GB412417A - Process and apparatus for the production of magnesium - Google Patents

Abstract

412,417. Extracting magnesium. GIRE, G., 77, Rue de Vaugirard, and FOUQUET, R., 94, Avenue de Suffren, both in Paris. July 6, 1933, No. 19178. Addition to 382,899. [Class 82 (i).] In an improvement in the process described in the parent Specification the mixture of magnesium-containing compound and reducing agent for reduction is compressed or moulded into small bodies. The magnesia, dolomite, magnesium silicate or carbonate, and the reducing agent, preferably a silicon-calcium alloy, are finely ground, sifted, and graded, and the fine materials are intimately mixed and compressed into pastilles or briquettes, mixtures containing the carbonate or dolomite being calcined in vacuo to remove carbon dioxide. Alternatively the mixture is made into a paste with water and compressed into pastilles, or into wire or rings by forcing through a draw plate, then dried, and calcined in vacuo or a non-oxidizing atmosphere. For the reduction, the small bodies are heated in an iron crucible 1 communicating with an iron condenser 2 having a cooling jacket 3. The whole unit is enclosed in a cool container 5 connected by a pipe 6 to an evacuating apparatus. Two independent means may, if desired, be used to establish a vacuum inside and outside the crucible respectively. The unit may be located in an inert gas, e.g. hydrogen instead of a vacuo.