US1261694A - Method of treating sulfid ores. - Google Patents

Description

, UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK K. CAMERON AND J OHN A. CULLEN, 0F SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, AND REED W.

HYDE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNORS TO AMERICAN SMELTING & BEFINING GOM- PANY, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

MET OD or 'rnEA'rme SULFID onus.

No Drawing.

T.) all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, (1) FRANK K. CAMERON, (2) JOHN A. CULLEN, and (3) REED W. HYDE, citizens of the United States, residing at (1) Salt Lake City, (2 Salt Lake City, and (3) New York city, in the counties of (1) Salt Lake, (2) Salt Lake, and (3) New York, and States of (1) Utah, (2) Utah, and (3) New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Treating Sulfid Ores, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is a method of treatlng sulfid ores for the recovery therefrom of the metal values and elemental sulfur. method will'be described in its application to complex sulfids carrying one or more sulfids of zinc, lead, co per and iron, together with some silver, go d and manganese, with other componentsand gangue minerals.

,We have discovered that "in presence of strong sulfuric acid and at high temperatures, these sulfid ores undergo decomposi- I t-ion, yielding elemental'sulfur which distils from the mass, and the sulfates of the metals which remain as a residue. probablytakes place in stages, and is not achieved or realized in practice .n a complete form; but it may be summarized in the following ideal equation which ismore or. less imperfectly approxlmated, namely 3 sof+4 s+uno A more or less close approximation tof his reaction is obtained W en tl.e ore, mixed with sulfuric acid having a concentration of Baum or higher, is raised quickly to a temperature of about 200 0.. more or less. The sulfid ore may be simply mixed with the sulfuric'acid in about the proportions above described and the mixture quickly heated to the required temperature. We prefer however, in order to secure more nearlv uniform temperature conditions and a better approximation to the ideal reaction, to heat the sulfuric acid first nearly to its boiling point, and then to add the ore.

. The reaction is' carried out in a still or ves- Specification of Letters Patent.

The.

The reaction cific manipulation.

Patented Apr. 2, 1918.

Application filed June 18, 1917. Serial No. 175,529. I

lution of sulfur dioxid, and presently if the temperature be sufficiently maintained by a copious evolution of elemental sulfur, mixed with water-vapor, sulfur dioxid and sulfur trioxid, or with vapors of sulfuric acid. The sulfur is easil condensed and recovered and may be mar eted as such, while the to cool somewhat and 1s lixiviated with water. We obtain thereby an aqueous solution containing practically 'all of the zinc, together with more or less ferrous iron, copper, aluminum, silver, etc. By well known and commonly practised methods all bases other than zinc are readily removed, leaving a technically pure solution which may be used for the production of zinc sulfate, or of the chlorid or other salts of zinc, or which may be electrolyzed for the production of the metal. The precipitated iron, silver, etc., from the zinc sulfate solution may profitably be added to the extracted residue, consisting mainly of lead sulfate but containing also gold, silver, silica, manganese, etc., and the mi'xturesent to the lead smelter.

While we prefer to heat the acid to a high temperature before adding the ore, our invention is not limited to this or other spe- The more quickly the mixture is brought to the requisite temperature, the more closely the reaction will approach the ideal equation as above expressed. We consider therefore that any method whereby such rapid heatin ma be.

accomplished is equivalent to that escrlbed herein. The application of the principle of Le Chatelier indicates that an increased yield of sulfur may be expected by carrying proximating the boiling-point of the acid,

distilling off sulfur, and recovering the metal values from the residue.

2. The method of recovering elemental sulfur and metal values from sulfid ores,

which consists in quickly heating sulfid. ore

and strong sulfuric acid to a reacting temperature approximating the boiling-point of the acid, distilling off sulfur, and recovering the metal values from the residue.

3. The method of recovering elemental sulfur and metal values from sulficl Ores, which consists in heating sulfuric acid having a concentration of at least 50 Baume approximately to its boiling-point, adding 10