Refining and melting Iridium and Platinum

[darkminos]

I'm not trying to be a jerk....but I don't think you've done your homework.

I wasn't kidding when I said 20 people worldwide. It's a very small group of people that handle the isolation and refinement of the lesser known PGM's.

A google search of "iridium refinement" gives this.

https://www.technology.matthey.com/article/52/3/186-197/

From there, you can start pulling the sources they give you.

You honestly will not get any free rides with iridium processing.

You can figure out Pt refinement quite well on this forum. Pd, somewhat. Everything else, snippets. Starting with Gilchrist is never a bad idea.

Ugh, I have only noticed this reply. Thanks for the link.

After spending a few hours reading through pages and pages of old post on this forum I did find some useful information and slowly digesting it.

 

[Connie Saxe]

Hi,

Newbie here. I just setting myself up as I have a substantial quantity of Ir/Pt alloy to refine.

As I'm trying to avoid spending money on equipment which will prove to be useless I wanted to ask for some advise with equipment selection as well as the refining process itself. I will address the refining process in a separate post as not to overload one thread.

First of all I'm looking to set up an oxy-hydrogen torch (from cylinder, not the tiny one for jewellers) for melting about 200g Pt and 50g Ir. Ideally I would love to melt each of them into a single ingot (or button in case of Iridium) but I think this will not be possible with using an oxy-hydrogen torch for such quantities of Ir and Pt. I'm not even sure if using an oxy-hydrogen torch on Iridium will get it to melt at all as the difference between the max flame temperature and the melting point of Iridium is only 334C and I suspect there is always some loss in the heat transfer?

But let's say the oxy-hydrogen torch will melt small quantities of Iridium (1g or so at a time), will the resulting button retain the purity obtained during the refining process or will it pull carbon and other crap out of the atmosphere and crucible? I know that ideally I should use an electrical arch furnace in a controlled atmosphere to melt Iridium, but really can't afford to spend £20k to melt 50g Iridium :lol: :?

So the questions in a nutshell:
1. Can an equal pressure oxy-hydrogen torch melt 200g of Platinum, well enough to cast it into an ingot?
2. What is the max Pt I could melt and cast in one attempt using a oxy-hydrogen torch?
3. Can an equal pressure oxy-hydrogen torch melt 50g of Iridium into a button? Or even 1g?
4. Will the oxy-hydrogen melting process substantially contaminate the Iridium?
5. Any recommendations regarding a quality torch?


Alternatively, does anyone have or know someone who has an electrical arch furnace (in the UK) I could use for a (small ) fee?

Thank you!

If you have the time and skill to "chase" Iridium and if you believe you have Iridium content in ore, you need to evaluate the ore to try and make sure you have Iridium. First, have you done a microscopic evaluation? Iridium in nature will occur either as metallic Iridium, Iridium Oxide (blue-black solid), Iridium Trichloride (green-solid) or Iridium-Complex commonly with Gold.

Next, if you can free any Iridium in any form from the ore - acid dissolution tests will help you determine if Iridium is present. Tests are a little on the complex side especially where metallic Iridium, Iridium oxide, Iridium Trichloride and Gold-Iridium Complex are present. Even with acid tests that tell you absolutely Iridium HAS to be there, it still might not be.

If you manage to make it this far, attempts to melt Iridium under non-proper temperature controlled conditions (4,400F range) - where you are not able to monitor the exact temperature of the melting environment can lead to explosions. With minute quantities of Iridium, about the magnitude of a tiny firecracker (pop). Torches? Don't even go there. Very expensive electric furnace only.

After all else fails (and it usually does), resort to XRF$ analysis - which will tell you to forget the whole thing.

 

[orvi]

If you have the time and skill to "chase" Iridium and if you believe you have Iridium content in ore, you need to evaluate the ore to try and make sure you have Iridium. First, have you done a microscopic evaluation? Iridium in nature will occur either as metallic Iridium, Iridium Oxide (blue-black) or Iridium-Complex commonly with Gold.

Next, if you can free any Iridium in any form from the ore - acid dissolution tests will help you determine if Iridium is present. Tests are a little on the complex side especially where metallic Iridium, Iridium oxide and Gold-Iridium Complex are present. Even with acid tests that tell you absolutely Iridium HAS to be there, it still might not be.

If you manage to make it this far, attempts to melt Iridium under non-proper temperature controlled conditions (4,400F range) - where you are not able to monitor the exact temperature of the melting environment can lead to explosions. With minute quantities of Iridium, about the magnitude of a small firecracker. Torches? Don't even go there. Very expensive electric furnace only.

After all else fails (and it usually does), resort to XRF$ analysis - which will tell you to forget the whole thing.

he wasn´t there for nearly 4 years, I wouldn´t expect answer