US1006355A - Process of treating ores. - Google Patents

Description

1 ru snares. r rrnn'r FRANKLIN R.' CARPENTER AND ARTHUR HOWE CARPENTER, 01? DENVER, COLORADO; ARTHUR I-I CKVE CARPENTER, ADMINISTRATOR OF SAID FRANKLIN R; CARPENTER, DECEASED, vAND INDIVIDUALLY ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF OF THE WHOLE RIGHT TO KIRBY THOMAS,-OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS OF TREATING ORES.

ooaeaa. No Drawing. Application filed August 25, 1909,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FRANKLIN R.

CAP.-

, PENTER and ARTHUR Hown Csnrnxrnn, citi zens of the United States, residing in'Denver, in the county of Denver and State of copper-nickel ores of Sudbury, Ontario, as well as the matte made therefrom. These ores in the main are iron sulfid or pyrrhotite, carrying varying quantities of copper and nickel, seldom exceeding three per cent. of each. In some instances they carry large quantities of gangue, which is essentially a norite, but which sometimes is also nickeliferous. It is owing to this fact that difii culties in ore concentration are encountered and that it has become the almost universal practice to smelt these ores for a low grade copper nickel iron matte for subsequent treatment, which treatment is expensive, and a part of which is said to be kept secret. It has long been known that it is unnecessary to separate'the nickel of these ores from the accompanying iron, as it is used mainly in the manufacture of ferronickel alloys. If the copper, sulfur and gangue were removed from these ores the resultant iron oxid would be the purple or. blue-billy ores of commerce, differing only in the fact that they would carry nickel. This purple ore, whether derived directly from Sudbury ores or from the low grade nickel iron matte, can be nodulized and added direct to the open hearth or blast furnace process forv the manufacture of nickel alloys of every variety.

We have successfully applied the Henderson-Longinaid process of chloridization for the separation of copper from both ores and .rnattes, but the process is one of great delicacy, requiring the highest skillin both roasting and chloridizing, owing to the fact that both' nickel and iron are likely to be chloridized and lost. In the case of iron it is not a matter of any importance whether four or five per cent. of iron is lost or not,

but a very much less percentage of nickel I loss becomes at once a serious matter.

In the ordinary Henderson Longmaid process the ore is rough roasted so as to Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Cot. 17, 1911.

Serial No. 514,552. Renewed June 27, 1911. Serial No. 635,650.

leave about once and a half or twice as much sulfur in the ore as there is copper. In doing this some of the nickel may exist as nickel sulfid and some as nickel sulfate, and the same is true of the iron. It is extremely diflicult to break up these compounds and is averted. After practically dead roasting the mass, we add raw pyrite, raw pyrrhotite or raw matte, preferably the first free from nickel, to the mass, together with the necessary' salt, and then give the whole a chloridizing roast. Owing to the greater ease with which copper is chloridized, we can control the process absolutely, and when lixiviated, the nickel remains behind with the iron, while the copper is readily leached out. After treatment the nickel iron residue is smelted directly, with or without other iron ores or iron, for the production of ferronickel alloys, thereby saving the cost of separating the nickel by the. present costly methods, and the complete utilization of the iron.

Having described our invention, what we nickel-iron ores and mattes derived therefrom from their copper contents by practically dead roasting the same, whereby all the sulfates and sulfids of iron and nickel and possibly of copper are broken up, and then adding to the oxidized mass raw sulfids, either in the form of raw pyrite, raw pyrrhotite or raw matte, with the necessary amount of common salt, and subjecting the same to what is known as a chloridizing roast, whereby the copper is chloridized and the iron and nickel left as oxids and then leaching the chloridiied copper from the mass, leaving the iron and nickel oxids in the form of the purple ore of commerce, and the smelting of this purple ore for the production of ferronickel or nickel-steel, substantially as described.

2. The hereindescribed method of freeing sulfid copper-nickel-iron ores from their copper contents by practically dead roasting the mass and then adding common salt and a J sufiicient amount of sulfid to react with the salt to chloridize and render soluble the copper only, leaving insoluble nickel and iron oxids in the form of the purple ore of commerce.

3. The method herein described, which consists in giving sulfid copper-nickel-iron ores or mattes an oxidizing roast and then adding thereto the necessary amount of raw pyrite, raw pyrrhotite or raw matte, to-

gether with the necessary amount of com- .mon salt and subjecting the whole to 2.

chloridizing roast, whereby the copper is rendered soluble in Water, while the iron and nickel oxids are not so afi'ected, then leaching or washing from the residue the chloridized copper, leaving the remainder in the form of blue billy, or purple iron ore, carrying practically all the original nickel and little or nocopper, and then smelting such purple nickelcarrying ore for the production of ferro-nickel or nickelrsteel.

A. R. MORRISON.