# Why seperate everything?



## Iridium&gt;Gold (Feb 3, 2022)

I am curious to know why everyone tries to seperate rhodium from Palladium and platinum etc. To my understanding the major refineries charge 80-100$ per ounce for the separation. And after that you get close to spot. Or is there something I am missing? Because it seems that everyone is separating them for a reason. Thanks in advance.


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## nickvc (Feb 3, 2022)

From what I know you do not get close to spot but under 90% unlike gold and silver , many who refine as a hobby want the metals not the cash so refining the PGMs is the way they go.
I believe that refining charges are variable depending on volume and minimums apply to small lots which can be expensive.


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## orvi (Feb 3, 2022)

What I know, for Rh we could possibly get 70-80% spot if content was higher than 15% in the material. If lower, it was considered as impurity and thus no pay. For other PGMs around 85-90. Not so easy to sell for everybody.
Also I remember that there wasn´t very high premium on refined 3N PGMs, that is why we don´t aim for full refining, just recovery of suitably enriched fractions. But I don´t know too much about the PGM business tho


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## tlgero4699 (Feb 5, 2022)

If you plan on refining large amounts It becomes economical to separate in order to accumulate large amounts for a final refinement. Which should yield a nice cash amount.


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