# Refining Pd / Rh / Ir / Au Concentrates - Best pathway for recovery/separation/ingot production



## PatrickMarkey (Mar 4, 2022)

Hello There, 

I have assayed some nickel slag material from an old nickel mine many of times, and although I am extremely excited about the results, I have no idea what my next step is or the best pathway to refine it to pure metal. My assays do not list the elements outside of the PGMs, but I should have a better indication with full sweep results coming next week. 

My hope by joining GoldRefiningForum, was that someone with new-age cutting edge refining techniques for Palladium / Rhodium could advise me on my best bet to producing refined Palladium and rhodium from the concentrates in the attached. 

If anyone is out there, and reviews the attached assays and think they can help, I would be grateful. 

Thank you, 

Patrick


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## Yggdrasil (Mar 4, 2022)

Hmm, I'm not much for ores, but there was a few things that caught my eye.
Why are the assays diverging so wildly. It should be homogenized first. This info could by the way come from anything.
New-Age do not fly in my world, I see laid back people with smoke in their eyes and flowers in their hair. 

Lets wait for the big guns to chime in


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## nickvc (Mar 5, 2022)

The production and refining of many PGMs comes from nickel refining slimes and that is the only way I can see this been done economically, you have a large nickel refinery in Canada , Vale ask if they would be interested in buying your material.


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## PatrickMarkey (Mar 5, 2022)

Hi Gentlemen, 

Thanks to both for your replies. Indeed I have spoken to Vale this past week and they are not interested in tolling the material for me. Their PM-Refinery in Port Colborne (southern Ontario) is operating at capacity. I have also checked with Glencore's refinery in Quebec, similar reply. 

The material has the consistency of a concentrate, instead of an ore (pics attached). And your right depending on which site I extract the samples from, the results are different, mainly interchanging palladium and rhodium content. 

I will have a more detailed assay in the coming week so you will be able to evaluate the deleterious elements, but any preliminary suggestions are welcomed. 

Have a good weekend,

Pat


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## Lino1406 (Mar 5, 2022)

A 1st trial in recovery would be grinding to100 mesh at most and panning, analysing by XRF and weighing the heavy fraction received.


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## PatrickMarkey (Mar 5, 2022)

Hey Lino, 

I do have a mill and can do as suggested. I may employ a third-party to conduct the recovery analysis and share the results with you if that's okay. 

Thanks,

Pat


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## samuel-a (Mar 6, 2022)

Sorry for the negative vibe of my comment... There seems to be a repeating phenomenon every time Rh is at 20K or above... Some new, super PGM-rich and easy-to-source ore appear out of the blue.

I've been in this game long enough and seen all sorts of fantasies about those Rh pots at the end of the rainbow.
*Not *to say you are hustling us; maybe you are being cheated yourself. Either way, I would suggest you and others - tread carefully.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is.


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## PatrickMarkey (Mar 6, 2022)

Sam, 

Appreciate your cautionary message, and note you are not being pessimistic but rather trying to be realistic given your past experience. 

To remove any doubt moving forward, I plan to take an extended flame to the conc today, and see if I can separate and extract any metal for analysis tomorrow. Some anhydrous borax and a flux and see what I can get -- I will share the pictures/results on the forum. 

Cheers,


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## PatrickMarkey (Mar 6, 2022)

Results -- Casted into a small ingot mold and amply cooled down/cured for hours. When testing how solid it was tonight, it instantly broke apart. It is heavy... however seemingly very brittle. Not sure what I have here but we shall see tomorrow. 

Pat


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## Barstool miner (Mar 7, 2022)

PatrickMarkey said:


> Hi Gentlemen,
> 
> Thanks to both for your replies. Indeed I have spoken to Vale this past week and they are not interested in tolling the material for me. Their PM-Refinery in Port Colborne (southern Ontario) is operating at capacity. I have also checked with Glencore's refinery in Quebec, similar reply.
> 
> ...


Hi Pat , I have a similar ore from California and Colorado XRF gives wild results . My ore has Hydrothermal mud mixed in . When I pan to get a concentrate I get lower PGM assay Results , so there are many water soluble metal salts. Will you private message me so that we can compare notes .


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## Barstool miner (Mar 7, 2022)

PatrickMarkey said:


> Results -- Casted into a small ingot mold and amply cooled down/cured for hours. When testing how solid it was tonight, it instantly broke apart. It is heavy... however seemingly very brittle. Not sure what I have here but we shall see tomorrow.
> 
> Pat


HI Pat On your picture #22064558 I see you have part of a dore' bar , with a porous top Crust this has your PGM's. Impala Platts in South Africa melt their flotation concentrates with added Magnetite in an Electric Arc furnace , pour large Ingots , then cool the slowly over 72 hours . then they dissolve the crushed Dore' in sulfuric Acid , make ferrous sulfate for Fertilizer , then use Aqua Regia on the Sludge . The ore contains +/- 10 PPM PGMS


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## zachy (Mar 7, 2022)

PatrickMarkey said:


> Results -- Casted into a small ingot mold and amply cooled down/cured for hours. When testing how solid it was tonight, it instantly broke apart. It is heavy... however seemingly very brittle. Not sure what I have here but we shall see tomorrow.
> 
> Pat


Patrick, and friends, you should also be careful with radioactive minerals that may be present, Thorite, or some Uranite ore. These isotopes can be dangerous and their vapors or particulate matter may enter your lungs.


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## Lou (Mar 8, 2022)

Send to ACT labs there in Ontario and skip the near worthless XRF and AAS.

AAS on the PGMs leaves some things to be desired. Get a NiS and Te collection with ICP-OES workup.

If you talked to Vale and Glencore and they don’t have interest…well, project is done for so far as I see it. 

It’s low enough grade that unless you can froth it and skim it’s not going to fit in the box.


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## samuel-a (Mar 9, 2022)

I've had a very good experience with ACT in Canada., excellent customer service.

As always, it is up to the customer to produce a truly representative sample.


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## PatrickMarkey (Mar 9, 2022)

zachy said:


> Patrick, and friends, you should also be careful with radioactive minerals that may be present, Thorite, or some Uranite ore. These isotopes can be dangerous and their vapors or particulate matter may enter your lungs.


Good point Zachy, I had the respirator up and tightly fit but good point I am always worried about that with the methods used


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## PatrickMarkey (Mar 9, 2022)

Lou said:


> Send to ACT labs there in Ontario and skip the near worthless XRF and AAS.
> 
> AAS on the PGMs leaves some things to be desired. Get a NiS and Te collection with ICP-OES workup.
> 
> ...


Hey Lou, 

I called ACT. In fact I am in Burlington... a 15 minute drive to their labs if the QEW is not the parking lot that it is. I spoke to Sergio but unfortunately they do not have detection limits high enough for refined or semi-refined metal. I will certainly go back to them with the conc.


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## Lou (Mar 9, 2022)

They can’t help you with stuff that is 9-200 grams a ton???

Having trouble here…should be a sweet spot


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## Swol (Mar 10, 2022)

May I ask who you spoke with at Vale?


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## PatrickMarkey (Mar 15, 2022)

Hi Swol,

Thanks for your help - Much appreciated

Pat


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## gldfever87 (Jun 6, 2022)

PatrickMarkey said:


> Hello There,
> 
> I have assayed some nickel slag material from an old nickel mine many of times, and although I am extremely excited about the results, I have no idea what my next step is or the best pathway to refine it to pure metal. My assays do not list the elements outside of the PGMs, but I should have a better indication with full sweep results coming next week.
> 
> ...


So basically if you're trying to refine palladium and then cement that PD with copper foils or bars. that the best way to do it is to use a concentrated version of aquaria will dissolve the palladium and then you'll precipitation with SMB or formic acid.


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## Yggdrasil (Jun 6, 2022)

gldfever87 said:


> So basically if you're trying to refine palladium and then cement that PD with copper foils or bars. that the best way to do it is to use a concentrated version of aquaria will dissolve the palladium and then you'll precipitation with SMB or formic acid.


The least you can do, is get your Chemicals right. It is Aqua Regia and Pd will also dissolve in Nitric.


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## gldfever87 (Jun 19, 2022)

You still have to nutrilize the NH02 though yeah, and drop the gold and silver first?


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## Yggdrasil (Jun 19, 2022)

gldfever87 said:


> You still have to nutrilize the NH02 though yeah, and drop the gold and silver first?


There are good programs that do spellchecking.

And I can’t say I have heard about NHO2, I have never used it at least.

In chemistry spelling is significant and names too, neutralize I guess you meant.
Please do proper research before you post.


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## gldfever87 (Jun 19, 2022)

gldfever87 said:


> You still have to nutrilize the NH02 though yeah, and drop the gold and silver first?


Then you can neutralize the nitric acid and drop with I think ammonium chlorite or sodium chlorite.


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## gldfever87 (Jun 19, 2022)

Yggdrasil said:


> There are good programs that do spellchecking.
> 
> And I can’t say I have heard about NHO2, I have never used it at least.
> 
> ...


Thanks I'll remember how too to spell, although not sure which word you're talking about because I went through them all and they're all spelled correctly. Anyway enough of that crap I've done my research plenty and I still research today everything I do before I do it thank you for your insight but from here on out I'll do my own thing thank you


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## Yggdrasil (Jun 19, 2022)

gldfever87 said:


> Then you can neutralize the nitric acid and drop with I think ammonium chlorite or sodium chlorite.


There are no such thing as Ammonium Chlorite. It is Ammonium Chloride.

The closest you get by name is:
Ammonium Chlorate *NH4ClO3*
Ammonium Chloride NH4Cl

They do not do the same things in the realm of chemistry. 

Get your names and formulas right or you may cause disaster for yourself and the ones around you.

We do not neutralize Nitric 
(push pH to 7) it don’t do much in removing the NOx.

It may how ever drop some hydroxides that are hard to filter.

We destroy the Nitric by either evaporating to a syrup and add HCl 
or adding Sulfamic Acid to a hot 70C+ solution.


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