Catalysts containing platinum-group metals are not waste in any commercial sense — they are a concentrated ore. A spent reforming or automotive catalyst can carry more platinum per tonne than mined ore, and the settlement model reflects that: you are paid on assayed metal content, minus refining charges.
The main PGM-bearing catalyst streams are automotive catalytic converters (platinum, palladium, rhodium on a ceramic monolith), refinery reforming catalysts (platinum, often with rhenium, on alumina), nitric-acid plant gauzes (platinum-rhodium), and selected fine-chemical hydrogenation catalysts (palladium or platinum on carbon).
Under the European Waste Catalogue these are 16 08 01 — spent catalysts containing gold, silver, rhenium, rhodium, palladium, iridium or platinum — a non-hazardous entry unless the material is contaminated with dangerous substances, which moves it to 16 08 07*.
Precious-metal recovery is a tolling business, not a gate-fee business. The refiner samples and assays the lot, then settles on the recovered metal at market price, deducting treatment and refining charges. The variables that decide your return are the assay method and transparency, the accountability percentage (how much of the assayed metal you are credited), the refining charge per unit, and the settlement window during which metal prices move.
Because these terms differ materially between refiners, identical material can settle at very different values. Competitive placement — getting the same assayed lot in front of more than one refiner — is the single biggest lever a generator controls.
Value is preserved by keeping streams segregated: mixing PGM catalyst with base-metal catalyst dilutes the lot and can push the whole consignment into a lower-value route. Keep documentation of catalyst grade and service history — refiners price known material faster and with less assay contingency. Fines and dust from handling belong with the lot; they often carry disproportionate metal content.
Spent catalysts containing gold, silver, rhenium, rhodium, palladium, iridium or platinum are coded 16 08 01. If contaminated with dangerous substances the stream is 16 08 07* instead.
Settlement is on assayed metal content at market prices, minus refining charges — there is no meaningful flat rate. Reforming catalysts and automotive converters are the highest-grade common streams; the assay decides the value of a specific lot.
No. Mixing dilutes the assay and can drag the whole lot into a base-metal route. Segregate by grade and keep fines with the parent lot.
Precious-metal catalyst recovery
With a lab analysis, the engine checks the stream against each receiving route's published limits and returns what is supported, what is refused, and why. Without one yet, we tell you which routes it can evaluate and what analysis that needs.
See what the output looks like: a worked dossier.