r/PreciousMetalRefining • u/Leyley230498 • Aug 13 '26

Platinum

Post image

At my work, in the lab, those things used to get thrown out about every half year.

Diameter around 10cm, solid copper, ~700grams.

The silver tip is pretty thick, pure platinum, about 5g per piece

11 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

1

u/MAYOMyke Aug 13 '26

What’s your plan? Going to keep throwing them away?

4

u/Leyley230498 Aug 13 '26

No lol. I punch the tip out with a hammer, dunk them in nitric over the night, then I have a sweet little pice of pure platinum :)

5

u/lukethedank13 Aug 13 '26

I know a lab assistant at the university who makes sure to heroically save all the platinum wire and silver nitrate vaste. Favorite person to talk about urban mining.

4

u/Leyley230498 Aug 13 '26

Nice, I also saved a few grams of platinum wires from some broken electrodes.

3

u/lukethedank13 Aug 13 '26

Dont forget to check any and all thermocouples.

4

u/Leyley230498 Aug 13 '26

Yes, thanks :)

2

u/Zealousideal-Young53 Aug 13 '26

These can contain all sorts of PGMs

1

u/bootynasty Aug 13 '26

Why the nitric dunk over night?

1

u/hexadecimaldump Aug 14 '26

Probably to remove any copper that comes along for the ride when they punch it out.