# iron ore containing rhodium and palladium



## killachong (Aug 12, 2021)

I recently thought i found gold, i had it XRF scanned and it returned 80-90% Fe and 10-20% Rh (avg from 5 rocks) it also had a very small amount of palladium. I did not know what RH was so i aid damn and took my rocks home, then a dy later i read how valuable Rh is and what Rh is. And i remembered the scans, i did not trust the scans to be done by the same person, and knowing the mind can trick itself i had the scans done a 2nd time on same rocks. so i schedules scans for a different person and he got the same results.

i have more of these rocks many more almost identical to the ones i had tested....my problem is i can find anyone who will process the ore. But i have double verified by XRF scanner good amounts of Rh. one of the rocks weight 20 pounds alone. so if it has 10%...2 lbs, thats half a million dollars right? So here i am sitting on possibly millions, and i cant get it out of the rock?? Ive called several so called noble metal refineries, none will/can do it.


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## jimdoc (Aug 12, 2021)

Get an assay done, don't trust the XRF results. Post pictures of the rocks, and what state you are in.


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## g_axelsson (Aug 12, 2021)

Second that. XRF without a full range library and only looking for metals are notorious unreliable on mineral samples. For example, arsenic shows up as iridium.

If you send it for a proper assay that gives you a full range of elements (ICP-MS for example) I bet you that all those riches just disappears.

Göran


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## killachong (Aug 12, 2021)

Thanks for5 the replies, i figured that was possible that the xrf is lying....can you recommend somewhere to get an assay done? seems like noone wanted to come near my ore for fear of losing money lol, or rly idk, but i agree i need an assay done just have nop idea where to get it. Dont you need a furnace that can melt Rhodium, so like 3700 degrees , like a plasma arc furnace or something? sorry ive never heard of this stuff before last week.


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## killachong (Aug 12, 2021)

ill post pics...all i can do there gotota get em on the comp here


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## killachong (Aug 12, 2021)




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## Lino1406 (Aug 12, 2021)

The shiny points may be rhodium. Just finely grind a sample and pan the powder, rhodium is heavier


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## killachong (Aug 13, 2021)

Cool I will try that now that a have a good bit to try with. I know a couple said XRF was bad about giving false readings. I'm not saying they don't but ...the model that I used which wasn't mine was like a 30,000 dollar tool...... you would think it wouldn't give false readings, and I had it done by 2 different people like 5 days apart. Same tool but....just seems very unlikely for me to get same exact results using a 30000 dollar tool.....is this thread really about me confirming to the umpteenth degree I have rhodium ore, or wasn't I asking how to just get the rhodium out.... just sayin, let's assume that the rf wasn't wrong....is there any affordable way I can process this? Myself preferably, or time efficient manner I can process it? Do I just grind it all and pan it all? I do thank yall for the advice on assassins and such. But assuming it comes out as positive again, next step?


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## croverto (Aug 13, 2021)

Hey friend! I had some XRF tests done as well but from what I understand they are better at surface area testing than overall composition which will be better found out with an assay. I'm a noob here and to refining in general but the XRF is great for metal recyclers but in terms of ore the idea of the surface area isn't really what you may be wanting to know, not to mention the possible false positives. If I'm not mistaken Rh is about 1 part per 200 million parts of the earth's surface so 10-20% would be an amazing find!

My question is you mentioned gold did they find any with the XRF? The pictures seemed to my untrained eye to have a gold-like substance.


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## stoneware (Aug 13, 2021)

The wet belt is a Miller table on steroids.

Mill the ore then, If it contains sulfides you need to roast it.


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## Lou (Aug 13, 2021)

killachong said:


> Cool I will try that now that a have a good bit to try with. I know a couple said XRF was bad about giving false readings. I'm not saying they don't but ...the model that I used which wasn't mine was like a 30,000 dollar tool...... you would think it wouldn't give false readings, and I had it done by 2 different people like 5 days apart. Same tool but....just seems very unlikely for me to get same exact results using a 30000 dollar tool.....is this thread really about me confirming to the umpteenth degree I have rhodium ore, or wasn't I asking how to just get the rhodium out.... just sayin, let's assume that the rf wasn't wrong....is there any affordable way I can process this? Myself preferably, or time efficient manner I can process it? Do I just grind it all and pan it all? I do thank yall for the advice on assassins and such. But assuming it comes out as positive again, next step?



This is not an application where a handheld XRF is appropriate. If I were a betting man, I'd say there is no economically significant amount of rhodium or palladium in your sample. If any XRF is to be used, it should be one of the large wavelength dispersive instruments that has calibration standards containing the analytes of interest. 

At the company I work for, we have 5 handhelds, and all but one are top of the line (read, even more than 30K) and they still LIE in certain circumstances. It's not even an intentional lie, it's more that the results are misinterpreted by the algorithm that the instrument uses to assign the qualitative composition of the sample. We also have a desktop system that works in vacuum helium that is much more accurate as to elemental composition on things like rocks, powders, ores and liquids. It also has better precision. 

If you're going to get a rock assay, your best bet for screening is probably instrumental neutron activation analysis done at a company like ACT Labs out of Canada. They do a great job for the money and I recommend them for ore materials.


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## spoke27 (Aug 13, 2021)

Lou said:


> killachong said:
> 
> 
> > Cool I will try that now that a have a good bit to try with. I know a couple said XRF was bad about giving false readings. I'm not saying they don't but ...the model that I used which wasn't mine was like a 30,000 dollar tool...... you would think it wouldn't give false readings, and I had it done by 2 different people like 5 days apart. Same tool but....just seems very unlikely for me to get same exact results using a 30000 dollar tool.....is this thread really about me confirming to the umpteenth degree I have rhodium ore, or wasn't I asking how to just get the rhodium out.... just sayin, let's assume that the rf wasn't wrong....is there any affordable way I can process this? Myself preferably, or time efficient manner I can process it? Do I just grind it all and pan it all? I do thank yall for the advice on assassins and such. But assuming it comes out as positive again, next step?
> ...



Is there a problem with labs in Canada?


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## Yggdrasil (Aug 13, 2021)

Spoke27.
Read it once more!!
He says he recommends them.


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## g_axelsson (Aug 14, 2021)

killachong said:


> Cool I will try that now that a have a good bit to try with. I know a couple said XRF was bad about giving false readings. I'm not saying they don't but ...the model that I used which wasn't mine was like a 30,000 dollar tool...... you would think it wouldn't give false readings, and I had it done by 2 different people like 5 days apart. Same tool but....just seems very unlikely for me to get same exact results using a 30000 dollar tool.....is this thread really about me confirming to the umpteenth degree I have rhodium ore, or wasn't I asking how to just get the rhodium out.... just sayin, let's assume that the rf wasn't wrong....is there any affordable way I can process this? Myself preferably, or time efficient manner I can process it? Do I just grind it all and pan it all? I do thank yall for the advice on assassins and such. But assuming it comes out as positive again, next step?



The ore sample you got looks to be rich in silica and oxygen, did the XRF return any Si or O in the elements listed? Any sulfur (S)?
The model you used is made for sorting metal alloys, not analyzing rocks.
If you use a hammer to drive in a screw the result might not be the best, even if it is an expensive hammer.

For a related test, I have lots of rocks with pure arsenic. A rare mineral so I'm selling it as mineral samples. The XRF thought I had iridium...
https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=28009&p=295508#p295508
Read that thread, it will show you how wrong an XRF can be when operating on a non-metallic sample. The real composition is pure arsenic with a bit of silver (Ag), antimony (Sb) and oxygen (O). The gold could be real or an artifact, the mine ran at 1 g Au per ton average and the common knowledge was that gold followed minor galena patches in the ore. The iron is probably also true as there are some loellingite in the arsenic veins.

Göran


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## killachong (Aug 14, 2021)

Sorry playing catch up, had a hell of a day yesterday, got hit by yellowjackets getting more ore. No they did not find gold, and that is honestly why I had it tested as it was so freaking shiny and gold. Not reflective just brilliant, especially in the sun while wet.....I thought I had a nugget! Hah but some of the other ore I picked up certainly has even "goldier" looking spots 

And thanks for the info on the xrf, quite invaluable actually. Good yo know exactly what it's purposed for. They did warn me that it tends to dissapoi t when looking for gold in a rock. Their word exactly.

I crushed a small couple of rocks, I panned it, I did retrieve some not all of what I sure believe is rhodium. A Brite almost white metal, more bright silver of a metal than I've ever had in my pan. Almost looked like tinfoil. I used jewelers loop to check it out and most of it is exactly what you'd expect a nugget to look like, except very very small. Bigger than a grain but so small most of them I have to have the loop to see them. A couple of pieces however I was able to get with my fingers and were clearly visable...

Thing is I'm seeing ALOT of practically invisible glitter(except when it catches light and glitters. Im thinking this is micro or near microscopic rhodium. I have no idea how to capture the tiny stuff and I have a feeling it will all be like majority this way:small stuff. I know it's hella valuable so I don't want much if any loss. I've saved all that I couldn't capture, its intermixed with just about all red iron grains, mostly UNMAGNETIC iron at that.

The rock which tested positive in the pics is still intact. It tested 90% iron...but pulls no magnets.
So I'm assuming I have some iron that got too hot? Lost magnetism? Would explain the melted faces of these rocks


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## killachong (Aug 14, 2021)

Guys yall are awesome thankyou for these recommendation. I did right bringing yall my problem lol


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## killachong (Aug 14, 2021)

@Lou , thankyou good info. Though i believe i should take your bet hehe. Now that ive seen it twice on scanner and now visually seen it and not just one piece.. I have prolly 300 lbs in my garage of this ....ore/rockpaydirt


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## g_axelsson (Aug 14, 2021)

killachong said:


> The rock which tested positive in the pics is still intact. It tested 90% iron...but pulls no magnets.
> So I'm assuming I have some iron that got too hot? Lost magnetism? Would explain the melted faces of these rocks


Iron loses it's ferromagnetism (attracted by a magnet) when the temperature goes above it's Curie-point but it gets it back when it cools down.
A permanent magnet that is brought up above the Curie-point loses it's magnetism but can still be attracted by a magnet when it has cooled down.

Some iron minerals are magnetic, like magnetite, while some are not magnetic like hematite, siderite, bog ore... it has nothing to do with being heated up and everything to do with crystal structure and oxidation state.

Göran


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## Lino1406 (Aug 15, 2021)

XRF note: XRF will not read light elements, like O, Si. Iron oxides are read as iron, so not necessarily magnetic


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## Maysam (Dec 6, 2021)

killachong said:


> I recently thought i found gold, i had it XRF scanned and it returned 80-90% Fe and 10-20% Rh (avg from 5 rocks) it also had a very small amount of palladium. I did not know what RH was so i aid damn and took my rocks home, then a dy later i read how valuable Rh is and what Rh is. And i remembered the scans, i did not trust the scans to be done by the same person, and knowing the mind can trick itself i had the scans done a 2nd time on same rocks. so i schedules scans for a different person and he got the same results.
> 
> i have more of these rocks many more almost identical to the ones i had tested....my problem is i can find anyone who will process the ore. But i have double verified by XRF scanner good amounts of Rh. one of the rocks weight 20 pounds alone. so if it has 10%...2 lbs, thats half a million dollars right? So here i am sitting on possibly millions, and i cant get it out of the rock?? Ive called several so called noble metal refineries, none will/can do it.


Yes, you got rich.


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## Maysam (Dec 6, 2021)

Lino1406 said:


> The shiny points may be rhodium. Just finely grind a sample and pan the powder, rhodium is heavier


Those shiny points are water reflections


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## Maysam (Dec 6, 2021)

killachong said:


> Cool I will try that now that a have a good bit to try with. I know a couple said XRF was bad about giving false readings. I'm not saying they don't but ...the model that I used which wasn't mine was like a 30,000 dollar tool...... you would think it wouldn't give false readings, and I had it done by 2 different people like 5 days apart. Same tool but....just seems very unlikely for me to get same exact results using a 30000 dollar tool.....is this thread really about me confirming to the umpteenth degree I have rhodium ore, or wasn't I asking how to just get the rhodium out.... just sayin, let's assume that the rf wasn't wrong....is there any affordable way I can process this? Myself preferably, or time efficient manner I can process it? Do I just grind it all and pan it all? I do thank yall for the advice on assassins and such. But assuming it comes out as positive again, next step?


I hope you have come to a conclusion so far, however I suggest you to analyse this ore with ICP, and also a chemical method named stannous chloride test it might be hard to dissolve rhodium, so find an specialist. Don't forget that 10% rh is much, so don't give much of it to labs.


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## Brett6050 (Oct 23, 2022)

So did you find out if it's rhodium?


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## stoneware (Oct 23, 2022)

Maysam said:


> Those shiny points are water reflections


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## Western Mining (Oct 30, 2022)

killachong said:


> I recently thought i found gold, i had it XRF scanned and it returned 80-90% Fe and 10-20% Rh (avg from 5 rocks) it also had a very small amount of palladium. I did not know what RH was so i aid damn and took my rocks home, then a dy later i read how valuable Rh is and what Rh is. And i remembered the scans, i did not trust the scans to be done by the same person, and knowing the mind can trick itself i had the scans done a 2nd time on same rocks. so i schedules scans for a different person and he got the same results.
> 
> i have more of these rocks many more almost identical to the ones i had tested....my problem is i can find anyone who will process the ore. But i have double verified by XRF scanner good amounts of Rh. one of the rocks weight 20 pounds alone. so if it has 10%...2 lbs, thats half a million dollars right? So here i am sitting on possibly millions, and i cant get it out of the rock?? Ive called several so called noble metal refineries, none will/can do it.


This thread seems to have ended some time ago but I couldn't help but notice the common errors made by many with XRF tests. You may or may not have any Rh in your ore. There are many minerals and compounds that mask other elements in XRF shots. 

We use XRF shots on literally hundreds of samples each year but their purpose is only as indicators of minerals in the ore. We do very complex assays of mineral deposits suspect of containing economic values of PGMs. For individuals not equipped or experienced in these processes we recommend using a competent laboratory to have your ore tested. We have had good results from HAZEN in Colorado. But there are several other companies out there.

We recommend you have a semi-quantitative assay done and then consider the more advanced tests and assays if results are favorable. It can be expensive to have all the tests done that are needed to prove the content of precious metal in your ore and a good method of extraction to collect a refinable product. 

There are no shortcuts in this industry. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Good Luck...


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