Problem Worth Solving

The large-scale gold refining industry is a highly competitive business that operates on a very small profit margin. Current systems use centuries old technology that incorporates excessive amounts of hazardous chemicals which creates extreme amounts of toxic waste and fumes. These systems are very costly to run and maintain.

Environmental hazards add significant costs to the gold refining industry. The Aqua Regia systems recover the base metals as a toxic waste that is costly to dispose.

Another problem refiners face is that the EPA is limiting the opening of new toxic waste storage sites which could potentially close some gold refiners. For example, there are no toxic waste sites in Florida.

The Aqua Regia systems that are most widely used can only recover up to 99.70 % of the gold. Downfalls of Aqua Regia systems include:          

• Cannot recover Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium.
• They are terribly slow with typical batch times for the gold dissolving stage averaging 8-10 hours.
• Poor precious metals accountability. Due to the corrosive nature of the chemicals, sensors cannot be used to monitor the system. For example, sensors for temperature and electrical conductivity of the solutions that could monitor when each stage of precious metals is totally dissolved and monitored when all the precious metals are precipitated from the solutions. It is the operator’s best guess when these processes are complete.
• Requires more manpower that results in laborers coming in direct contact with the precious metals in all stages. With little to no accountability of precious metals there is an increased liability of losses due to theft.
• Uses Pyrex® glass in all stages because of the corrosive nature of the chemistry. If the Pyrex glass beakers break, it can result in losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold solutions.