# Electrolytic PGM/CAT/leach recovery?



## kurt (Jul 10, 2012)

Action mining has what they call there System III – an electrolytic recovery system.

The concept is to recover the PMs electronically from ore while the ore is in the leach solution – rather then filtering the leach from the ore & then recovering the PMs by preciping &/or cementing.

The system consist of a 5 gallon bucket – a motor unit with paddle shaft – a quartz heater – a stainless steel plate (cathode) – a 4 micron polypropylene filer bag (S.S. cathode goes in filter bag) – a carbon rod (anode – I presume) & a battery charger.

A quote from part of the catalog description – “Particles in the ore cannot penetrate the filter bag but the ions, which are really part of the liquid, move freely through the bag & deposit the precious metals on the stainless steel cathode. (end quote)

I tried calling to talk to someone at action mining today about using this system to recover PGMs from CAT leaching but the person I needed to talk to was not available till Wednesday.

So in the mean time I thought I would throw it out here. Has anyone tried this as a method of PGM recovery from CAT leaching? Has it been discussed & I am just not finding the thread where it has been discussed?

Kurt


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## jimdoc (Jul 10, 2012)

Forum search results for; Action Mining System
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/search.php?keywords=Action+mining+system&terms=all&author=&sv=0&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Also there was the Platinumill;
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/search.php?keywords=platinumill&terms=all&author=&sv=0&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Jim


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## kurt (Jul 10, 2012)

Thanks Jim - I used action mining as a search & didn't get near the same results. I guess the missing key woord was system. Again thanks

Kurt


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## kurt (Jul 10, 2012)

OK looks like I have some reading to do - Jim did I see right in what I read so far that you have used action minings System III ???

If what Steve posted concerning EPA regs about original cats vs. after market cats having to have same PGM content (after market made to same specs as original) it seems like processing after market cats would be the ones worth processing.

The reason I am looking into this is a scrap yard has asked me about processing cats for them. They said 500 -1000 per month.

Kurt


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## jimdoc (Jul 10, 2012)

kurt said:


> OK looks like I have some reading to do - Jim did I see right in what I read so far that you have used action minings System III ???
> 
> If what Steve posted concerning EPA regs about original cats vs. after market cats having to have same PGM content (after market made to same specs as original) it seems like processing after market cats would be the ones worth processing.
> 
> ...



I was getting all the parts together to make my own System III, but never got it together. I was also thinking about making my own Platinumill type, or I think Action Mining called theirs System IV.

I think that aftermarket cats are supposed to be the same as the original, but I doubt they live up to that in reality. You would have to do some assays to find out for sure.

Many of the guys here have wanted to get into processing them, and I don't think there are too many still doing them in any large amounts. It isn't as easy as it sounds. There are a lot of buyers out there paying top dollar for cats without having to get into processing. You would have to figure your profits over what you could get by just flipping them.

Jim


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