TABLE OF CONTENTS Recycling of precious group metals, which include, silver, gold, and platinum group metals ( PGMs) - platinum, palladium and rhodium is largely undertaken by separate specialist industries. Gold products comes from jewelers, silver from film and chemical industry catalysts and platinum group metals as residues from the base metal industry, analytical laboratories and increasingly from automobile catalysts. Recycling of precious group metals, present the greatest challenge for a number of reasons:
the very small percent content in which precious metals are found in waste and scrap materials;
the mixed nature of precious metals in these products; a single metal is seldom present;
the variety in the chemical and physical properties of the host materials ranging from metallic to non-metallic and from solids to solutions and everything in between;
the high value of the precious metals combined with their dilute and mixed nature require that the weight and the assay of the constituents be determined. This may lead to additional costs and processing times.
To ensure constant and reliable sources of supply of precious metal-bearing material of known and consistent composition, recycling facilities tend to operate in closed loops with collectors, reprocessors, and end-users. The following types of facilities have developed to recycle precious metal-bearing materials:
primary smelters and refiners specializing in electronic scrap, plating sludges, and many other types of precious metal-bearing scrap and waste materials because of its ability to extract the valuable metals in the presence of contaminants and other materials associated with theses...
