DISCUSSIONS OF X RAY DATA OF REDUCED MAGNETITE
by John V Milewski PhD
Rev June 16, 2007


These x ray tests were run at North Carolina State University Graduate School of Ceramics in 1996.

Three separate samples of magnetite grade mag pit ore (MPO) from near Silver City, New Mexico, were run at elevated temperatures using three different reducing agents.

The first used hydrogen at 1100 C for one hour.

The second used Aluminum in the Thermite process—estimated temperature above 2000 C.

The third used carbon at 1100 C for one hour.

Each set of data is presented in two pages. One gives the raw date for peak intensity vs. 2 theta. The second page has the numerical data giving the theoretical and actual two theta values, the crystal lattice D spacing, the theoretical and actual peak heights, the reflecting planes and the compound formula.

The area under the peaks can be used as a rough means of calculation of the relative proportions of each compound found.

The compound (FeRh)1.8 Ir.2 was found in all three experiments in an estimated 5% to 15% range. That represents a fair amount of rhodium and iridium in the original black sand. Calculations made using atomic masses and atomic percentages gives the following compositions for this compound, 57.3% Rh, 11.7% Ir, or 69% of these platinum group metals (PGMs) in this compound that came from this black sand magnetite. I believe that these PGMs were originally in the ormus, non-detectable form before their reducing compound heat treatment that reformulated their atomic structure to the new metallic formed compound.

The support for this idea is that this MPO magnetite was previously sent out and given a nuclear resonance spectrographic analysis for PGMs and they showed no Rhodium or Iridium with a detection limit of less than 5 ppb (that's parts per billion). This new data is pretty good information proving the presence of rhodium and iridium in this type of magnetite.

The highest yield of the rhodium, iridium elements comes out to be about 10% of the magnetite. This was found in the Thermite reduction process which uses aluminum as a reducing agent. This higher yield is probably due to the fact that this process ran at a very significant high temperature.


Aluminum Reduced Magnetite by Thermite Process

M

2THETA

DSPACE

HEIGHT

2 Theta

Relative Intensity

hkl

Compound

1

26.352

3.3794

100

26.667

60

111

Fe3Al

2

29.597

3.0158

19.2

29.960

30.916

15

50

100

200

(Fe, Rh)1.8 Ir.2

Fe3Al

3

35.297

2.5408

27.9

 

 

 

 

4

36.254

2.4759

19.2

 

 

 

 

5

42.162

2.1416

21.2

42.717

100

110

(Fe, Rh)1.8 Ir.2

6

44.623

2.0290

50

44.369

100

220

Fe3Al

7

49.866

1.8273

23.1

50.976

20

 

Fe3Al

8

56.705

1.6220

19.2

54.935

10

222

Fe3Al

9

59.589

1.5502

22.1

 

 

 

 

10

62.483

1.4852

20.2

62.119

25

200

(Fe, Rh)1.8Ir.2






Carbon Reduced Magnetite 1 hour @ 1100C
 

 

2THETA

DSPACE

HEIGHT

2 Theta

Relative Intensity

hkl

Compound

1

26.657

3.3414

100

26.603

100

002

Graphite

2

27.794

3.2072

8.5

 

 

 

 

3

29.806

2.9952

17.5

29.960

15

100

(Fe,Rh)1.8 Ir.2

4

30.899

2.8916

7.6

 

 

 

 

5

35.697

2.5132

6.9

 

 

 

 

6

36.574

2.4536

7.2

 

 

 

 

7

39.502

2.2795

7.4

 

 

 

 

8

40.307

2.2358

5.3

 

 

 

 

9

42.406

2.1298

6.9

42.464

42.717

44.669

3

100

15

100

110

101

Graphite

(Fe.Rh)1.8 Ir.2

Graphite

10

44.706

2.0255

6

 

 

 

 

11

45.891

1.9759

6.5

 

 

 

 

12

48.316

1.8822

4.4

 

 

 

 

13

50.188

1.8163

9.7

50.824

3

102

Graphite

14

54.933

1.6701

4.9

54.793

6

004

Graphite

15

56.606

1.6247

5.5

 

 

 

 

16

59.937

1.5421

6.3

60.033

4

103

Graphite

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Hydrogen Reduced Magnetite 1 Hour @ 1100C
 

M

2THETA

DSPACE

HEIGHT

2 Theta

Relative Intensity

hkl

Compound

1

30.079

2.9686

7.1

29.960

15

100

(Fe,Rh)1.8 Ir.2

2

33.179

2.6980

5.9

33.152

100

104

Fe2O3

3

35.500

2.5267

16

35.611

70

110

Fe2O3

4

40.329

2.2346

5.3

40.854

20

113

Fe2O3

5

42.978

2.1028

4.7

42.717

100

110

(Fe,Rh)1.8 Ir.2

6

44.689

2.0262

100

44.673

100

110

Alpha Iron

7

56.986

1.6147

5.3

56.150

57.428

57.589

1

5

10

211

122

018

Fe2O3   

8

62.633

1.4820

6.5

62.119

25

200

(Fe.Rh)1.8 Ir.2

9

65.049

1.4327

11.8

65.021

20

200

Alpha Iron