# Update on South American Platina slag



## Shecker (Sep 22, 2008)

This is for those members of the forum who are currently working on the material I have sent them and for those who will receive some soon.

1. The platina slag has a black oxide covering on all pieces. I receive pieces up to 18 pounds in weight and the only thing you can tell about it initially is that it is all black. 

2. The slag contains a great deal of organic matter in the form of a gelatin. This is caused by the fact that the Spanish of the 16th and 17th centuries smelted this material with animal byproducts. This is right out of De Re Metallica for those who want to look. This gelatinous goo was been the cause of numerous headaches for myself and others (ask Oz, maybe he will be nice enough to post pics). 

3. Trying to treat the material with any variety of hydrochloric acid (Ar, AP, HCl H2O2, HCl Cl) causes everything to become tangled up in this thick goo from hell. And the stuff will clog filters and stop everything.

4. Having reported on how it doesn't work let me guide some guidance on how it does work. First of all, don't try to crush it unless you have really good equipment. Sledge hammers don't work (Right Oz). But I have found that I can cause the material to decrepitate in a hot solution of sodium bisulfate. So I cook the material in a crock pot for hours at a time. The longer I cook it the more fine material I get. 

5. From this powder that comes off the slag I occasionally recover pieces of metal. The biggest to date runs about 3 ounces in weight. It looks like a fat lopsided letter Y. But I also recover lots of thin pieces of metal, some of them fairly large. The largest is about one inch across and weighs several grams. I also get a lot of fine slivers of metal and a great deal of gray powder. 

6. Recently I took some of the powder and at the request of someone on the forum I boiled it in concentrated sulfuric acid for about an hour. The result was a deep red solution. The solution was so red I had to dilute it to photograph it. 

7. I also take the gray powder than is left over from the sodium bisulfate digestion and treat it with a hot solution of copper sulfate (here I ago again -- but I like copper sulfate). This does three things -- 1. it dissolves some of the pgm, the silver, and the gold, 2. the silver and pgm are recovered easily by cementation on copper, and 3. the gold is recovered by electrolytic recovery at 1.8 volts (my power supply will generally pull between 8 to 10 amps at that point).

8. I have a source for selling the gold. I am still working on a source for selling the pgm and I will keep the silver. If anyone on the forum wants to tackle the pgm part I will sent an ounce or two per my original agreement (for those not up to snuff that means 50% of what you recover). But I really do need the payment.

Anyway that brings my work on this complex bugger up to date.

Randy in Gunnison


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## Noxx (Sep 22, 2008)

Interesting...


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## Shecker (Sep 22, 2008)

Noxx I have your address and will send you some at the first of October.

Randy in Gunnison


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## Harold_V (Sep 23, 2008)

Shecker said:


> The slag contains a great deal of organic matter in the form of a gelatin.


Blink! Blink! :? 

Slag that contains gelatin :?: 

At what temperature would you suppose the slag was created? 

Harold


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## lazersteve (Sep 23, 2008)

Wiki Gelatin

Steve


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## Lou (Sep 23, 2008)

My opinion is that it may have been smelted with gelatine, but if that is the case, there shouldn't be any left after high heat, even in the most reducing of situations--gelatine is derived from collagen, which is made from a few flexible amino acids (mainly Gly). It, like almost all proteins, is not terribly temperature resistant--it would fly apart under those conditions. Nor is it acid resistant--it is held together by amide bonds; acid (or base) hydrolysis would leave free amino acids. Granted, strong acids like sulfuric would work the best for this. I'd put gelatine surviving a good roasting as beyond unlikely. Also, if this material contains arsenides/sulfides...there is NO reason to smelt with a reducing animal product (as all such products will inevitably be); rather it should've been smelted with air or nitre.

Personally, I believe that what Mr. Hecker is seeing is most likely either some sort of hydrolysis product (those are often gels), or perhaps a weakly soluble complex salt or precipitate that is highly flocculent.


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## Shecker (Sep 23, 2008)

You could be right Lou. But when you hold a big piece of it in your hand it looks and acts like clear gelatin or maybe some blob like slug. Maybe I have found the blob. I am an old sci fi fan. It will solidify a hydrochloric or nitric acid solution like crazy. I haven't tried sulfuric directly on the material yet -- only on extracted residues from the material. I will do that today.

Randy in Gunnison


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## JustinNH (Oct 13, 2008)

Hey Randy-

The sodium bisulfate... did you buy it as that or did you have to make it with the sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid?

I was looking for some sodium hydroxide in my garage to use since I already have the acid and found a sodium hydroxide and peroxide mixture as a drain cleaner, so I have a single piece soaking in that now. It appears to be slowly breaking down. I havent had much time yet but I hope to make the sodium bisulfate soon and try your methods. 

Thanks,


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## markqf1 (Oct 23, 2008)

Sodium bisulfate is pretty cheap at the pool supply store.
It is labeled dry acid on the container.

Mark


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## Shecker (Oct 23, 2008)

A company called Leisure Time sells sodium bisulfate under the labelSpa Down for $6.50 a pound here in Gunnison. It is probably cheaper elsewhere.

Randy in Gunnison


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## Never_Evil (Oct 23, 2008)

~~~ Mistake made on my end ~~~


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## lazersteve (Oct 23, 2008)

Evil,

Sodium (or Potassium) Meta Bisulfate is needed for Rhodium fusions, sodium meta bisulfite is need for precipitating gold.


Steve


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## JustinNH1 (Apr 28, 2011)

Any update on this from anyone who had samples?


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