PMs Concentrate

[Franciz]

I have sources for PM concentrate and it is in 60mesh size Gold and Platinum is visible with naked eyes.
Assay shows,

Au-116g/Kg
Pt-204g/Kg
Rh-64g/Kg
Cu-80g/Kg
Fe-20g/Kg

May i know is there any ways i can process it? Can it process with AR?
I do not have a furnaces that can be able to smelt the Pt.


Thanks in advances...
Franciz

 

[Geo]

sounds like a bench sweeps or floor sweeps from a jewelers shop. Harold speaks of these very often and how to deal with them. i would think you need to incinerate the material to remove any organics and since theres no silver involved, a hard boil in hcl to remove the iron and then a quick incineration and nitric to remove the copper. AR at ambient temperature will dissolve the gold and leave the platinum and rhodium.then a hard boil in AR will remove the platinum leaving the rhodium.

i have never dealt with this kind of material and this could be all wrong, if i am, someone will straighten it out.

 

[Franciz]

After a good soak in Nitric then follow by HCl, Lastly digest in AR in normal temperature big reaction and i got this color?
Issit possible gold or?

Thanks....
Franciz

 

[philddreamer]

A stannous test will tell you.

I hope you have some gold! 8)

Phil

 

[Franciz]

A stannous test will tell you.

I hope you have some gold! 8)

Phil

Dear Philddreamer,

I know i can test it with stannous Chloride after driving off with nitric acid, But Should the color look like this when the gold dissolved in AR? The reaction has not stop yet but i am sure i have fully removed all the base metal.
I am just excited and hope someone can predict the result after see the color... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks
Franciz

 

[philddreamer]

I test my AR even with some free nitric present & I get a result.

The color sure looks like gold, but sometimes other metals will give a similar color. I just had that expirience a few weeks ago with some ore that was brought to me for recovery of PM's.

If you ran thru nitric, you removed some BM's, the question is, How much?
Then you ran it thru HCl... I hope you incinerated the material in order to get rid of all traces of nitric, otherwise you dissolved some gold when you ran it thru thr HCl. I hope you saved the solution.
IF that is gold, then you got rid of most of the BM's and if you test with stannous, you should get a positive for gold.

I have a feeling that maybe you took some steps that were not needed, but will see how much it affected.

Take care & be safe!

Phil

 

[Harold_V]

I am just excited and hope someone can predict the result after see the color... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Franciz,
If the material has iron included, and it wasn't totally eliminated in the previous digests, it's entirely possible the vibrant color you see can be at least partially attributed to dissolved iron. If the material had sulfides, that's entirely possible, as it would have required roasting to eliminate the sulfur. Also, if the platinum that is reputed to be included is finely divided, it, too, will have at least partially dissolved, yielding a darker than normal orange color.
Take a drop of your solution, which should be placed in a spot plate cavity (or a white plastic spoon if you don't have a spot plate). Add a crystal of ferrous sulfate to the drop. It will precipitate any gold that may be present, and the color of the solution will change. If the crystal dissolves totally, you may wish to add a second crystal, to ensure that you have precipitated all of the dissolved gold.

When you know the gold is down, you can then add a drop of stannous chloride to the solution, to see if it contains any platinum.

The drop that was tested should be washed to your stock pot, where the values contained within will be recovered in due time.

Harold

 

[Jamessnipes505]

[]The color sure looks like gold, but sometimes other metals will give a similar color. I just had that expirience a few weeks ago with some ore that was brought to me for recovery of PM's. ]

Did you ever get gold out of it?
Did this ore have tiny specs of glitter that appeared to be gold and silver? I have been trying to recover gold from ore and it is not working out like I had planned. I am starting to think it is all pyrite. The ore has been roasted, frothed, then silk screened to get a heavy concentration. There are still dark particles in the concentrate although not magnetic. After a 35% nitric leach ( 50/50 70% nitric distilled water) with a gental boil no colored fumes were released and a smell of sulfur was put off. I ended up with all of the fine flakes in the bottom of the beaker and a dark red solution. I feel there could still be silver if any of this is pm and not pyrite. Any suggestions before I attempt ar? I tried a small amount in this test and a seperate smelting test but it didn't turn out so well. I am recovering pm for a friend who doesn't have the means to process it. I requested his assay results to know exactly what I'm dealing with. Hopefully I'll receive them soon.
Does something in the ore change the chemical reaction compared to typical recovery? I know you can't give a deffinate answer without knowing exactly what was in the ore. You all are a hundred times more experienced than I am an was hopeful someone has processed sulfide ores and recovered gold. The ore came from trinity county California i know it doesn't help a lot but it's what I'm working with.
In theory after any silver is removed the ar should act like cyanide to digest gold correct? If anyone has a better recovery method from ore please let me know!
Thanks
James

 

[butcher]

James,
If you smelled sulfur when reacting with acids I say if there is values you need to re-roast, I would remove solution (test for values before treating for waste), neutralize the solids with heated dilute caustic soda solution rinse and dry and roast again red hot, crushing powders as best as possible, make them glow red hot and expose to air or oxygen, to burn off sulfides, adding some iron powder to the roast can also help to remove sulfide and roast them to SO2 gas, as long as you have sulfide, the acids will not free values from the leached ore.

Acid leach may not be the beat approach depending on ore, smelting may be a better option for recovering values.

You also need that assay of the ore to see if you’re just spinning your wheels, also knowing the composition of the ore can help you with decision of how to treat it?

Also take care not to breath or smell the fumes from ore treated with the acid, you could be giving yourself large doses of arsenic or other dangerous fumes, depending on what the composition of the ore is.

 

[Franciz]

Issit a need to remove all other metal then AR? So what is the best ways to do it?

Thanks
Francis

 

[butcher]

Pretreatments of ore can be different for most types of ore, depending on the type and complex.

Iron hydroxides are very hard to dissolve in any acid (HCL, sulfuric, nitric, even in aqua regia), sometimes this is an advantage, other times a problem, if this is a problem it can sometimes help to use flux in the roast to help convert iron hydroxide to elemental iron (limestone).

Sulfides can hold values with the iron, roasting can help, it sometimes be necessary to add iron metal fillings to the roast to help remove the sulfides to convert them to SO2 gas, this can free the iron in the ore from the sulfides as well as let you be able to dissolve the iron out in a later leach.

If this is ore, the iron involved can be in forms hard to dissolve and get rid of, grinding the ore fine, and concentrating the ore, separating the values as much as possible from the other rock, then roasting the ore red hot, holding the temperature and exposing to air or oxygen, the incineration can help to make most metals easier for acids to dissolve.


Every ore is different and may need different processes to extract the values, pretreatments can be very important, and no one process will work for all ore, you may have to experiment to find a process that will work, and you may have to experiment more to adjust your process for better yields, this is also where assay's and knowing the composition of the ore can help.



I would crush try crushing, roasting, and leach iron in HCl or H2SO4.

A test for iron in solution using potassium Ferro cyanide (blue), see Hoke's book page 100.

 

[Franciz]

Pretreatments of ore can be different for most types of ore, depending on the type and complex.

Iron hydroxides are very hard to dissolve in any acid (HCL, sulfuric, nitric, even in aqua regia), sometimes this is an advantage, other times a problem, if this is a problem it can sometimes help to use flux in the roast to help convert iron hydroxide to elemental iron (limestone).

Sulfides can hold values with the iron, roasting can help, it sometimes be necessary to add iron metal fillings to the roast to help remove the sulfides to convert them to SO2 gas, this can free the iron in the ore from the sulfides as well as let you be able to dissolve the iron out in a later leach.

If this is ore, the iron involved can be in forms hard to dissolve and get rid of, grinding the ore fine, and concentrating the ore, separating the values as much as possible from the other rock, then roasting the ore red hot, holding the temperature and exposing to air or oxygen, the incineration can help to make most metals easier for acids to dissolve.


Every ore is different and may need different processes to extract the values, pretreatments can be very important, and no one process will work for all ore, you may have to experiment to find a process that will work, and you may have to experiment more to adjust your process for better yields, this is also where assay's and knowing the composition of the ore can help.



I would crush try crushing, roasting, and leach iron in HCl or H2SO4.

A test for iron in solution using potassium Ferro cyanide (blue), see Hoke's book page 100.

Thank you Butcher, I will update onces if i have recovered any value from the ore. :lol:

Best regs
Francis