state.

Steve


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## HAuCl4 (Sep 29, 2010)

lazersteve said:


> If the alloy had more Ir in it I would have alloyed with 10 times it weight in silver and used 35% nitric to dissolve the alloy.



Nice to know. Thanks.


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## HAuCl4 (Sep 29, 2010)

goldenchild said:


> HAuCl4 said:
> 
> 
> > Maybe the only suggestion I can give here is to melt and alloy the original material with another metal to make digestion faster.
> ...



Yet this is exactly what we do when we inquart with either silver or copper (in gold refining). I believe that by alloying in this case, not only the digestion time could be cut significantly, but also almost all the Ir can be isolated at the start, like Steve pointed out, and in this case Ir is the "biggest enemy" in its persistence contaminating the Platinum salt. Silver and copper would be minor nuisances compared to Ir.

I understand different people prefer to do things differently. In this case, my preference would be to alloy first everytime, for the reasons given above.


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