Hi, I precipitated Pt and Pd from aqua regia using Ammonium Chloride. I then had PGM powder(32%Pt, 1.5%Au, 1%Pd, 50%Fe, and some base metals). When I burn this powder using a toch, the powder just burns away without forming a button. Also never used Borax. What am I doing wrong?
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Gold-N-Scrap
Recovery & Refining of Precious Metals
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Well, from your description, i doubt you would be able to achieve that, as it may not contain that much metals in the first place.
You can also precipitate metallic Gold or Platinum using zinc powder.
This can be done by diluting the solution with 2-3 time over with water, filter and adding fine Zinc powder.
Any black or light brown powder would probably mean PGM or Gold (respectively). However, i would suggest not expecting a whole lot of it.
XRF yes. I do have sample powder left. Also still has dark brown/redish solution of aqua regia, to process further.
Critically at this stage, I want to produce some solid/button from the powder I have. How do I go about achieving this?
Do you mean XRF?
It is hardly the right tool to test chemical compounds.
Do you have samples left from the solution or the salts?
I would suggest testing with SnCl2 test solution to verify the presence of any PM. You must keep in mind that the content of any ore is, by default very low.... So experience is required.
If you think there's a sound business opportunity in this ore, would also suggest sending a sample for an assay with a familiar assay office in your area.
Generally speaking, it is rarely worth while treating ore with acids.
The material is mined Pt ore. The process I followed is: First I put the material in Nitric acid overnight, then drained out the acid and washed the material with tap water. Next put the material in aqua regia for about 3 hrs, then boiled this to ensure both Pt and Pd dissolve into the solution. Finally precipitated Pt and Pd with ammonium chloride. Filtered the precitipate and put on slow heat until I got powder (from precipitate). Used a High intensity X-RAY Beam to analyze this powder. Then burned the powder with a torch, the powder just burned away without forming any solid/button.
Can you share what was the source material?
What exactly was the process you did?
What method did you use to analyze the metallic content?
Generally speaking, decomposing of Platinum (Pt) and Palladium (Pd) Ammonium salts with heat is done very slowly over a period of at least couple of hours.
Yes ammonium chloride precipitates of Pt and Pd, the analysis of the powder showed these other elements
Hi there,
I'm not sure i understand which powder you tried to burn. Was it the ammonium salts of Pt and Pd? Or the other powder you mentioned (32%Pt, 1.5%Au, 1%Pd, 50%Fe, and some base metals)?