Humbled by wealth of knowledge - Forum Newbie

[klemat63]

First of all, I want to commend you on such a great community with great vision and purpose. Knowledge is the key to success and the fact that you are willing to share this information is admirable! I believe "what goes around, comes back around." It is just inspiring to know that there are good people out there willing to help and share their expertise with the newcomer that has a dream. In my opinion giving back is what it is all about, not just with what we are dealing with here but with all things in life.

Background Info:
My name is Matt Klein. I have a couple Associates degrees in IT, but I endured some hardships alone the way that changed my career path. I am currently working for a Core company in the scrap metal industry. We mostly deal with catalytic converters. We are the middlemen so we only make a couple bucks per cat and work our butts off. I recently decided that the profit margin is too low and we could be making a lot more money per cat. I know there is platinum, rhodium, and other metals in the cat converters. I know the big refining companies are making big bucks on these metals, why cant I? So this started my vicious and tedious research into refining platinum. The info was slim and far between (until I found you guys) but I believe I have the ability to succeed in setting up my own little refining business with your HELP! There is enough money to go around for everybody and I don't want to step on anyone's shoes, but I would like to learn the art of platinum refining to make a little extra cash and maybe concentrate on other important things in my life. I welcome any and all advice on the subject and it will be for my ears only.

My plan is to set up a little shop with all the equipment necessary to extract the platinum and make it into solid form. There is a lot of wonderful information in this forum. Where should I start? Right now I am gathering all the info I can and trying to put it into place. Thanks for welcoming me into your world!

 

[element47.5]

One thing I would not neglect from your "feasibility" studies is consideration of how much volume you would need to process to make the effort worthwhile. I don't know what the average yield is from cats and I have never processed any, and obviously I don't know what is "worthwhile" for you. Keep in mind also that Pt buyers are in my experience quite punitive when it comes to (your) quantities offered. Unless and until your have let's say 10 oz, you're not gonna get more than 90% of spot. None of this 97%, 98% stuff like with gold. Not trying to discourage you in any way, just urging you to consider the whole process and its potential.

And welcome to the forum!

 

[Geo]

welcome Matt. knowledge here is freely shared and there is very few proprietary processes developed by certain members that are well guarded secrets. catalytic converters isnt one of them. they are discussed widely on the forum and the different systems and processes for reclaiming and refining the PGM's. there are far more members than not that do their own refining and selling and trading is accepted on the forum and there is a section just for that. there is certain resources on the forum that will get you up to speed as far as forum etiquette and rules in the guided tour link in Lazersteves signature line.

download a copy of C.M. Hoke's book "Refining Precious Metal Waste" and read it. it will give you a simple to read and simple to understand step by step means to prepare and use techniques of metal recovery and refining you cant get anywhere else. this is the free download link http://tinyurl.com/mfnyhs

good luck and be safe.

 

[nickvc]

Welcome to the forum.
My take on cats is its far too much work for the money involved as far as refining goes and you never recover all the PGMs. If your selling the cats whole then perhaps opening them, crushing the substrate and learn sampling and get assays and then sell the powder on might be a way to go. You would have knowledge of what the powder contained and if in decent volume there are several very large refiners who will pay good money, high 90% for the values. It's just my opinion and others may disagree but it's hard work refining PGMs unless your set up properly to do them.

 

[rusty]

I welcome any and all advice on the subject and it will be for my ears only.

The gold forum is all about sharing knowledge.

In your introduction, you say cats contain platinum and rhodium along with other metals, sounds to me that you have never had an independent assay done on your material and that your here on a fishing trip.

From my personal expedience you will find that palladium is the prominent metal inside cats, and that you are far better off finding a reliable refinery, one that has a plasma arc furnace to process your cats, in which ever state you wish to ship them, whole or opened or opened then milled.

A small operation is going to be big loosing proposition, you need volume to make a marginal profit. Like you said there's plenty of money to go around.

 

[joem]

As seen with many newbies, myself included, the site of preciuos metals could blind you to the true profits with less work you are searching out. Finding more suppliers of cats and better buyers might be a way to go. A lot of work at first but as things and reputation grows so does the volume. Many of people get stuck on the word (in your case cats) but do not realise it's all about networking, marketing, and learning who your customers and competition really are. Try googling S.W.O.T. analysis it helps a lot.

 

[klemat63]

Hi, this is MK the newbie...i just want to thank all for the warm welcome! I appreciate the advice, I am still learning and I am exploreing all options. I am trying to learn as much as possible, but I am still new so please forgive me for my ignorance! I want to address my comment as for "my ears only." I just meant as I learn and make relationships I will share my info only when I fully understand what I have learned!!

 

[Harold_V]

I will share my info only when I fully understand what I have learned!!

A wise choice. One of the negative aspects of those who are too eager to share is the propagation of misinformation, which is an endless problem with refining. Less than acceptable procedures tend to be advised, making it difficult for those with little of no experience to sort good from bad advice.

Wise folks get their feet firmly planted on the ground before offering advice to others. I commend you for your wisdom.

Welcome to the forum!

Harold