The best type of inquarts?

[fireguy]

Inquarts are used to add a small, known amount (weight) of silver to each assay. This gives the necessary amount of silver to promote parting, and also gives a dore bead which is large enough to pick up and handle.

Depending on the sample size, grade of sample, and other factors there are many different types of inquarts available. The most common are made from lead-silver alloy wire, and pure silver wire.

The most important characteristic for inquarts are freedom from gold contamination and precision. That is to say, the reproducibility between inquarts is more important that the absolute weight.

More information on inquarts and a selection of various types can be found here:

http://www.Lmine.com/go.mvc?id=inquarts

 

[markqf1]

Hi All,
Since I'm new and green I figure I'll go ahead and ask some basic questions. I just bought my first furnace(haven't turned it on yet), to start trying to learn the art of it all. I am looking at working with pgm fusion and gold recovery mainly. Also, looking at alternatives to lead, in the cuppeling process.
In having searched for the best collector for pgm's, my best information tells me that gold is best to use for inquarting with these metals.
Does anyone here have any experience with this?
How about nickel or copper?
Also, the other question is on thermal shock. How rapidly should tempatures be increased so as to avoid breakage of crucibles and are the
platinum crucibles a worthy investment to avoid this?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[fireguy]

Hi All,
Since I'm new and green I figure I'll go ahead and ask some basic questions. I just bought my first furnace(haven't turned it on yet), to start trying to learn the art of it all. I am looking at working with pgm fusion and gold recovery mainly. Also, looking at alternatives to lead, in the cuppeling process.
In having searched for the best collector for pgm's, my best information tells me that gold is best to use for inquarting with these metals.
Does anyone here have any experience with this?
How about nickel or copper?
Also, the other question is on thermal shock. How rapidly should tempatures be increased so as to avoid breakage of crucibles and are the
platinum crucibles a worthy investment to avoid this?

Thanks,

Mark

Be sure you distinguish between "assaying" for PGM and "refining or collecting". If you are assaying, you may want to get this book:

http://www.Lmine.com/go.mvc?id=17213
"Assay & Analytical Practice in the South African Mining Industry"

The South Africans are certainly more familiar with PGM's than most North Americans.

If you are refining, you can use copper as a collector, or many other base and precious metals (like lead or silver). I'm not sure how well these work on PGM's but they work well on gold and other precious metals.

The only alternative to lead in the cupelling process that I know of is bismuth. You can use bismuth trioxide as an alternative to litharge (PbO) in the fire assay process or use metallic bismuth if you need a metallic collector. Examples here:

http://www.Lmine.com/go.mvc?id=bismuth

 

[markqf1]

Thanks for the reply , but I was specifically asking about gold inquartation to collect pgm's. I have read that it is the best collecter of pgm's and with proper technique , is fully recoverable.

This must be a company owned site?

Mark

 

[fireguy]

Thanks for the reply , but I was specifically asking about gold inquartation to collect pgm's. I have read that it is the best collecter of pgm's and with proper technique , is fully recoverable.

This must be a company owned site?

Mark

I am not personally familiar with gold inquarts with PGM's.

Fireassays.com is a community forum and anyone is welcome to post. Hopefully someone else has more experience with this topic and will respond.