NEWS RELEASE: 18 December 1996
Three shipments of anode sludge have been shipped to an eastern seaboard refinery and we have been paid
for all three. The shipments were basically small in quantity in order for the refiner to determine what best would
suit his needs. After thorough evaluation, it was mutually agreed upon that a Dore metal bar would be most
suitable. Subsequent to this, a small amount of anode sludge, several pounds, containing primarily platinum
and palladium was reduced to metal. This Dore bar was sent to the refiner and their resulting analysis report
indicates the bar contains 26.233% precious metal. The refiner's actual numbers were platinum 17.233% and
palladium 9%.
Another shipment was made recently consisting of four parts: the reduced anode sludge, the unreduced anode
sludge, a metal Dore bar made from the anode sludge and a large shipment of lower grade anode sludge
reduced to a metal Dore. A comparison of the results of refining these different products will indicate the
direction we will follow for future production.
Very recently there has been a sudden increase in the precious metals contained in the anode sludge. This
unexpected, but welcomed, event may be explained or better understood as follows:
The copper collector (after smelting) is poured into anode bars and placed in the electrolysis tanks to be plated
away. It was expected that the precious metals would remain behind in the anode bags as sludge. It has not
exactly happened that way. As the copper is plated across to the cathode bars, a certain amount of the
precious metals is lost to the sulphuric acid electrolyte. As the system gets into full swing and enough anode
bars have been dissolved, the electrolyte gets increasingly saturated with the precious metals. Eventually the
electrolyte is so saturated that it will refuse to accept more noble metals and a much higher concentration of
precious metals accumulates in the anode bags as sludge. This is what we think has just started to occur.
Eventually precious metals may be retrieved from the electrolyte by the use of certain resins or possibly
activated carbon. In the meantime, the sludge should continue to average very high concentrations of metals
until the electrolyte is discarded and the process starts over again. At this point, it seems possible the
electrolyte could be very long-lasting however, this remains under investigation at this point.
Please direct inquires to Mike Pokorny at 1-888-606-3636 or Ed Fishbaine at
1-800-309-5545.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Richard E. Jensen |
