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Google may need more research in afghanistan.
Smelting ore with induction
- Thread starter DaniH
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Regarding Iron as a collector metal, 30 years ago C.W. Ammen (you know who that is) was a friend of mine that I would talk with almost daily. We were talking high temp ores and he told me his method which was Thermite. He would router out a groove in a 2x4 pour the mix along the groove and ignite one end. Now this is a great method if you have ever run Thermite. If you load up a big crucible with it and it ignites, it goes off like a volcano at 10,000F and blows the ore all over the yard.
So for Afghanistan, this might just be cheaper, easier and faster for his ore. You just eat up the Al and Fe with H2SO4 and viola: you got the goodies.
So for Afghanistan, this might just be cheaper, easier and faster for his ore. You just eat up the Al and Fe with H2SO4 and viola: you got the goodies.
5 stars man.. it was my first idea to try years ago. Well anyone in afghanistan can supply magnesite, then welcome.
. And i will try your recipy one day
Some processes to recover precious metals in catalysts from the oil, chemical, pharmaceutical and automotive industries by plasma torch fusion suggest the alternative of using iron alloys as collector metal, which has the advantage of low cost and the possibility of magnetic separation. of the remains that may remain in the slag, once the charge is melted the slag - metal phases are always separated and the exchange of precious metals occurs exclusively in the area that represents the width of the crucible, when the ore concentrate is melted the particles with PGMs begin to fall given the difference in density through the slag bath until they join the metallic phase. The speed of fall depends fundamentally on the fluidity of the slag, which is why it is important to know its composition and add the fluxes so that have the lowest possible viscosity, it is also important to have good fluidity in the metal button, study the possibility of using the eutectic iron carbon at 4.3% with a melting point of approximately 1140°C. against 1530°C of iron. To increase the rate of exchange between the phases, it is important to stir the bath that occurs when powering the furnace and when each cycle ends, before casting, wait a few minutes to allow time for the PGMs to fall and then, without stirring the bath, do cast only half of the slag and load ore again, performing several of these cycles until the collector metal is loaded with PGMs to the maximum possible and finally cast all the slag and the metal button, if the mineral is mainly iron oxides and silica, the refractory should be magnesite or chrome magnesite.
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Hello guys
for me is easier to use copper
and is not toxic
Lead is very toxic
for that reason I’m avoid it.
for me is easier to use copper
and is not toxic
Lead is very toxic
for that reason I’m avoid it.
This is is the best answer i have. And much more straight to the point. I want more explaination if possible.
Thanks
Where does the electricity to power the furnance come form ? Fact that no one from big guys is doing it this way has a lot to say about efficiency of the process.
Where are the values in the ore located ? Sulfides, freemill gold ? Smelting bulk ore is bad idea if you are concerned about profitability. And cranking it up to 1600 °C is huge thing, requiring very expensive refractory materials and setup for whole thing. With 100Amps furnance, you ain´t gonna make one ton of material that quickly.
Smelting concentrates is done on large scale, but after significant reduction of gangue minerals and barren rock.
I would advise you to re-think whole process and opt for alternatives that aren´t so energy and resource demanding. Because there is plenty of possibilities how to do it, also with basic hydrometallurgy or even better - flotation unit. It´s golden standard for ores that contain tiny particles of freemill gold and sulfides. Building even DIY flotation tank isn´t extremely complicated, and with some time and trial-error, you can adjust it fairly well.
And maybe directly sell the concentrates to bigger guy, to save time and your health, as smelting in scale somewhere in a shed is not great thing in regarding health of you, your family and workers.
Where are the values in the ore located ? Sulfides, freemill gold ? Smelting bulk ore is bad idea if you are concerned about profitability. And cranking it up to 1600 °C is huge thing, requiring very expensive refractory materials and setup for whole thing. With 100Amps furnance, you ain´t gonna make one ton of material that quickly.
Smelting concentrates is done on large scale, but after significant reduction of gangue minerals and barren rock.
I would advise you to re-think whole process and opt for alternatives that aren´t so energy and resource demanding. Because there is plenty of possibilities how to do it, also with basic hydrometallurgy or even better - flotation unit. It´s golden standard for ores that contain tiny particles of freemill gold and sulfides. Building even DIY flotation tank isn´t extremely complicated, and with some time and trial-error, you can adjust it fairly well.
And maybe directly sell the concentrates to bigger guy, to save time and your health, as smelting in scale somewhere in a shed is not great thing in regarding health of you, your family and workers.
Thanks for reply. Yes floatation is a knonwn banificialer process, have floatation cell working. Somehow 1600c is really an expensive idea, ore is worth to process. consider the mathod described by "rusti2" . Smelting with iron and remove slag and adding new material till iron is concentrated with values. There are always an easy way, sell as it is, many other safer ways, but when you are in , in a refining field , you have to be fair with your work.
Thanks for sharing options
Borax is not used as a flux on a production scale because it is very expensive, preferred fluxing agents include sodium oxide (Na2O), potassium oxide (K2O), calcium oxide (CaO), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), silica ( SiO2), aluminum oxide (Al2 O3), magnesium oxide (MgO), calcium fluoride (CaF2), Cryolite (Na3AlF6) or combinations of two or more of the same and the mixture to be added is a function of the physical properties chemistry of the slag to be modified, which is achieved by studying the phase equilibrium diagram corresponding to the slag system to obtain a mixture with the lowest possible melting point, in this way it will increase the recovery of PGMs, spend less electrical energy and refractory lining .
For basic chracteristics of ore, what flux is batter to start, and in case of any acidic ore, what flux is suitable
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In an ore smelting process, the iron should be reporting to the slag as an oxide. Whatever base metals are present will act as your gold and silver collectors.
May be, but i think its not an "every time fit" phenomenon . Some time ore has different chracteristics , smelting is not a process that always done for one type action in the furnance. There are many examples where whole iron not report in slag, may be some iron always do. When iron choosed as collecter, then it means there are some reason so that iron will work as collecter. Some time to break some bonds. ... Some time to make bonds!
I would like to point out that the use of iron as a collector metal for PGM and precious metals in general, either incorporating it as powder or metal shavings and also as iron oxides mixed with a reducing agent to produce nascent iron in the molten slag bath is a fact and It is published in research papers and patents, the company Tetronics Limited that develops and sells comprehensive equipment for the recovery of PGM by fusion with plasma furnaces indicates iron as the preferred collector metal, I leave you some examples below.
Martijn
Well-known member
Lead does not need to boil for pm's to dissolve in it. It is infact a solvent for gold at 290 degrees C/ or +/-550 F no boiling =, no big clouds of lead fumes, and smelting should be done in a flux making the melt fluid and moving to transport the pm's to the pool of lead at the bottom. This keeps the lead closed off from the air and also prevents evaporation.
Using litharge for the collector metal makes the start out as lead finely divided droplets and works its way to the bottom, gathering the goodies on it's way down.
Yes it is.
Thanks for links.
It answers alot and its really helpfull.
These are all tachnical ways to work on density and basicity of slag.
Any manual/machanical way to mix low density slag+molten metal in the melt. A proper mix. Out of fluxes.
According to this logic the Iron must be boiling as well and then we are talking about almost 2900Centigrade.
Iron is regularly used for the concentration of PGMs. I don't know why everyone is stuck on copper or electricity. It is generally done with an arc furnace, although there are many different varieties as you can also do a collection smelt using iron matte. The solubility of PGM's outside of Palladium and Platinum in copper is not great.
Yes, copper is also good but if there is au, and if its ag/au then lead is batter than copper.
When its about PGM , then copper is ok but iron is much more batter option.
Only some more research required to adjust the ingredients. Iron is good to collect from slag with magnet.
Copper is only good that its easy to refine and low boiling point. , than iron,
