Thanks to its unique metallurgical flowsheet, Umicore Precious Metals Refining processes a broad range of complex precious metals, lead, copper and nickel bearing materials from a variety of worldwide sources.
Umicore Precious Metals Refining is one of the world's major processors of by-products from the non-ferrous industry. Among others, these industrial by-products include: dross, PM-containing slag, matte, flue dust, hydrometallurgical residue, filter cake, tankhouse slimes and copper cement.
Umicore Precious Metals Refining has the capability to comply with new sources of precious metals bearing materials. We process by-products from:
PM / PGM refineries
Umicore Precious Metals Refining has the unique capability to efficiently recover precious metals from all kinds of intermediates generated in primary PM/PGM-industry and PM/PGM-processing industry.
These intermediates can originate from primary or from secondary metals processing, out of internal or of side-stream circuits.
The manufacturing industry using PGM-metals in their process can also generate intermediates that contain valuable precious metals content.
In most cases these intermediates are characterized by a precious metals content linked with presence of Cu, Pb and Ni and where impurities like Sn, Sb, Bi, Se, Te, As and others may be present.
Whichever be their physical aspect (e.g. dry metallic powder, flue dusts, ashes, lumps, sludge, metallic scraps or bullions, slags, solutions, bricks, etc), our sampling expertise brings the strength of its most reliable procedures, while our flowsheet provides the benefit of economies of scale, of sound valuable metals’ recovery, despite recyclables often complex composition.
Some examples:
- filter cake from water treatment units
- doré slags
- PM-residues yielded by internal pre-treatment and/or recovery of precious metals
- bullions concentrating Sn-Pb-Sb and Ag
- bullions from PGM-recovery circuits
- many others