# Re: Are you missing something leaching converters



## metalmickey (Apr 25, 2012)

I have seen advice on the forum to leach catalytic converters rarther than milling them as they need grinding very fine. Which make sence if the money is only coated on them, but when I decided to investigate catalytic converters I bought a hand full and started braking them up. When I cut through the can I acidently cut into the honeycomb of some. I could see set in the ceramic, some little nuggets. Different sizes some really tiny no bigger than a millimeter the biggest I could see no bigger than a few millimeters. They were like a gold colour. I thought that was what the prize was. Until I got hold of a platinum, palladium recovery manual. The manual used the milling method so I thought, that would still get at those little nuggets but I bought lazersteves DVD which shows the leaching method on combs and I have seen How Its Made on Discovery Channel which shows the coating of combs in PGM solution, so leaching them would make sense but if some manufacturers mix things into the ceramic and its also worth recovering people who are leaching maybe missing a trick. Also I found that some cats had a fiber serounding the combs. In some of the cats the fiber had flakes of what looked to me like metal flakes (silver colour). Others there was just fiber which I thought ment they were not worth as much. I welcome anyones feedback.


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## skippy (Apr 25, 2012)

The fibre cushion surrounding the biscuits has pretty negligable value from all I have read. The cushion doesn't channel exhaust gases so no PGM would be put into it - it would be a very silly waste of money.


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## butcher (Apr 25, 2012)

Refractory blanket for furnace insulation


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## skippy (Apr 26, 2012)

Great idea butcher! I never thought of it as possibly being useful.

Also metalmickey, the metals in a converter are never going to form a visible nugget, and you're on the wrong track by looking for visibly metalic looking things in the converter. The platinum metals are in a very fine form baked into a porous alumina surface coating on the ceramic monolith.


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