continuous process to obtain a precious metal rich composition, precious metal rich composition, and apparatus for performing the continuous process

摘要

The present invention relates to a method, and apparatus for the recovery of precious metals. Accordingly, it provides a continuous process for obtaining a precious metal composition from a feedstock material, the process comprising the steps of: (i) heating a feedstock material in a plasma furnace to form an upper slag layer and a lower molten metal layer; (ii) removing the slag layer; (iii) removing the molten metal layer; (iv) allowing the removed molten metal layer to solidify; (v) fragmenting the solidified metal layer to form fragments; and (vi) recovering a precious metal composition from the fragments; wherein the feedstock material comprises a precious metal containing material and a collector metal, said collector metal being a metal or an alloy that is capable of forming a solid solution, an alloy or an intermetallic compound with one or more precious metals. This allows for high recovery yields of precious metals. The apparatus comprises a plasma furnace, a casting table enabling continuous casting of the molten metal pool to form a solidified sheet, a fragmentation device and a separation unit for recovering precious-metal-rich alloy from the sheet fragments.