GB561218A - Reduction of ores to metal - Google Patents

Abstract

561,218. Extracting iron and other metals. BRASSERT, H. A. Oct. 5, 1942, No. 13969. Convention date, Oct. 29, 1941. [Classes 72 and 82 (i)] A method of producing iron and other metals from a mixture of reducible metallic compounds, one of which is more easily reducible than the others, comprises subjecting said mixture to the action of a reducing agent at a temperature sufficient to reduce at least partially the more easily reducible material to metal but below that at which any of the said other compounds' is reducible, subsequently melting the mixture of reduced and unreduced materials to separate the purified metal from the unreduced compounds by removing the latter as slag from the metal bath, and treating the slag with a reducing agent to reduce the more easily reducible material therein. The reducing agent added to the slag may be carbon, and flux may be added to the molten mixture to free the more easily reduced material from the remaining metallic compounds. The melting of the reduced and unreduced material may be conducted in a non-reducing atmosphere. When the easily reduced material is iron oxide, it may be subjected to the action of the reducing agent at temperatures between 600‹ and 900‹ C. The slag may be separated, and the molten iron refined to convert it into steel. The reducing agent may, in part, be a reducing gas. When ores containing ilmenite are treated, lime is added to the molten mixture of iron and unreduced material to form a slag of the unreduced titanium compound and the gangue of the ore, and carbon is added to the slag to reduce sufficient of the iron oxide of the ilmenite to effect a substantial concentration of the titanium compound in the slag. When the initial mixture of metallic compounds comprises iron ores containing nickel and chromium compounds, the mixture is subjected to the reducing agent at temperatures below 600‹ C., at which temperatures the nickel is reduced, the iron being left substantially unreduced. Iron vanadium ores are reduced between 600‹-750‹ C., the vanadium being recovered from the molten slag. Similarly iron-manganese, iron molybdenum, and iron-tungsten ores may be treated.