The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 16, 2015
Filed:
Nov. 24, 2009
David Deegan, Bampton, GB;
Tim Johnson, Moreton-in-Marsh, GB;
David Deegan, Bampton, GB;
Tim Johnson, Moreton-in-Marsh, GB;
Tetronics (International) Limited, Swindon, GB;
Abstract
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.