Hydrometallurgical Processing of

Platinum
Group M
• Bernard Osei 3702318
• Gracienne Koffi 3701118
• Jeffery Asamani 3697618
• Howard Appiah 3697218
• Anthony Cudjoe 3699318
 CONTENT:
Introduction

Ore Preparation

Leaching

Solution Purification and

Recovery

Reference
 INTRODUCTION
 Platinum, among the precious metals(PMs), exist in nature with
other five metallic elements in small amount as a group known as
Platinum Group Metals(PGMs).

 When pure, platinum is a beautiful silvery-white metal that is

malleable

 Platinum(Pt-78), density-21.45g/, M.P-1769, soft, ductile, resistance

oxidation and to high temperature corrosion

 These properties of Pt has lead to it’s high economic value and

increasing demand

 Applications in catalysts, jewelries, electronic industries, fuel cells,

 ORE PREPARATION:
Ore mining: Platinum maybe mined as co-product of nickel and
copper or primarily for its content in Cu-Ni sulphides ores in
magmatic rocks.

Concentration: by froth flotation with reagent such as potassium

amyl zanthates or diothiophosphate as collector after milling.

Smelting: In smelting, silica and lime is combined with iron

separated as slag leaving the sulphide mineral as a matte phase.
Matte is converted to removed iron and it’s associated sulphur

In an electric furnace at a temperature of 1350-1600

 LEACHING
Converted matte undergo reverse leaching where most of
the accompanying minerals (copper, nickel, cobalt and iron
sulphides) are dissolved to leave behind an upgraded PGE
concentrate .

The same technique is used in the copper-nickel refineries.

Where acidic lixiviant like sulpheric acid solution is used.

It shoud be noted that the lixiviant used is based on the

mineralogy of the ore
 PURIFICATION AND RECOVERY
PGMs concentrate is transferred to PGMS refinery where
platinum is refined.

Purification processes like precipitation, solvent extraction, and

ion-exchange are used.

Acqua regia maybe used to dissolve PGMs before these

processes.

Recovery is achieve by Electrorefining.

Note that purification and recovery method used is subjective to

individual mining companies.
 REFERENCES
 The extraction of Platinum is fairly complex and hence references below provide
detailed understanding
 A Review Of The Beneficiation And Extractive Metallurgy Of The Platinum Group
Elements, Highlighting Recent Process Innovations
Steve Cole, C. Joe Ferron –– Sgs
2002-03

 Mineral Resource of the Month: Platinum Group Metals U.S.

Geological Survey
Thursday, June 14, 2018

 Hydrometallurgy of Platinum Ore

VNIIKhT (Chemical Technology), Russia, Moscow 04.12.2003

 Refining Approaches in the Platinum Group Metal Processing Value Chain—A

Review Pia Sinsalo and
Mari Lundstorm, 22 March 2018

Thank you