Precious Metal Recovery Equipment

— Turnkey Precious Metal Recovery Equipment

YuSai Machinery’s Precious Metal Recovery Equipment is a complete flowsheet for recovering and refining gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium from solid and liquid feedstocks on one platform, reaching 95% or higher comprehensive recovery while refining gold and silver to 99.99% (4N), with 99.999% (5N) available on selected electrolytic streams. It covers all three recovery points — the process tank, the recovery tank and the rinse water — sending concentrated streams to electrolytic recovery, dilute streams to ion exchange and activated carbon, and solid residues through smelting, leaching and refining. It delivers a full range of finished metals, not just one: certified gold and silver ingots, silver powder, platinum sponge, palladium and rhodium powder, plus 99.99% copper cathode. Every project starts with laboratory testing of the customer’s own sample, and each batch is backed by a documented metal balance for custody transfer and customs.

Product Overview

Precious metal recovery equipment is a group of engineered systems that recover and refine high-purity gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium from process solutions, waste plating baths, wastewater, electronic scrap and metallurgical residues, so that valuable metal is returned to production instead of being discharged, landfilled or sold as a low-value intermediate.

A recovery project rarely fails because a single technology is missing. It fails because one of three streams is left untreated. The first is the process tank itself: spent plating baths, stripping solutions and etching solutions that still hold metal at high concentration. The second is the recovery tank behind it: drag-out and collected process solution that carries metal out of the tank with every rack. The third is the rinse water: dilute but continuous, and the main reason a plant still reports metal in its final effluent. YuSai Machinery designs the equipment set for all three points as one flowsheet, which is why a single project can combine an electrolytic recovery cell running at high concentration with ion exchange and activated carbon columns polishing a stream that measures parts per million.

For solid feedstock — printed circuit boards, anode slime, spent catalysts, jewelry sweeps, plating sludge — the flowsheet follows a three-stage sequence. Stage one, mechanical pre-treatment and physical sorting: the material is dismantled, crushed and separated by magnetic separation, eddy-current or electrostatic separation, gravity separation and screening, so that metals are liberated from plastics, glass fibre and other non-metallics. Stage two, smelting and chemical extraction: organic content is removed and values are concentrated either pyrometallurgically in a rotary or TBRC-type furnace, or hydrometallurgically through acid, chloride or alkaline leaching, after which the metal ions are captured from solution by activated carbon adsorption, ion exchange resin, solvent extraction or selective precipitation. Stage three, electrolytic refining and purification: dissolved or captured metals are deposited onto the cathode in an electrolytic cell, then re-melted and cast, producing saleable metal at controlled purity.

The electrolytic stage is where the design earns its recovery rate. YuSai cells use a rotating cathode together with high-frequency pulse intelligent electrolysis, which keeps the boundary layer at the cathode in motion, allows deposition to continue as the concentration falls, and produces a deposit that strips off cleanly as metal plate or powder rather than as loose sludge. On the concentrated route this means no chemical reagents and no electrolytic accelerators are consumed beyond electricity; the recovery step is a clean electrochemical reduction. On the dilute route, ion exchange resin and activated carbon adsorbents are selected against the specific metal and solution chemistry, with simplified column replacement so that maintenance does not interrupt production.

Every project starts in the laboratory. We assay the customer’s own sample by fire assay, XRF and wet chemical analysis, then run bench-scale leaching, adsorption and deposition tests to confirm the recoverable content and the separation sequence before any equipment is sized. The equipment is then configured against that test result rather than against a fixed catalogue model, and the finished plant is handed over only after it produces metal at the agreed specification.

Application Scenarios

Precious metal recovery equipment is installed wherever metal-bearing material costs more to dispose of than it does to process:

Electroplating and surface finishing plants — recovery from gold, silver, palladium and rhodium plating baths, drag-out tanks, rinse water and spent electrolytes, with tank-side cells for concentrated baths and resin or carbon columns for dilute rinses.
Semiconductor and electronics manufacturing — recovery from waste plating solutions, process effluent and rinsing solutions generated in semiconductor, connector, lead-frame and electronic component production.
PCB and circuit board production — recovery of gold and silver from gold etching solutions, stripping and deplating solutions, iodine and iodide etching solutions, and spent plating waste solution.
Precious metal refineries and mints — refining of dore, scrap, sweeps and recycled feedstock into certified gold and silver bullion.
E-waste and WEEE recycling plants — recovery of gold, silver, palladium and copper from printed circuit boards, CPUs, RAM modules, connectors and mechanically concentrated board fractions.
Copper, lead and zinc smelters — treatment of anode slime from the tank house as a payable precious metal stream.
Automotive and industrial catalyst recyclers — extraction of platinum, palladium and rhodium from spent ceramic and metallic catalytic converters.
Jewelry, dental and watch manufacturing — refining of bench sweeps, polishing and buffing dust, spent plating baths and old gold and silver alloys.
Photographic, imaging and X-ray processing — recovery of silver from fixing, bleaching and developing solutions.
Mining and metallurgical operations — recovery from gold-loaded activated carbon in CIP and CIL circuits, eluate and electrowinning feed, and PGM-bearing concentrates.
Photovoltaic panel recycling — silver recovery from delaminated solar cells, cell fragments and bus bar offcuts.
Petrochemical and chemical plants — reclamation of precious metal from spent hydrogenation, reforming and coal-chemical catalysts.
Analytical laboratories and assay offices — compact recovery and refining units with full process documentation.

Applicable Raw Materials

Feedstock is grouped by physical form, because the physical form determines the pre-treatment stage rather than the refining chemistry. The exact flowsheet for any individual stream is confirmed by laboratory test before equipment design is frozen.

Solid precious metal waste — printed circuit boards, motherboards, CPU and RAM modules, plug-in cards and chips, connectors and contact pins, mobile phone boards, electronic scrap concentrate, catalytic converters in ceramic honeycomb or metallic substrate form, spent industrial and petrochemical catalysts, PGM alloy scrap, dental and medical scrap, gold and silver dore, and old jewellery alloys.

Metallurgical residues — copper anode slime, lead anode slime, zinc and nickel anode slime, tank house slimes and cell mud, refinery sweepings, polishing and buffing dust, glass fibre refractory brick and glass cullet carrying platinum and rhodium, and mining concentrates and tailings.

High-concentration process solutions — spent gold, silver, palladium and rhodium plating baths, strip and stripping solutions, deplating solutions, iodine and iodide etching solutions, circuit board gold etching solution, cyanide and acid based process solutions, drag-out solutions and ion exchange eluate.

Dilute and rinse streams — plating line rinse water, recovery tank solution, washing water, spent photographic fixing and bleach solutions, wastewater holding tank content, process effluent, and laboratory waste solutions.

Sludge and powder streams — electroplating sludge, wastewater treatment sludge, filter cake, spent catalyst powder, grinding swarf, vibration finishing and tumbling waste, and polishing slurry.

Adsorbed and intermediate streams — gold-loaded activated carbon from CIP and CIL circuits, loaded ion exchange resin, precipitated and cemented intermediates, and silver chloride residue from the refining circuit.

Output Products

The line delivers finished, saleable metal plus the intermediates needed by the next stage of refining:

Gold — gold ingots, bars, granules and electrolytic gold powder. Directly extractable electrolytic gold is produced at 95–99.8% purity and is then refined to 99.99% (4N) as standard, with 99.999% (5N) achievable through a second electrolytic pass. Gold anode plates and dore are produced as process intermediates.

Silver — silver ingots, silver crystal and electrolytically deposited silver powder at 99.99% purity, with silver cement and silver chloride as refining intermediates.

Platinum group metals — platinum sponge, palladium powder and palladium salts, and rhodium powder or rhodium chloride solution, refined to a minimum of 99.95% for platinum and palladium and 99.90% for rhodium.

Copper — copper cathode, copper plate and copper powder at 99.99% purity (LME Grade A equivalent), recovered in parallel from electrolyte purification duty.

Recovered metal plate and powder from process solutions — gold and silver plate or powder stripped directly from the rotating cathode of the electrolytic recovery cell, ready for re-melting or for return to the plating anode.

Treated water and recycled process liquid — clarified, decanted or polished liquid with precious metal content reduced to parts-per-million levels, suitable for recirculation to the rinse line, reuse as coolant or cleaner, or discharge to the wastewater plant.

By-product streams — mixed precious metal concentrate, base metal salts recovered from bleed treatment, and dewatered sludge that has been assayed and released for disposal or sale.

Process Workflow

The flowsheet combines mechanical, thermal, chemical and electrochemical stages. Which stages a project includes depends on the feedstock; a plating plant project may use only the electrochemical route, an e-waste project will normally use all three.

Stage One — Mechanical Pre-Treatment and Physical Sorting

Electronic waste and solid residue are dismantled, pre-crushed and then ground in a shredder or hammer mill to liberate metal from plastics, glass fibre and other non-metallics. Ferromagnetic material is removed by magnetic separation; metals are separated from non-metals by eddy-current or electrostatic separation on the basis of conductivity; gravity separation and vibrating shaker tables separate metal particles from lightweight impurities on the basis of density; screening sizes the material between stages. Dust and fines are captured by a dust collection system. The output of this stage is a concentrated metallic fraction and a clean non-metallic fraction.

Stage Two — Pyrometallurgical and Chemical Extraction

Two routes are available and are selected per feedstock. In the thermal route, organics are burned off, volatiles are driven out and values are concentrated into a base metal alloy or matte in a rotary furnace or TBRC-type top-blown rotary furnace, with slag removed and off-gas treated. In the hydrometallurgical route, the prepared material is leached in agitated acid-resistant reactors using acid, chloride or alkaline chemistry; gold is taken into solution through chlorination or aqua regia chemistry, silver through nitric acid, and platinum, palladium and rhodium through chloride media with hydrochloric acid and chlorine or oxygen as oxidant. Leach parameters — acid concentration, oxidant addition rate, temperature and residence time — are controlled and recorded per batch.

Stage Three — Capture, Separation and Purification

Metal ions are captured from pregnant solution by <strong”>activated carbon adsorption, ion exchange resin, solvent extraction or selective precipitation, according to metal concentration and solution chemistry. Concentrated solutions go directly to electrolytic recovery; dilute solutions are polished on resin or carbon columns. Base metals and individual precious metals are separated in sequence using mixer-settler solvent extraction with P204, P507 and C272 systems, ion exchange, cementation and selective reduction, so that each individual metal reaches the purity its electrolytic stage requires.

Stage Four — Electrolytic Recovery and Refining

Purified solutions are deposited in electrolytic cells using a rotating cathode and high-frequency pulse intelligent electrolysis. On the plating line, recovery cells are installed in two ways: online recycling, where the cell is installed next to the recovery tank behind the plating cylinder and keeps the metal content of that tank continuously low so that less metal is carried into the following rinse stages; and offline recycling, where metal-bearing wastewater is collected in a storage tank and processed in batches, with the treated liquid released to the wastewater treatment pool afterwards. Precious metal deposited on the cathode is stripped off as metal plate, crystal or powder and either re-melted or returned directly to the plating anode.

Stage Five — Refining, Melting and Casting

Recovered metal is dried, weighed, blended and melted in an induction melting furnace, then cast into ingots, bars or granules, or atomized into powder. Vacuum and continuous casting options improve surface quality and reduce oxidation losses. Finished products are marked, weighed, sampled and packed with a certificate of analysis.

Stage Six — Off-Gas, Effluent and Residue Control

Nitrogen oxide and acid fumes generated during dissolution and electrolysis are captured under enclosed hoods, condensed and treated in a multi-stage absorption tower. Wastewater is neutralized, precipitated, flocculated and dewatered; clarified liquid is recirculated to the process or reused as coolant and cleaner, and sludge is dried and assayed before being released for disposal or sale. The electrolytic recovery route itself adds no chemical reagents to the stream, which keeps secondary pollution out of the water circuit.

Product Structure (Main Equipment)

The plant is assembled from the following modules:

Mechanical pre-treatment module — dismantling benches, shredder, hammer mill, crusher, screening, magnetic separator, eddy-current or electrostatic separator, gravity separation table, vibrating shaker table, and dust collection system.

Thermal treatment module — rotary furnace or TBRC-type top-blown rotary furnace, tilting crucible furnace, afterburner, flux dosing system, slag handling equipment and off-gas ducting.

Hydrometallurgical leaching module — agitated jacketed leaching reactors in PPH, PP or FRP construction with acid-resistant lining, acid and oxidant dosing stations, and batch control instrumentation.

Solid-liquid separation module — filter press, cartridge and precision filtration units, centrifuge, and clear liquor storage tanks.

Adsorption and ion exchange module — activated carbon adsorption columns and ion exchange resin columns with selected adsorbents, elution circuit, and quick-release column connections for simplified resin replacement.

Separation and purification module — solvent extraction mixer-settler banks configured for P204, P507 and C272 duty, precipitation and reduction reactors, cementation tanks and slurry pumps.

Electrolytic recovery module — electrolytic recovery cells with rotating cathodes and special electrodes in sealed columns, high-durability cathode assemblies, electrolyte circulation and cooling, and stripping and rinsing stations.

Electrorefining and electrowinning module — electrolytic cells in PPH, PP or PVC-lined steel with titanium cathode plates, MMO-coated titanium anodes or Pb-Ca-Sn anodes, anode bags, titanium-clad copper conductive bars and bus bars, cyclone electrowinning cells for dilute streams, and manual or automatic cathode scraping systems.

Power and rectifier module — high-frequency pulse intelligent rectifiers, IGBT rectifiers, automatic pole-reversing units, and DC bus distribution with current density control.

Flue gas and environmental module — enclosed hoods and covers, transparent closed flue gas cover plates, flue gas condensation system, multi-stage absorption tower for nitrogen oxides and acid gas, mist eliminators and exhaust stack with monitoring ports.

Wastewater module — neutralization and precipitation tank, flocculation and sedimentation, filter press for sludge, ion exchange polishing, and recirculation or zero-liquid-discharge circuit.

Melting and casting module — induction melting furnace, granulation unit, ingot moulds, vacuum or continuous casting unit, and powder atomization unit where required.

Control and automation module — PLC and SCADA control cabinet with automatic intelligent control, recipe management, temperature, pH and current-density logging, alarm management and remote monitoring access.

Product Features

All three recovery points covered — process tank, recovery tank and rinse water are treated as one flowsheet, so metal is captured before it leaves the production line rather than only at the end of the drain.
Rotating cathode with high-frequency pulse intelligent electrolysis — the moving boundary layer allows deposition to continue as concentration falls and produces a deposit that strips off cleanly as plate, crystal or powder.
No chemical reagents on the electrolytic route — recovery is a clean electrochemical reduction driven by electricity, with no electrolytic accelerators added and no secondary pollution introduced into the water circuit.
Ion exchange and activated carbon for dilute streams — resin and carbon adsorbents are selected against the specific metal and solution chemistry, with quick-release columns for simplified resin replacement.
Online or offline installation — cells can be installed next to the recovery tank behind the plating cylinder for continuous operation, or used in batch mode on collected wastewater in a holding tank.
Compact, corrosion-resistant construction — fully anti-corrosion design in PPH, PP, FRP or PVC-lined steel, engineered for safety in a working production area rather than only in a dedicated plant room.
Automatic intelligent control — PLC and SCADA control with recipe management and automatic operation, so the unit runs without a dedicated operator.
Full solid-waste flowsheet — mechanical pre-treatment, magnetic, electrostatic and gravity separation, thermal treatment, leaching, adsorption, separation and electrolytic refining available as one integrated line.
High-current-density electrorefining cells — titanium cathode plates, titanium-clad copper bus bars and optimized electrode spacing for stable cathode quality in the refining stage.
Recovered metal returned directly to production — stripped metal plate can cover the plating anode, so recovered metal re-enters the process instead of being sold as scrap.
Treated liquid fit for reuse — clarified and polished liquid is recirculated to the rinse line or reused as coolant and cleaner, reducing fresh water intake.
Closed environmental control — enclosed hoods, flue gas condensation, multi-stage NOx and acid gas absorption, and a wastewater circuit with zero-liquid-discharge capability.
Assay-driven design — the flowsheet is configured against fire assay, XRF and wet chemical results from the customer’s own sample.
Traceable mass balance — weighing, sampling and assay points at each stage produce a documented metal balance per batch for custody transfer, customs documentation and internal accounting.
Turnkey documentation — operating manual, maintenance manual, P&ID, electrical drawings, spare parts list and material certificates suitable for local regulatory inspection.

Technical Parameters and Specifications

Values below are the standard design basis. Final parameters are fixed during process design, after the customer’s feedstock has been assayed. Parameters marked with * are confirmed per project.

Parameter	Specification
Target metals	Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), Platinum (Pt), Palladium (Pd), Rhodium (Rh); Copper (Cu) as parallel product
Recovery points covered	Process tank, recovery tank behind the tank, and rinse water downstream *
Solid-feedstock route	Mechanical pre-treatment and physical sorting → smelting or leaching → capture, separation and electrolytic refining
Solution route — concentrated	Electrolytic recovery with rotating cathode and high-frequency pulse intelligent electrolysis
Solution route — dilute	Ion exchange resin and activated carbon adsorption, plus cyclone electrowinning where applicable *
Comprehensive recovery rate	≥ 95% on multi-metal feedstock
Electrolytic recovery rate	> 99% on high-concentration gold, silver and palladium streams *
Direct electrolytic gold purity	95–99.8% as stripped from the cathode, refined to 99.99% (4N)
Gold product purity	99.99% (4N) standard; 99.999% (5N) optional on selected streams
Silver product purity	99.99% standard; ingot, crystal or powder form
Platinum / Palladium purity	≥ 99.95% (sponge / powder / salt)
Rhodium purity	≥ 99.90% (powder / chloride solution)
Copper cathode purity	99.99% (LME Grade A equivalent)
Residual metal in treated liquid	Silver below 5–20 ppm; gold below 2–10 ppm *
Reagent consumption	None on the electrolytic recovery route (electricity only); reagents used only in leaching and separation stages
Power consumption	Compact recovery cells in the low kilowatt class (150–250 W class for small units); refining and electrowinning cells sized per module *
Installation mode	Online (installed beside the recovery tank) or offline (batch processing of collected wastewater)
Cell body material	PPH, PP, FRP or PVC-lined steel *
Cathode	Rotating cathode; titanium cathode plate or titanium sheet cathode in refining cells *
Anode material	MMO-coated titanium anode; Pb-Ca-Sn anode for base metal duty *
Conductive bar and bus bar	Titanium-clad copper
Anode containment	Anode bag with counter-current wash circuit
Rectifier and power supply	High-frequency pulse intelligent rectifier; IGBT rectifier with automatic pole reversing
Cathode current density	Up to 1000–1200 A/m² for gold electrolysis; 300–800 A/m² for silver electrolysis *
Electrolyte temperature	Gold electrolyte 60–70 °C; silver electrolyte controlled at ≤ 50 °C via cooling circuit *
Separation chemistry	Solvent extraction (P204 / P507 / C272), ion exchange resin, activated carbon adsorption, selective precipitation, cementation
Off-gas treatment	Enclosed hoods + flue gas condensation + multi-stage absorption tower; NOx removal efficiency ≥ 99%, outlet concentration below local permit limit *
Wastewater treatment	Neutralization, precipitation, flocculation, sludge dewatering, ion exchange polishing; recirculation with zero-liquid-discharge option
Control system	PLC + SCADA with automatic intelligent control, recipe management, alarm handling and remote monitoring
Operating mode	Batch or continuous *
Power supply	380 V / 415 V / 440 V, 50 Hz or 60 Hz, three-phase; configured to local grid and standard *
Utilities	Process water, cooling water, compressed air, exhaust ventilation; steam only for stages requiring elevated temperature
Installation form	Modular skid-mounted or site-assembled, with CAD / 3D plant layout provided
Scaling	Capacity is scaled by module count rather than by a single fixed model size *

Technical Advantages

Complete flowsheet instead of a single machine. Most suppliers offer either an electrolytic recovery cell for plating waste or a shredder-and-furnace line for e-waste. YuSai supplies both ends of the problem and the chemistry that connects them, which is why one project can treat a spent plating bath, the drag-out behind it, the rinse water downstream and the solid sludge from the wastewater plant without three separate contractors.

Recovery that continues as concentration falls. The rotating cathode keeps the cathode boundary layer in motion, so deposition does not stall at the high-concentration stage and the cell keeps pulling metal out of solution into the low parts-per-million range. This is what makes the difference between a recovery unit that only harvests the easy metal and one that actually reduces what leaves the site.

Fewer consumables, lower running cost. On the electrolytic route no chemical reagents, reducing agents or electrolytic accelerators are consumed; the recovery step costs electricity. Ion exchange resin and activated carbon are regenerated or replaced on a scheduled basis through quick-release columns, so maintenance does not require production downtime.

Metal returned to production, not to scrap. Recovered plate and crystal can be taken directly to the anode side of the plating process, closing the loop inside the factory and reducing the amount of new metal that has to be purchased.

Environmental compliance handled inside the scope of supply. Off-gas capture, condensation, multi-stage absorption and wastewater treatment are engineered together with the process, with defined performance targets, rather than procured afterwards from a third party. This is normally the single largest cause of permitting delay on a recovery project.

Design based on your sample, not a catalogue. Because equipment selection is driven by assay and bench-scale test results, low-grade or mixed feedstock is engineered for rather than rejected, and the customer sees the expected mass balance before signing.

Auditable documentation. Fire assay, XRF and wet chemical analysis results, batch mass balance and material certificates support custody transfer, settlement, customs clearance and regulatory inspection.

Scalable in steps. Additional cells, columns or refining modules connect to the existing line through standardized interfaces, so a plant can start with the stream that causes the greatest loss and add capacity as volumes grow.

Service Flow

Step 1 — Inquiry and Process Consultation. Share the feedstock or process stream, its current handling route and your target metals. We respond with a preliminary recovery route and the sample quantity and information required for testing.

Step 2 — Raw Material Testing and Assay. We analyse your sample by fire assay, XRF and wet chemical analysis and run bench-scale leaching, adsorption and deposition tests, then issue a test report stating recoverable metal content, expected recovery rate and the proposed separation sequence.

Step 3 — Process Design and Flowsheet. Based on the test report we prepare a process flow diagram, mass balance, equipment list, utility requirements and a CAD or 3D plant layout matched to your site, including the position of tank-side recovery cells on an existing plating line.

Step 4 — Quotation and Contract. A detailed commercial proposal covering equipment scope, spares, documentation, shipping terms and service scope.

Step 5 — Manufacturing and Factory Acceptance Test. Fabrication follows the approved drawings and materials specification. Key equipment is assembled and tested at the factory, and a factory acceptance test report with photographs and video is issued before shipment.

Step 6 — Packing, Shipping and Documentation. Equipment is packed for sea or air freight with a full shipping document set, including packing list, certificate of origin and technical documentation package.

Step 7 — Site Installation and Commissioning. Our engineers attend site to supervise mechanical erection, electrical and piping connection, water and gas commissioning and trial production. The line is handed over only after it produces metal at the agreed specification.

Step 8 — Operator Training and Handover. Operating and maintenance personnel are trained on process control, reagent handling, safety procedures, sampling and assay routines and daily maintenance. Written manuals and video guides are supplied.

Step 9 — After-Sales Support. Remote and on-site technical support, spare parts supply, process optimization visits and upgrade or retrofit service for the operating life of the plant.

Customer Cases

Projects are described by feedstock and outcome. Customer names and detailed project data are available under NDA on request.

Gold and Silver Refinery, West Africa. A regional precious metal trader operated a manual aqua regia bench with variable recovery and no off-gas control. The replacement line combined enclosed dissolution reactors, precision filtration, an electrolytic gold refining cell and a multi-stage absorption tower, with a silver circuit processing the silver chloride by-product. The plant now refines jewellery scrap and dore bars into certified gold and silver products with a documented batch mass balance and controlled emissions.

Electroplating Group, Middle East. A plating group running several gold, silver and palladium lines treated its drag-out and spent baths as wastewater. Cells were installed beside the recovery tanks on the production floor, with ion exchange columns on the rinse water downstream and a shared polishing circuit. Precious metal is now stripped from the cathodes and returned to the plating anode, and the metal content of the final rinse has fallen to parts-per-million levels.

E-Waste Recycling Plant, Southeast Asia. A circuit board recycler sold mechanically concentrated board fractions at a discount because the concentrate could not be refined locally. A compact line was installed with crushing and separation, leaching reactors, ion exchange and electrowinning stages to recover gold, silver and palladium on site, converting an exported intermediate into finished metal sold directly to refiners and jewellery manufacturers.

Spent Catalyst Recycling Facility, South Asia. An operator collecting spent automotive and petrochemical catalysts needed a route for platinum, palladium and rhodium that could handle mixed and variable lots. The installed flowsheet uses chloride-media dissolution followed by solvent extraction and ion exchange separation, with sponge and powder finishing stages, and accepts both ceramic and metallic substrate feedstock after decanning and milling.

Anode Slime Treatment Project, East Asia. A copper smelter treated anode slime as a low-value residue. The project added slime washing, drying, roasting and leaching stages ahead of a precious metal separation and electrolysis line, turning the residue into a payable gold and silver stream while leaving the smelter’s base metal circuit undisturbed.

Semiconductor Component Manufacturer, East Asia. A component producer generated waste plating solution and rinsing solution containing gold, platinum and palladium. Recovery cells were installed at the plating line and recovery tank, with resin and activated carbon columns treating the washing water, so that precious metal discharge in wastewater was reduced towards zero and reagent purchase fell in parallel.

Warranty and After-Sales

Warranty. Equipment supplied by YuSai Machinery carries a standard warranty period from the date of commissioning or shipment, covering defects in materials and workmanship under normal operating conditions. Wear parts, consumable electrodes, reagents, glassware and items damaged by improper operation or unauthorized modification are excluded. Warranty terms are confirmed in the contract for each project.

Spare parts. Critical spares — cathode assemblies and electrode plates, anode bags, resin and carbon replacement charges, gaskets, seals, pump components, filter media and rectifier modules — are quoted with the original order and can be supplied afterwards at cost-based pricing. A recommended first-year spare parts list is issued with the technical documentation.

Technical support. Online technical support is available on a continuous basis, with remote diagnosis of control system data where the plant is connected. Where a fault cannot be resolved remotely, our engineers can attend site under the terms of the service agreement.

Installation and training. Site installation supervision, commissioning and operator training are part of the standard delivery scope. Follow-up training visits and refresher sessions can be scheduled after the plant has been running in production.

Process optimization and upgrades. Because the plant is modular, stages can be added or modified later — extra recovery cells, additional resin or carbon columns, automatic cathode handling, or an upgrade of the control system. We also carry out process reviews based on the customer’s own operating data and assay records.

Documentation. Each project is delivered with an operating manual, maintenance manual, electrical drawings, P&ID, spare parts list, material certificates and a commissioning report, in a format suitable for local regulatory inspection.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is precious metal recovery equipment?
Precious metal recovery equipment is a group of engineered systems that recover and refine gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium from process solutions, waste plating baths, wastewater and solid residues such as electronic scrap and anode slime. It normally combines electrolysis, ion exchange, activated carbon adsorption, leaching and smelting so that valuable metal is returned to production instead of being discharged or landfilled.

Which precious metals can this equipment recover?
Gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium are the primary target metals, with copper recovered in parallel as a cathode product. Tellurium, selenium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium can be included in the flowsheet when the feedstock carries them in economic quantities.

What purity can the finished metal reach?
Gold and silver are refined to 99.99% (4N) as standard. Gold can reach 99.999% (5N) through a second electrolytic pass. Platinum and palladium are delivered at a minimum of 99.95%, rhodium at a minimum of 99.90%, and copper cathode at 99.99%. Gold stripped directly from the recovery cathode is produced at 95–99.8% purity and then refined further.

Which raw materials are suitable?
Electronic scrap and board fractions, spent plating baths, drag-out and rinse water, stripping and etching solutions including iodine and iodide etching solutions, spent photographic fixing solutions, anode slime, spent automotive and industrial catalysts, jewellery scrap and polishing sweeps, PGM alloy scrap, plating sludge, gold-loaded activated carbon, photovoltaic silver paste streams and mining concentrates.

How do I know whether my material or wastewater can be processed?
Send a representative sample. We analyse it by fire assay, XRF and wet chemical analysis and run bench-scale leaching, adsorption and deposition tests, then issue a test report stating the recoverable metal content, the expected recovery rate and the proposed separation sequence. Equipment design is based on that test report rather than on assumptions.

What is the recovery rate?
The standard design target is 95% or higher on multi-metal feedstock, and the electrolytic route achieves more than 99% recovery on high-concentration gold, silver and palladium streams. Actual recovery depends on the grade and matrix of the feedstock and is confirmed by the raw material test.

Can the unit be installed on an existing plating line?
Yes. Recovery cells can be installed online, beside the recovery tank behind the plating cylinder, so that tank metal content is kept continuously low and less metal is carried into the following rinse stage. The same cell can be used offline, processing collected wastewater in batches from a holding tank.

What metal concentration is left in the treated liquid?
On the electrolytic route, treated liquid is typically reduced to below 5–20 ppm silver and below 2–10 ppm gold, with ion exchange or activated carbon polishing applied where lower residual levels are required. The target figure for each project is fixed during process design against your discharge standard.

Does the recovery process need chemical reagents?
Not on the electrolytic route. Electrolytic recovery consumes only electricity and adds no chemical reagents, reducing agents or accelerators to the stream, so there is no secondary pollution to manage. Reagents are used in the leaching and separation stages of the solid-feedstock route, where they are metered and recorded per batch.

How is nitrogen oxide and acid gas handled?
Dissolution and electrolysis are carried out under enclosed hoods. Fumes pass through a flue gas condensation system and then a multi-stage absorption tower before discharge, with removal efficiency above 99% and outlet concentration set to match the local permit limit.

Can the plant run with no liquid discharge?
Yes. Process water is recirculated, and the bleed stream passes through neutralization, precipitation and ion exchange polishing. Clarified water is reused as process water, coolant or cleaner, and a zero-liquid-discharge configuration is available where local regulations or site constraints require it.

Can capacity be increased later?
Yes. The line is modular and capacity is scaled by adding modules rather than by replacing the system, so additional leaching, separation, electrolytic or refining stages can be connected to the existing plant through standardized interfaces.

What power supply and utilities are required?
The electrical design is configured to your site: 380 V, 415 V or 440 V, 50 Hz or 60 Hz, three-phase. Process water, cooling water, compressed air and exhaust ventilation are the main utilities, with steam required only for stages that need elevated temperatures. Compact recovery cells draw power in the low kilowatt class.

How much space does the plant need?
Footprint depends on capacity and the number of stages included. Compact recovery units are designed for installation inside a working production area. For full plants we prepare a CAD or 3D layout against your actual building or yard dimensions during process design, and multi-level arrangements are used where floor area is limited.

Do you provide installation and training?
Yes. Site installation supervision, commissioning, trial production and operator training are part of the standard scope. The plant is handed over only after it produces metal at the agreed specification, and operating and maintenance manuals are supplied in written and video form.

What is the delivery time?
Delivery time depends on the flowsheet and equipment scope, and is confirmed in the contract. Modular construction and pre-assembly at the factory shorten the on-site schedule compared with site-built plants.

Is a small unit available for laboratories or small workshops?
Yes. Compact units are available for laboratories, assay offices, jewellery workshops and small plating lines, and they use the same cell and control architecture as the industrial line, which allows a process to be validated on a small scale before investment is expanded.

How much does the equipment cost?
Cost depends on the feedstock, the number of process stages and the degree of automation included, so a quotation is prepared after the raw material test rather than from a fixed list price. Modular construction also allows a project to be implemented in phases, starting with the stream that causes the greatest metal loss.