Activated Carbon for Precious and Base Metal Recovery from Industrial Streams

Capturing value while ignoring distractions in complex matrices.

Beyond gold, activated carbon enables the recovery of silver, platinum, palladium, and other valuable metals from industrial byproducts, electronic waste, and refinery effluents. These streams are chemically complex: base metals, cyanides, acids, and organic interferences compete with the target precious metals for adsorption sites. The carbon must be selective enough to capture value while ignoring distractions.

The Challenge & PureStar Approach

The Core Challenge: Selectivity in complex matrices.

A carbon that adsorbs copper and iron with equal enthusiasm as silver will quickly saturate with worthless base metals, leaving no capacity for the valuable ones. And the elution chemistry must be mild enough to recover the precious metal without destroying the carbon's structure for reuse.