Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B23/00—Obtaining nickel or cobalt
  • C22B23/02—Obtaining nickel or cobalt by dry processes
  • C22B23/025—Obtaining nickel or cobalt by dry processes with formation of a matte or by matte refining or converting into nickel or cobalt, e.g. by the Oxford process
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B15/00—Obtaining copper
  • C22B15/0002—Preliminary treatment
  • C22B15/0004—Preliminary treatment without modification of the copper constituent
  • C22B15/0006—Preliminary treatment without modification of the copper constituent by dry processes
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B15/00—Obtaining copper
  • C22B15/0002—Preliminary treatment
  • C22B15/001—Preliminary treatment with modification of the copper constituent
  • C22B15/0013—Preliminary treatment with modification of the copper constituent by roasting
  • C22B15/0015—Oxidizing roasting
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B15/00—Obtaining copper
  • C22B15/0002—Preliminary treatment
  • C22B15/001—Preliminary treatment with modification of the copper constituent
  • C22B15/0021—Preliminary treatment with modification of the copper constituent by reducing in gaseous or solid state
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B23/00—Obtaining nickel or cobalt
  • C22B23/02—Obtaining nickel or cobalt by dry processes
  • C22B23/023—Obtaining nickel or cobalt by dry processes with formation of ferro-nickel or ferro-cobalt
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P10/00—Technologies related to metal processing
  • Y02P10/20—Recycling

Definitions

• the whole of the amount of iron contained in the crude matte is obtained as iron silicate slag, the further Working up of which is usually not profitable.
• the iron contained in the crude material is thus lost.
• the slag obtained by blowing the crude matte to refined matte with the addition of silicic acid is always returned again to the crude matte smelting process, the amount of slag obtained by the crude matte smelting increases. Since, this slag always contains small amounts of copper, nickel and/or cobalt, the recovery of these metals from the crude material is appreciably worsened.
• the said adjustment of the sulfur content of the crude matte can be effected by decreasing the sulfur content of the crude matte by partial roast-ing and reducing the roasted product, whereby the oxide formed by the roasting is converted into metal. Slagging of the iron, such as took place hitherto by combination of the iron oxide formed with silicic acid, therefore does not take place.
• the sulfur content of the crude matte may also be reduced by the addition of metal in particular of iron and/or copper.
• the annealing of the crude matte having a predetermined sulfur content can be carried out by slowly cooling 2,758,020 Patented Aug. 7, 1956 the fused crude matte. When doing this, it may be preferable to keep the matte for some time at a definite temperature, as for example between 400 and 900 C. Crude matte which is already cold may also be heated again and slowly cooled or kept at a definite temperature for some time. The annealing is continued until the metallic particles have as far as possible attained a size of more than 100 1.. When this is the case, also the other components of the annealed crude matte have usually attained a particle size which is sufficient for the subsequent mechanical separation.
• the fraction containing nickel and/or cobalt, which contains more or less metallic iron depending on the sulfur content of the crude matte, is preferably separated by magnetic separation, while the fraction consisting mainly of copper sulfide and iron sulfide, which remains in the magnetic separation, can usually be split up into a product rich in copper and a product rich in iron by flotation.
• the magnetic separation middle fractions which contain nickel and/or cobalt and iron in metallic form besides iron sulfide and copper sulfide, it is in many cases more preferable to mix these middle fractions as metal-containing additions to the crude matte to be melted than toattempt by further comminution and repeated magnetic separation to separate in this case.
• this nickel and/or cobalt content as higher-percentage metal.
• the individual fractions thus obtained can be worked up in the usual way, for example in order to recover the individual metals separately.
• the fraction enriched in nickel and/ or cobalt can be directly employed with advantage as ferronickel or ferrocobalt for the production of alloy steels.
• Pure nickel or pure cobalt or a nickelcobalt alloy can be recovered without difliculty from this fraction containing nickel and/or cobalt by known methods. In this case it may be preferable-to decrease the iron content of this fraction by adjutsing the sulfur content of the crude matte to the above-mentioned upper limit.
• the metallic fraction enriched with nickel and/ or cobalt may also be worked up by treatment with acids or salt solutions or by anodic dissolution.
• the sulfidic parts which remain in the separation of the fraction containing the nickel and/ or cobalt and which contain practically the whole of the copper from the crude matte and a large part of the iron, may be separated for example by flotation and then worked up in the usual way for example into metallic copper and metallic iron, processes and apparatus hitherto usual being applicable also to these purposes.
• Example 1 To a nickel-copper crude matte being in the molten state and obtained from a sulfidic, iron-containing nickelcopper ore, there are added 18% of metallic iron; whereby a nickel-copper crude matte is formed containing 8.3% of nickel, 5.1% of copper, 60% of iron and the remainder sulfur.
• This molten crude matte is cooled in such manner that the fall in temperature amounts to about 5 C. per hour.
• the crude matte as may be detected from a microscopic section, consists of three different kinds of individual particles, namely metallic nickel-iron particles, copper sulfide particles and iron sulfide particles, the size of which amounts to more than 100/L.
• a process for Working up a green furnace matte containing in relative proportions, a major proportion of iron, and a minor proportion of copper and at least one of the metals nickel and cobalt which comprises providing a sulfur content in said matte which is at least sutficient to combine with the copper contained therein but not greater than that sufficient to combine with the copper and iron contained therein, subsequently annealing said matte being substantially free of oxides of the metals and containing the metals in the form of sulfides and in the elemental state, by heating it at a temperature of about 400 C. to 900 C.
• a process for working up a green furnace matte containing in relative proportions, a major proportion of iron, and a minor proportion of copper and at least one of the metals nickel and cobalt which comprises providing a sulfur content in said matte which is at least sufficient to combine with the copper contained therein but not greater than that sufiicient to combine with the copper and iron contained therein, subsequently annealing said matte being substantially free of oxides of the metals and containing the metals in the form of sulfides and in the elemental state, by heating it at a temperature of about 400 C. to 900 C.
• a process for working up a green furnace matte containing in relative proportions, a major proportion of iron, and a minor proportion of copper and at least one of the metals nickel and cobalt which comprises providing a sulfur content in said matte while molten which is at least sufiicient to combine with the copper contained therein but not greater than that sufiicient to combine with the copper and iron contained therein, subsequently slowly cooling said matte being substantially free of oxides of the metals and containing the metals in the form of sulfides and in the elemental state, from the molten state through the temperature range 900 C. to 400 C.
• individual sulfidic particles including copper sulfide particles and individual metallic particles containing at least one of metallic nickel and metallic cobalt corresponding to the components of the initial matte, comminuting the matte, and mechanically separating the said metallic particles from the said sulfidic particles.
• a process for working up a green furnace matte containing in relative proportions, a major proportion of iron, and a minor proportion of copper and at least one of the metals nickel and cobalt which comprises providing a sulfur content in said matte While molten which is at least sutficient to combine with the copper contained therein. but not greater than that sufiicient to combine with the copper and iron contained therein, subsequently cooling said matte being substantially free of oxides of the metals and containing the metals in the form of sulfides and in the elemental state, from the molten state through the temperature range 900 C. to 400 C. at a rate of about 5 C.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Materials Engineering (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Metallurgy (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Manufacture And Refinement Of Metals (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=6619465

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Cited By (2)

Citations (7)

• 0
  • BE BE512738D patent/BE512738A/xx unknown
• 1952
  • 1952-07-08 FR FR1060212D patent/FR1060212A/fr not_active Expired
  • 1952-07-16 US US29924652 patent/US2758020A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1952-07-21 GB GB1832252A patent/GB710827A/en not_active Expired

Patent Citations (7)

Also Published As

Similar Documents