When your activated carbon supplier mixes palm shell into your coconut shell carbon, you don't just lose money — you lose gold. Literally.
This is the story of one of our clients in Burkina Faso, how they got burned by a dishonest supplier, and how we earned their trust with 112 tons on the first order.
Our client operates a gold recovery plant in Burkina Faso using CIL circuits. They'd been buying 6×12 mesh coconut shell activated carbon from another Chinese supplier for about a year. Production numbers looked fine at first.
Then recovery rates started dropping.
They sent samples to an independent lab. The results:
The cost of being cheated:
Palm shell carbon looks similar to coconut shell carbon visually. The supplier was betting they'd never test it. They were wrong — just too late.
After the fraud was confirmed, our client asked around. A business contact who'd been buying from us for 3+ years made the introduction.
Their requirements were specific:
They were cautious. Understandably. They requested:
We agreed to everything. If your product is real, transparency costs nothing.
| Parameter | Client Requirement | Our Delivery |
| Raw material | 100% coconut shell | 100% coconut shell (verified) |
| Mesh size | 6×12 | 6×12 |
| Iodine number | ≥1100 mg/g | 1120–1150 mg/g |
| Hardness | ≥98% | 98.5–99% |
| Ash content | ≤3% | 2.1–2.5% |
| Moisture | ≤10% | 6.5% |
Every batch tested by our lab + SGS verification on first shipment.
June alone, we shipped 600 tons of gold-grade coconut shell activated carbon across multiple clients. This Burkina Faso client took 112 tons — 4 × 40HQ containers loaded at Nansha Port (南沙港).
Yesterday's shipment: 4 × 40HQ loaded and on the water, destination Burkina Faso.
The relationship started because:
If you're buying coconut shell activated carbon for gold recovery, here's how to protect yourself:
| Spec | Detail |
| Product | Coconut Shell Activated Carbon for Gold Recovery |
| Mesh size | 6×12 |
| Hardness | 98%+ |
| Iodine number | 1100+ mg/g |
| Activation | Steam activated |
| Loading port | Nansha Port, Guangzhou / Xiamen Port |
| Production capacity | 700+ tons/month |
| MOQ | 10 tons |
| Packaging | 25kg PP bags or 500kg jumbo bags |
Lab testing is most reliable (hardness, ash content, density). Visual inspection: coconut shell carbon is darker, denser, and has a more uniform granule shape. Palm shell tends to be lighter in color with more irregular shapes. A simple water float test also helps — palm shell carbon has lower density and more pieces float.
Money. Palm shell is $500–800/ton cheaper than coconut shell as raw material. Mixing 30–40% palm shell into a batch increases profit margin by $200–300/ton. Multiply that by hundreds of tons and the incentive is clear.
Poorly. Lower hardness means more breakage in CIL/CIP circuits (= gold losses to fine carbon). Lower gold adsorption value means less gold loaded per kg of carbon. It's not worthless, but it's not what you're paying for when you order coconut shell grade.
Standard specs: 7–15 days. Custom specifications (special mesh size, impregnation, acid washing): 15–25 days. These timelines assume raw material is in stock — confirm with your supplier before finalizing delivery schedules.
If your current carbon isn't performing — or you just want to verify what you're actually getting — talk to us. We ship what we promise. 600 tons this month proves it.
