Electrochemistry using iron anodes in electrolytic cell

[ironman2]

Good day folks! We have a fair amount of iron from a smelting operation bearing about 0.5% in Au & pgm's. I think we can remelt and cast the iron into anodes easily enough. So, anybody around here have some suggestions on how to best set up a moderate sized electrolytic cell to try removing and plating out the iron, leaving the goodies behind as anode slimes? We are wondering what would probably be best electrolyte, pH, temp, current, etc. to use...

 

[4metals]

There are a number of different baths available: ferrous chloride; ferrous fluorborate; ferrous sulfamate; and ferrous sulfate are common examples. Of these baths the most common is the ferrous chloride bath. The makeup and operation of this bath is as follows:

Ferrous chloride dihydrate: 40–60 oz/gal
Calcium chloride: 20–35 oz/gal
Operating temperature: 185–200F
pH range: 0.5–1.5
Current density (no agitation): 20–80 asf
Anodes: High quality iron

Question is how high quality is your anode material. what are the impurities? Was this the skim which is full of refractory and crap?

 

[g_axelsson]

How about liquid liquid extraction with molten silver? I've never done it myself but I think I've read about it somewhere I can't find right now.

When iron with gold is mixed with silver and molten, the gold ends up in the silver and the silver doesn't alloy with the iron so it can be separated after pouring into a conical mold.

Göran

 

[ironman2]

This is pretty good quality metal, but purposefully brittle so as to allow for regrind. We are also considering fine grinding and using thiourea to leach, but really like the idea of employing electrolytic refining to produce very high purity iron while leaving the pm's behind as slimes - even though the power consumption would be costly.

 

[Lino1406]

Did you hear about a profitable iron production that works on electricity?