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Precious metal recycling & refining
Sibanye-Stillwater’s Recycling operations combine innovation with cutting-edge technology to process, recycle, and refine complex precious metals waste streams.
Recycling expertise and solutions – we are the trusted partner for your recycling requirements
We purchase, recycle, and refine materials containing gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium and iridium, serving businesses and corporations of all sizes in a variety of industries globally. Leading the way in making the precious metals recycling process safe and efficient.
Our processes are key to your recycling and refining success
Our advanced precious metals refining process technology significantly increases our precious metals recycling capabilities, providing an effective and expedient processing route for many precious metals.
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Mechanical reduction
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Thermal reduction
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Wet chemistry
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Precious metal melt
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Electronic material classification
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Auto catalyst recycling
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Bead blasting
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Cleaning & recovery
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Granulation
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Transportation & logistics
Find out more: Transportation & logistics
Know your metals
The Know your metals resource helps you understand how precious metals are used across industries. Explore each metal’s commercial applications, the types of waste streams it commonly appears in, and the recovery technologies used to reclaim it.
Au
Gold
Ag
Silver
Pt
Platinum
Pd
Palladium
Rh
Rhodium
Ir
Iridium
Gold
Gold is a critical precious metal valued for its excellent conductivity, corrosion resistance, and stability, with extensive use in semiconductor fabrication, electroplating, connector fabrication and assembly, medical device and jewelry manufacturing.
Gold frequently occurs in industrial waste streams such as spent plating solutions, filters, resin, sludges, stamping scrap, contact pins and karat jewelry.
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Silver
Silver is a widely used precious metal known for its high electrical conductivity, antimicrobial properties, and reflectivity, making it essential in microelectronics, medical applications, film coating, chemical processing, jewelry manufacturing, electroplating and stamping industries.
Silver-bearing waste streams often include spent plating baths, filters, sludges and stampings.
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Platinum
Platinum is a critical precious metal widely used in pharmaceutical catalysts, jewelry manufacturing, automotive catalytic converters, fuel cell/electrolyzer applications, fiberglass manufacturing, and the aircraft/aerospace, microelectronics and medical industries.
Due to its chemical stability and catalytic properties, platinum frequently appears in industrial waste streams such as spent catalyst, acidic process solutions, plating baths, filter media, implantable medical components, fiberglass bushings and refractory, fuel cell MEAs, thermocouple wire, machining kerf, shavings and turnings.
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Palladium
Palladium is a precious metal widely used in automotive catalytic converters, specialty chemical catalysts, conductive pastes, microelectronics/ceramic capacitors.
Owing to its excellent catalytic performance and electrical conductivity, palladium is commonly found in industrial waste streams such as spent catalysts, sludges, filter media, fired/green ceramic, thick film wipes & jars, canned/decanned catalytic converters and spent environmental catalysts.
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Rhodium
Rhodium is a rare and exceptionally valuable precious metal primarily used in automotive catalytic converters, chemical catalysts, fiberglass manufacturing, and plating industries.
Its high reflectivity and resistance to corrosion result in rhodium being found in waste streams including catalytic converters, spent plating baths, filters, fiberglass bushings and refractory.
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Iridium
Iridium is an extremely durable and corrosion-resistant precious metal used in chemical processing equipment, fuel cell manufacturing, specialty catalysts, and medical devices.
Due to its use in high-temperature and highly corrosive environments, iridium is commonly found in waste streams including electrolyzer scrap, spent coating solutions, spent catalyst and filters, medical device components such as electrodes, marker bands and cath tips.
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How precious metals recovery works
We understand that different waste types require different metallurgical routes. Our stringent process results in maximum metal recovery while ensuring the safety of our people.
1. Waste stream identification
Plating solutions, sludges, resins, scrap components, and rinse waters are sampled and analyzed.
2. Waste stream processing
Material profiling determines the processing route based on the metal, substrate, and complexity of separation.
3. Analytical laboratory
Samples of each
lot are sent to the precious metal testing laboratory for their precious metal type and content.
4. Refining and reporting
Recovered metals are refined to specification with full transparency, compliance, and traceability.
Turn precious metal waste into value
Our specialists will help you identify your metals and design the optimal recovery solution.
