Mastermelt America is Johnson Matthey’s agent for their new Smopex ® technology for the U.S. plating industry. This novel technology is designed to recover precious or other metals from waste solutions in an effective and environmentally effective way.

Smopex® is a Johnson Matthey plc patented product which is designed to recover precious or other metals from waste solutions in an effective and environmentally friendly way.

Johnson Matthey appointed the Mastermelt America as its agent because of our experience and expertise in this market sector.

Smopex® is a range of fibers that are activated to selectively adsorb metals from solutions whether acid or alkaline. In particular they are very effective at removing metal from very dilute effluent streams or solutions where traditional chemistry is complex and expensive.

In the case of precious metals [Au, Pt, Pd & Rh] the fiber can be processed to recover the metals with fast refining lead times.

The technology can be used either on the customer’s own site by the installation of a cartridge or by simply replacing an existing ion exchange resin and installing the fiber in the column. Alternatively the solutions can be transported to Mastermelt America where we have a dedicated rig for this work.

:: ADVANTAGES OF SMOPEX® ::

	Fibres are easy to handle and can be easily packed into columns.			Shorter refining timescales so cash flow benefits.
	Selective to remove certain metals from a mixed solution.			Can remove metals from very dilute effluent streams so reducing disposal costs and often providing a net financial return.
	Fibres have high activity with most of the adsorption being completed in the first hour.			More environmentally friendly technology.
	Can achieve loadings of 20%+ compared with 4% for resins.