Osmium/Platinum Ore - Lab analysis inquires & advice on next steps

[africangoldbug]

Hi everyone.

I am receiving these 4 samples of rock that contains both Platinum and Osmium. There was a chemical analysis done in Madagascar a couple years ago on a lot of these ores, and it came to show the results below:

Zr - 7001 B Spectr AA - % (m/m) - 0.001
Os - 7000 B Spectr AA - % (m/m) - 56.31
Pl - 7000 B Spectr AA - % (m/m) - 8.08

I am preparing to ship these samples to here in the US.

Our goal is obviously to see if it makes sense to extract the platinum or osmium. Or if the process is too intensive then, just sell the ore. I just received news of this today so I'm starting to do my research and see what the most viable step is. But, before anything I do want to send this to another lab to get a more credible chemical analysis done on these samples.

My first question, is there a recommended trusted lab analysis process I can run it through? Any particular method recommended? Something that is the most reputable and also the most effective.

And given these numbers, do you think it makes sense to go through the process of extracting it down to one of these elements (Pl or Os)?

We have quite a few of these ores.

 

[4metals]

If you couldn't find a way to be paid fairly as you said on your thread about 22 - 23 k gold nuggets, which are rather easy to assay, how do you expect to find fair treatment with a difficult to assay Platinum Osmium material.

 

[africangoldbug]

If you couldn't find a way to be paid fairly as you said on your thread about 22 - 23 k gold nuggets, which are rather easy to assay, how do you expect to find fair treatment with a difficult to assay Platinum Osmium material.

With the gold we are not permitted to send it anywhere and cannot refine unless we receive the payment for that specific quantity plus insurance and that's very costly at the moment. It's quite tricky to move it but we are working on it.

For these rocks, we have more freedom to see what can be done with them. I learned today that is it quite a difficult process to assay it lol, but I just wanted to some clarity on that process and see if it's worth it.

We have a couple hundred kilos of these rocks, and I can receive however much and just pay for the shipping/etc.

My thinking is, if there is a group willing to assay these rocks and buy the precious metals close to spot then it could be worth it. Do you think that's viable given how difficult of a process it is?

 

[4metals]

With this material you may have a little more difficulty finding a buyer who can assay them and refine them given the Osmium content. Based on your statement of anyone paying close to spot for the precious metals, you are living a fairy tale. Refiners charge fee's to refine different metals based on both the difficulty to refine and the difficulty to sell the metal. Platinum is sale-able, osmium is not as desirable these days.

If you were willing to travel with some of this material. A quantity worth purchasing by the buyer and worth selling by you. You could likely arrange in person sampling and have the rates quoted for the material once they have seen it. The other option is to ship the material and trust you will get paid fairly based on assay. I am sure you are as unlikely to choose that option as a buyer is to choose to pay for something unseen or un-sampled.

Showing up with the material for sampling is usually the way it works with material this valuable. And that is true wether you are from London or Africa!

 

[africangoldbug]

With this material you may have a little more difficulty finding a buyer who can assay them and refine them given the Osmium content. Based on your statement of anyone paying close to spot for the precious metals, you are living a fairy tale. Refiners charge fee's to refine different metals based on both the difficulty to refine and the difficulty to sell the metal. Platinum is sale-able, osmium is not as desirable these days.

If you were willing to travel with some of this material. A quantity worth purchasing by the buyer and worth selling by you. You could likely arrange in person sampling and have the rates quoted for the material once they have seen it. The other option is to ship the material and trust you will get paid fairly based on assay. I am sure you are as unlikely to choose that option as a buyer is to choose to pay for something unseen or un-sampled.

Showing up with the material for sampling is usually the way it works with material this valuable. And that is true wether you are from London or Africa!

Thank you for the insight. Then I will look to do an in person sampling/appraisal.

 

[Lou]

You might just save yourself the trouble. Something is most likely wrong with the analysis.

Not saying it doesn't exist, but anything containing that amount of osmium with not much platinum and next to no iridium is extremely unlikely. I would focus my efforts on the gold rather than this material, which even if it had 10X less Os in it, would be a huge penalty for platinum refining terms.

FYI, it's possible to buy kgs of finished 9995 sponge for less than the $400/oz Os spot price, sometimes much, much less.

 

[africangoldbug]

You might just save yourself the trouble. Something is most likely wrong with the analysis.

Not saying it doesn't exist, but anything containing that amount of osmium with not much platinum and next to no iridium is extremely unlikely. I would focus my efforts on the gold rather than this material, which even if it had 10X less Os in it, would be a huge penalty for platinum refining terms.

FYI, it's possible to buy kgs of finished 9995 sponge for less than the $400/oz Os spot price, sometimes much, much less.

Thanks man. I’ll see what I can do with it then.

The priority has always been the gold but it’s a unique situation, I have to find a buyer to order a minimum of a couple kg’s of the grain gold without the ability to send samples or anything other than pictures/contracts. Trying to get a couple people in escrow, but it’s been very hard to gain people’s trust in a world filled with scams.

My best bet is to get a loan or some business credit to refine & ship 1 or 2kg myself to kick start the process. Staying determined though.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi everyone.

I am receiving these 4 samples of rock that contains both Platinum and Osmium. There was a chemical analysis done in Madagascar a couple years ago on a lot of these ores, and it came to show the results below:

Zr - 7001 B Spectr AA - % (m/m) - 0.001
Os - 7000 B Spectr AA - % (m/m) - 56.31
Pl - 7000 B Spectr AA - % (m/m) - 8.08

I am preparing to ship these samples to here in the US.

Our goal is obviously to see if it makes sense to extract the platinum or osmium. Or if the process is too intensive then, just sell the ore. I just received news of this today so I'm starting to do my research and see what the most viable step is. But, before anything I do want to send this to another lab to get a more credible chemical analysis done on these samples.

My first question, is there a recommended trusted lab analysis process I can run it through? Any particular method recommended? Something that is the most reputable and also the most effective.

And given these numbers, do you think it makes sense to go through the process of extracting it down to one of these elements (Pl or Os)?

We have quite a few of these ores.

What are the source of these chunks?
So big metal pieces seem to come from some kind of industrial source?
Very rarely or ever, you will find something close to this in nature.
Natural metals has to be very chemically stable and then they end up quite rounded due to erosion.

It is Pt by the way, not Pl.

Edit to correct element.

 

[africangoldbug]

What are the source of these chunks?
So big metal pieces seem to come from some kind of industrial source?
Very rarely or ever, you will find something close to this in nature.
Natural metals has to be very chemically stable and then they end up quite rounded due to erosion.

It is Pt by the way, not Pl.

Nice catch!

So these belong to a family in Madagascar, and I assumed they were dug out in the country, but they’re actually from a ship wreck off the coast of the island. They were put found on the ship in air tight, almost like hot pots. Discovered maybe 6-7 years ago.

They were obviously intended for some purpose but I have no idea what for.

Edited quote by moderator to correct error in the quote.

 

[Alondro]

Nice catch!

So these belong to a family in Madagascar, and I assumed they were dug out in the country, but they’re actually from a ship wreck off the coast of the island. They were put found on the ship in air tight, almost like hot pots. Discovered maybe 6-7 years ago.

They were obviously intended for some purpose but I have no idea what for.

They might be unprocessed raw ingots that were bound for a refinery to separate the Os and Pt.

 

[africangoldbug]

They might be unprocessed raw ingots that were bound for a refinery to separate the Os and Pt.

I assume with the high Os content they were aiming to separate just for the Osmium? Or would they be able to get most of the Pt out too? Not sure if a lot is lost in the process of separating these two

 

[Yggdrasil]

I assume with the high Os content they were aiming to separate just for the Osmium? Or would they be able to get most of the Pt out too? Not sure if a lot is lost in the process of separating these two

Anyway, puzzling result since half of it is not specified.

 

[Lou]

I assume with the high Os content they were aiming to separate just for the Osmium? Or would they be able to get most of the Pt out too? Not sure if a lot is lost in the process of separating these two

This refinery doesn't exist because it's not done, most likely because that material doesn't exist in commercially significant quantities. All Os separations not done from the matte or anode slimes are going to be either osmiridium (annoying but worthwhile) or 100% boutique/ bespoke as all hell because it's human made (i.e. RuOs sputtering targets). That's what I'm saying. You start moving into these weird oddball materials with a metal that can poison you if you mishandle it, or try to melt it (which good luck at doing, given its eye-cooking melting point) in air and the amount of large commercial firms wanting to throw a monkey wrench into their well-tuned operation goes from not many to not any.

Given you still believe it to be valuable, at least conduct a basic specific gravity test. Something with that much Pt and Os and looking metallic is going to be very, very heavy. I highly doubt there is even one qualified laboratory on that whole island that does Os analysis on the routine by the way.

 

[Makcc]

They might be unprocessed raw ingots that were bound for a refinery to separate the Os and Pt.

This material was tested literally dozens of times by various levels of experts and laboratories. The evidence of precious metals is either non existent or well below detection limits of known scientific analysis. It is primarily iron and other base metals. It's an alloy that was made for a particular purpose.
The driving force behind getting a value is based on where it came from and how it was packaged. If something is wrapped like candy, it's not necessarily candy.
This product has been sent around for years based on hope.

 

[africangoldbug]

This refinery doesn't exist because it's not done, most likely because that material doesn't exist in commercially significant quantities. All Os separations not done from the matte or anode slimes are going to be either osmiridium (annoying but worthwhile) or 100% boutique/ bespoke as all hell because it's human made (i.e. RuOs sputtering targets). That's what I'm saying. You start moving into these weird oddball materials with a metal that can poison you if you mishandle it, or try to melt it (which good luck at doing, given its eye-cooking melting point) in air and the amount of large commercial firms wanting to throw a monkey wrench into their well-tuned operation goes from not many to not any.

Given you still believe it to be valuable, at least conduct a basic specific gravity test. Something with that much Pt and Os and looking metallic is going to be very, very heavy. I highly doubt there is even one qualified laboratory on that whole island that does Os analysis on the routine by the way.

I hear you lol. I do question their method of analysis which I why I would like to to arrange to receive these samples and coordinate another analysis done here in the US. I have a couple potential companies who may take this rock thanks to members of this forum, so I will seek to arrange communication with them.

The story of finding these rocks is definitely intriguing and does more or less align with historical events.

 

[Alondro]

I hear you lol. I do question their method of analysis which I why I would like to to arrange to receive these samples and coordinate another analysis done here in the US. I have a couple potential companies who may take this rock thanks to members of this forum, so I will seek to arrange communication with them.

The story of finding these rocks is definitely intriguing and does more or less align with historical events.

You don't need a lab to do a specific gravity test. It's just the mass of the solid material divided by mls of displaced volume. For example, a 100g sample which displaces 10mls of water will have a density of 10.

For the result of the analysis you posted, the material MUST have a density well above silver's, given osmium is INCREDIBLY dense (22.6 g/cm³)

Even a rough measurement of the displacement volume will give you a density CLOSE to its actual density. If it's too low, then it's clear the lab analysis was flawed or totally phony.

 

[africangoldbug]

You don't need a lab to do a specific gravity test. It's just the mass of the solid material divided by mls of displaced volume. For example, a 100g sample which displaces 10mls of water will have a density of 10.

For the result of the analysis you posted, the material MUST have a density well above silver's, given osmium is INCREDIBLY dense (22.6 g/cm³)

Even a rough measurement of the displacement volume will give you a density CLOSE to its actual density. If it's too low, then it's clear the lab analysis was flawed or totally phony.

When I receive the samples I will perform this.

 

[Alondro]

When I receive the samples I will perform this.

Look for a density of 9 or higher. Lower than 9, it likely doesn't have much in the way of values in it (UNLESS the ACTUAL precious metal in it is PALLADIUM, which only has a density of 12 when pure. Alloyed with other base metals like nickel or iron, the sample could be well below 9. That's why a reputable lab result is so important.)

On the flip side, if your result is above 17, then either you have a block of almost entirely lead, or it DOES have a huge amount of high-density PMs in it.... or osmium... which is just too nasty to play with.

 

[africangoldbug]

Look for a density of 9 or higher. Lower than 9, it likely doesn't have much in the way of values in it (UNLESS the ACTUAL precious metal in it is PALLADIUM, which only has a density of 12 when pure. Alloyed with other base metals like nickel or iron, the sample could be well below 9. That's why a reputable lab result is so important.)

On the flip side, if your result is above 17, then either you have a block of almost entirely lead, or it DOES have a huge amount of high-density PMs in it.... or osmium... which is just too nasty to play with.

I will keep you guys updated

 

[Yggdrasil]

Look for a density of 9 or higher. Lower than 9, it likely doesn't have much in the way of values in it (UNLESS the ACTUAL precious metal in it is PALLADIUM, which only has a density of 12 when pure. Alloyed with other base metals like nickel or iron, the sample could be well below 9. That's why a reputable lab result is so important.)

On the flip side, if your result is above 17, then either you have a block of almost entirely lead, or it DOES have a huge amount of high-density PMs in it.... or osmium... which is just too nasty to play with.

Lead is 11.3