# Can you use thermite to get Platinum?



## Anonymous (Jan 31, 2010)

In this video on youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ-q3ms8f-s a guy uses some thermitic mix to seperate titanium. This might be a naive and uneducated question but would it be possible to get Platinum by going about it in some similar way?

All thes best
Witness


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## Anonymous (Jan 31, 2010)

http://developing-your-web-presence.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-titanium-thermite-bronze-age-and.html I think the process is explaned here.


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## Irons (Jan 31, 2010)

I've burned holes in steel plate with the Calcium Sulfate/Aluminum mix. In the Trade, it's called Alice Mix. It will also throw chunks of burning metal for quite a distance. It's a good way to burn your house down. Any moisture will cause a steam explosion, which will throw burning metal in all directions.


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## lazersteve (Jan 31, 2010)

I ran across this site last week while studying another subject:

Types of Thermite Reactions

Be sure to scroll down to see the various types of reactions.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Feb 2, 2010)

Thanks for responding guys. I've looked through the link you posted Steve, and couldn't anything on Platinum. Even still, would it be possible to separate platiunum by adding ground up catalytic converters to a high energy thermite mix?

Thanks again


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## Irons (Feb 2, 2010)

Witness said:


> Thanks for responding guys. I've looked through the link you posted Steve, and couldn't anything on Platinum. Even still, would it be possible to separate platiunum by adding ground up catalytic converters to a high energy thermite mix?
> 
> Thanks again



I don't think so. What you would get is Pt dispersed in a mix of Iron and Aluminum Oxide.


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## jsargent (Feb 3, 2010)

Irons said:


> I've burned holes in steel plate with the Calcium Sulfate/Aluminum mix. In the Trade, it's called Alice Mix. It will also throw chunks of burning metal for quite a distance. It's a good way to burn your house down. Any moisture will cause a steam explosion, which will throw burning metal in all directions.



Well damn... now I GOTTA try this! My property looks like Mad Max's Thunderdome anyhow so if something burns down, it's an improvement.


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## skippy (Feb 3, 2010)

Funny you should mention that, Witness. One document I read had the honeycomb wash getting attacked by magnesium vapour inside a high temperature retort. Kind of like a very slow motion thermite.


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## plasmasmelter (Sep 9, 2010)

Witness,

There is no need to use thermite to get Pt from CC honeycomb. It can
be melted other ways that are industry proven and can be done at fairly
small scale. I have built a system that does this that can process 0.25 ton/day
and am planning to build a 5-10 ton/day. The process uses an electrical arc
furnace system to smelt the PGM from the aluminum silicates.

PS


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## Lou (Sep 13, 2010)

I'd love to hear more details about this, and photos if you may.


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## plasmasmelter (Sep 16, 2010)

Lou,

Were you directing the response my way?
I've got some good photos of melting AC I can share.
Just let me know sir.

PS


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## Oz (Sep 16, 2010)

plasmasmelter said:


> Lou,
> Were you directing the response my way?
> I've got some good photos of melting AC I can share.
> PS



I'm sure he was, and if not, I would certainly be interested in seeing them!


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## pinman (Sep 16, 2010)

As would I.


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## Anonymous (Sep 16, 2010)

seem that if a cheap enough source of aluminum powder could be found this would be a way to recover the base metals from processing electronic scrap. I know that if I could take
nuggets of metal that the junk yard could test with their gun thing, they will pay based on the print out. I already get that with recovered copper bars that I cast.

Nickel, cobalt, and tin are fairly valuable metals.

Jim


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## pgm (Nov 11, 2010)

plasmasmelter said:


> Witness,
> 
> There is no need to use thermite to get Pt from CC honeycomb. It can
> be melted other ways that are industry proven and can be done at fairly
> ...



Hi can i get more details on this system as i am looking at a simlilar system.


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## amosfella (Nov 16, 2010)

Plasmasmelter, does the honeycomb have a higher melting temperature than the PGM that are attached to it??
Something of interest. A friend of mine had a number of samples of honeycomb assayed for all metals, and told me that not only were there PGMs present, but also large amounts of silver...


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