IRIDIUM processing ?

[Sitta yagodoka]

Oooh i want to buy hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide and then go to gold mines to dissolve gold and pricipitate with iron2sulphate what are precautions should i take to work with this chamicals? Are they danger?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Oooh i want to buy hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide and then go to gold mines to dissolve gold and pricipitate with iron2sulphate what are precautions should i take to work with this chamicals? Are they danger?

Of course. HCl can be quite corrosive and cause burns.
But worse, if you put random ores in acid without knowing what is in it,
it may lead to serious poisoning and injuries to yourself and anyone around you.
Acids may be ok for most jewellers scrap, e waste and so on, but not for ores until you know its content.

 

[goldshark]

Of course. HCl can be quite corrosive and cause burns.
But worse, if you put random ores in acid without knowing what is in it,
it may lead to serious poisoning and injuries to yourself and anyone around you.
Acids may be ok for most jewellers scrap, e waste and so on, but not for ores until you know its content.

Yggdrasil, I think this guy is just funning with you. Anybody who starts a conversation by "oooh, I want to take some acids to a mine", is not a refined person.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Oooh i want to buy hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide and then go to gold mines to dissolve gold and pricipitate with iron2sulphate what are precautions should i take to work with this chamicals? Are they danger?

This post do not belong in this cathegory, I can move it for you, but what title do you want for it?

 

[Rhpos]

Osmium poisoning is in fact very rare, but the most important reason for that is that the Osmium itself is very rare.
The number of persons in contact with Osmium yearly is exceedingly small.
Additionally most of these are educated enough to treat it with respect.
Most of the cases of actual Osmium poisoning will probably come from the early days,
when there was no or little safety protocols and little information to have.
And then there is the odd refiner that don't have the full oversight or information due to lack of tests.

One of the risks with OsO4 is that it is accumulative so if you get a bit now and then,
you might not even notice and your doctor would probably not know what is causing your eyesight or liver to fail gradually.
Ending up with a completely wrong diagnose.

In the end it comes down to knowing your feed stock/ore and the limitations of your skills and lab.

haha, OSO4 is a gooey liquid at room temp, viscous. It has a unique smell, you'll never forget it. So volatile, you really have to seal it in an ampuole, otherwise it disappears. I'd reckon the sulfide should be stable black powder. Expensive stuff ! Os is like the bstd child in the PM family.... imagine how much of it refiners have boiled off....

 

[Yggdrasil]

haha, OSO4 is a gooey liquid at room temp, viscous. It has a unique smell, you'll never forget it. So volatile, you really have to seal it in an ampuole, otherwise it disappears. I'd reckon the sulfide should be stable black powder. Expensive stuff ! Os is like the bstd child in the PM family.... imagine how much of it refiners have boiled off....

According to Wikipedia that is wrong.
It is a colourless solid with a melting point at 40C.
It may sometimes seem yellowish due to contamination with OsO2

 

[Sitta yagodoka]

Of course. HCl can be quite corrosive and cause burns.
But worse, if you put random ores in acid without knowing what is in it,
it may lead to serious poisoning and injuries to yourself and anyone around you.
Acids may be ok for most jewellers scrap, e waste and so on, but not for ores until you know its content.

What are metal which may found in ores that may brings dangerous to this reaction

 

[Yggdrasil]

What are metal which may found in ores that may brings dangerous to this reaction

Not necessarily metals. But Arsenic, Cadmium and Mercury comes to mind immidieately.

Where do you want to move your posts, you highjacked this thread with an off topic request.

 

[Allen Hammer]

Iridium is commonly associated with osmium in the ores, and even ruthenium can be there, altough less likely.
When osmium is oxidized in strong oxidizing conditions - it converts to octavalent state - osmium tetroxide - OsO4 - which has very low boiling point and EVAPORATES from the melt or leach. Osmium tetroxide is extremely toxic compound, even in well setup industry, all manufacturers avoid its use (as catalyst for organic synthesis). It has very nasty feature - being very violent oxidant - to be reduced upon contact with tissue to lower valence osmium compounds - which are black and does not degrade in body on any circumstances. So vapors of OsO4 hit your retina in the eye, deposit there and turn black. Irreversibly. Making you blind forever. No cure.

What do you suggest? I am about to smelt a large batch. I was going to try to use a magnet to concentrate ore, some I also panned the heavies out. What should I do next besides smelt. Wear dive goggles?

 

[Allen Hammer]

Not necessarily metals. But Arsenic, Cadmium and Mercury comes to mind immidieately.

Where do you want to move your posts, you highjacked this thread with an off topic request.

I started a new one with my interduction.

 

[Yggdrasil]

What do you suggest? I am about to smelt a large batch. I was going to try to use a magnet to concentrate ore, some I also panned the heavies out. What should I do next besides smelt. Wear dive goggles?

Aah where to start.
First things first I guess.
Welcome to us.
We are a strange bunch in here, we demand such things as evidence and we also demand that people behave and study.
There are top notch world class refiners in here which probably have forgotten more than I know.
Please answer a few questions first. So lets get to it.

1. Why do you believe you have Iridium in the ore, and this is the important question.
2. How are you going to melt Ir?

Next we like people to study so here is some homework for you.

We ask our new members to do 3 things.
1. Read C.M. Hokes book on refining jewelers scrap, it gives an easy introduction to the most important chemistry regarding refining.
It is free here on the forum: Screen Readable Copy of Hoke's Book
2. Then read the safety section of the forum: Safety
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum: Dealing with Waste

Suggested reading: The Library

 

[Yggdrasil]

I started a new one with my interduction.

I don't understand this, the post you replied to was not for you, but "Sitta Yagodoka" who did an error and I corrected it.

 

[Allen Hammer]

This post do not belong in this cathegory, I can move it for you, but what title do you want for it?

Iridium the frozen cupeler

 

[Yggdrasil]

Iridium the frozen cupeler

You need to start checking what you are doing.
Replying to posts that do not relate to you.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Iridium the frozen cupeler

Do you mean frozen cupels?
How can you do gravity separation on that and how did you test to verify that it was Ir?

 

[Allen Hammer]

Aah where to start.
First things first I guess.
Welcome to us.
We are a strange bunch in here, we demand such things as evidence and we also demand that people behave and study.
There are top notch world class refiners in here which probably have forgotten more than I know.
Please answer a few questions first. So lets get to it.

1. Why do you believe you have Iridium in the ore, and this is the important question.
2. How are you going to melt Ir?

Next we like people to study so here is some homework for you.

We ask our new members to do 3 things.
1. Read C.M. Hokes book on refining jewelers scrap, it gives an easy introduction to the most important chemistry regarding refining.
It is free here on the forum: Screen Readable Copy of Hoke's Book
2. Then read the safety section of the forum: Safety
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum: Dealing with Waste

Suggested reading: The Library

Not necessarily metals. But Arsenic, Cadmium and Mercury comes to mind immidieately.

Where do you want to move your posts, you highjacked this thread with an off topic request.

Arsenic, Cadmium and Mercury I have had no results by XRF or any other results of those elements. I do have a proper mask for smelting and protective wear. I wish to get some welding boots.

Even biggest guys in the organic chemistry industry refuse to allocate the facilities who work with osmium in synthesis to third world countries. They stopped to use it domestically completely (and trust me, replacing OsO4 as catalyst is sometimes impossible, and whole synthesis need to be completely re-established from scratch = immense money cost) and even refuse to use it abroad.

We used OsO4, or more specifically K2OsO4 precursor on many occasions throughout our syntheses in research. We stored the Os waste in classic 1L amber glassed bottles with standard plastic screw caps, which were PE from inside. After several weeks, OsO4 MANAGED TO STAIN POLYETHYLENE BLACK. One of the most unreactive substances.

This is not about one time events. I wish Lou had more time to talk about "osmium and ruthenium issue" in greater detail, as he certainly has immense first-hand experience with it, as professional PGM refiner.
If you will be ever processing Os containing material in oxidizing conditions, you will contaminate your workplace with Os inevitably - if you does not plan everything and scrub everything. Any leakage, low-grade fume extraction and fumehoods, exhaust re-suction to the lab... Will eventually expose you and your workers to very dangerous heavy metal. Slowly and steadily it find it´s way into your body and never leave.

Very similarly to platinosis and related PGM toxicity. Many people here laugh at it saying they work with PGMs and they are strong and healthy, while washing beakers after use with bare hands. But truth is, chemistry is unforgiving and it always does what it is supposed to - no matter what your believes are. Some are more susceptible to the effects - like I am.
I am well aware of the fact I am highly sensitive to PGM compounds. After year or two, despite wearing all PPE gear, and working diligently in fumehood - I encounter mild skin rash and itchyness after working larger batches of PGMs. From barely noticeable events, steadily and slowly to redness on the rim of my gloves, mild sore throat feeling and headache. All of these events can be very effectively tracked down to PGMs - with gold or silver, that never happened once.

One event happened several months ago - fumehood I was working in (with multiple ozt batch of formate reduction of PGM feed - effervescence of CO2 create aerosols) apparently re-sucked some air back into the laboratory. Two other ones were switched off, and pressure relieved by back-sucking the exhaust air to minor extent also by recupering the fumes (as the vents were in few meters distance one from another) - from evolution of aerosols of the chloride PGM solution in 5L beaker. After an hour or so of work, I start to notice subtle sore throat effects and itchyness on my face. Luckily, I recognized quickly where the issue lies - by opening the bottle of borane-dimethylsulfide in the hood I was working in. Awful smelling chemical. This in matter of minute came back by the other two hoods and clearly stenched from them. I quickly powered them up and instructed my colleague how to properly shut down the operation, as I immediately needed to go out. Tjis was clear warning sign for me, and from then ongoing, I take great care of what and how I do next. Mitigating PGM refining to bare minimum and sticking to pyrometallurgical ways of cleaning as much as possible, obviating the creation of PGM salts. And even in the cases where I need to actually disslove and work with PGM compounds, I prefer reactions where no aerosols or dried powders are produced. Solutions are practically perfectly containable and manageable, but evaporation, formate reductions, zinc cementations... These are concerning now for me.

For now, I managed to find ways how to mitigate the now practically unmeasurable exposure to these unforgiving compounds. And as I really do like and enjoy refining, I am maybe closer than I want to be to quitting all PGM refining, due to altough subtle, but clearly rising concerns about my health - which is my top priority.

Boron is great for you and can Kelate metals also Cilantro. I hear you and am concerned about myself in this matter. Nice way you made your point thank you.