# Steves DVD-Converter Beads



## Pumice (Apr 25, 2013)

Steve, in your dvd when you disolve your beads in AR you are still left with some that have pink on them. Your test shows more platinum on the beads. 

I have done the first pass on 1kg of beads and have the pink on them like you did. My question is, would it make sense to just do a concentrated AR reaction on the first pass to save time, chems, and having twice as much liquid? 

Also, by the end of the reaction you used over 3 times more nitric for the amout of PGM's expected. Just wondering if access nitric is not a concern at this point like you would be with processing gold?

Thanks Steve we have gotten alot of gold with your help. And we have over 2000 cats in our yard so I am giving PGM recovery a try. Very interested to see the results!


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## lazersteve (Apr 25, 2013)

Yes, the Pt can be recovered with concentrated AR. If you would rather deal with chlorine instead of NOx, you can use AP with lots of stirring and mild heat (40C) to get the Pt also.

Nitric acid must be removed before precipitating PGMs. Sulfamic Acid is an alternative to denoxxing via evaporation.

Steve


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## Pumice (Apr 27, 2013)

Thanks Steve I will look into sulfamic acid on the forum and see what I can find out. Maybe try AP as well and see how that goes.

But I think you misunderstood my question sorry. After 1.5kg of beads (3 batches), I still have pink/ faint light grey on some after using dulite AR. I am just wondering if this is typical? Does it usually take a second reaction to completely disolve the metals from the beads? Or, is there a reason I should not use concentrated AR on the first reaction and try to fully disolve avoiding doing a 2nd leach?

Also, my course filtration is very very slow due to light grey powder clogging the filter. And my solution does test positive for Pt with stannous . Just wondering if this powder may be rhodium or iridium possibly? Thanks again!


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## lazersteve (Apr 28, 2013)

The more concentrated your AR, the easier it will be for it to dissolve Pt when hot. Unfortunately, if you cover your beads with concentrated AR, you will have way too much nitric present after all of the precious metals are dissolved. Diluting serves to increase the volume of your AR without increasing the amount of excess nitric present. 

Rh is very difficult, if not impossible, to get into solution with AR. A test for simple Rh can be found here:

Rh Testing

Steve


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## Pumice (Apr 28, 2013)

Thanks for the info and link Steve. I tested a slug of the powder with a Niton and its 86% iridium. Apparently iridium is not so easy to refine, and I cant find much info on it. Any suggestions on where to start concerning iridium?


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## lazersteve (Apr 28, 2013)

Here's a good starting point for you:

Google Books Iridium

Steve


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## kkmonte (Apr 28, 2013)

Question for Steve or anyone else who might know the answer, 

I have a mechanic friend who comes along some cats now and again. He has a guy who pays him $10 for the after market ones and $80-100 for the factory cats. I bought two of the after market ones from him for the $10 a piece. I cut them both open today and I'm going to process both pairs of honeycombs using the HCL/Bleach method that Steve shows in his video. (two different buckets inside one large bin).

Question for everyone, is $10 a good price for after market cats? Is there that much more platinum in the factory ones then the after market ones? I know Steve had said in a pound of beads, he was expecting 2-3 grams of PGM's, do you guys think i'm going to get at least a gram out of these aftermarket ones?

Thanks for advise as always,
Ken


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## Pumice (May 9, 2013)

We are an auto recycler and only get $3-$5 for aftermarket cats. So I would not expect to find much in them. They are also very cheap new. But it would be interesting to know what you end up with. I was thinking of trying a couple eventually just to see...


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## kkmonte (May 10, 2013)

To save on so much concentrated AR solution, say it would take 3" of concentrated AR in your coffee pot to cover all beads. Could you put maybe 1" of concentrated AR in the pot, and just run like 3 batches of beads in the same liquid? Could you maybe wrap 1/3 of the batch in like a cheesecloth type material and throw it in like a taco and flip it a bunch of times, and just have like 3 tacos?


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