US333815A - silvee - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

M. BODY.

PROCESS OF OBTAINING GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, NICKEL, AND COBALT FROM THEIR ORES BY ELECTROLYTIC ACT-ION.

No. 333,815. Patented Jan. 5. 1886.

N. FETERS. Phowumu m hun Walhlngion, D. a

'the solution of the metallic particles.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MICHEL BODY, OF LIEGE, BELGIUM.

PROCESS OF OBTAINING GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, NICKEL, AND COBALT FROM THEIR ORES BY ELECTROLYTIC ACTION.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 333,815, dated January 5, 1886.

Application filed June 26,1883, Serial No. 99,297.

(No model.) Patented in Belgium March 31, 1883, No. 60,762, and in England May 10, 1883, No. 2,390.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MICHEL BoDY, a citizen of Belgium, residing at Liege, in the Kingdom of Belgium, have invented an Improved Process of Obtaining Gold, Silver, Copper, Nickel, and Cobalt from their Ores by Electrolytic Action, (for which I have obtained a patent in Great Britain, No. 2,390, dated May 10, 1883, and in Belgium, dated March 31, 1883, No. 60,762,) of which the following is a specification. My invention relates, first, to the preparation of ores that are to be subjected to electrolytic action; and, secondly, to lixiviating and electrolytic processes.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a suitable vessel used in carrying out my invention. Figure 1 is a vertical section of the vessel; Fig. 2, a plan thereof.

The preparation of the ores includes the application of the necessary means for rendering the metallic particles soluble or more readily soluble. For this purpose the ores are in the first instance crushed to fine powder, with the admixture of salts that are capable of causing The solvents employed are the ferric saltssuch as ferric sulphate and ferric chloride-either alone or mixed with common salt.

The chemical process involved in the lixiviation and separation of the metals from their oxides and sulphur compounds according to this invention is based on the reaction to which the acid ferric salts-namely, the normal ferric salts, all of which show acid reaction-are subjected in the presence of the oxides or sulphur compounds ofthe metals, in being converted into ferrous salts in particu' lar, under the influence of electric currents, (which by this means effect the separation of the metals) and on the facility with which these ferrous salts are 'reconverted into ferric salts, so that they can be again used for the same purpose. This process does not exclude the combined action of common salt, which cooperates advantageously with the ferric salts in dissolving the chlorides and arsenides of the metals. The ore,placed in a heap, is first wetted and then left to the action of the atmospheric air, being turned over repeatedly. The wetting is advantageously effected with the liquors of spent baths,resulting from the electrolytic process presently to be described, or ordinary salt solution or lyes of chloride of calcium or chloride of magnesium may be used; or the ore can be subjected to a rapid roasting process instead of being treated as above, such roasting being effected in reverberatory or other furnaces having condensing-chambers, which are so useful for the production of the necessary acids. In this case the ore is afterward again reduced to powder and is then directly subjected to the electrolytic process to be presently described, without being previously wetted and exposed for some time to the action of the atmosphere, as in the first case.

The circumstances which determine the use of the one or the other of the above methods of preparation depend upon the nature of the ores and on the localities where these operations have to be performed, as also upon the means which are there available for the pur- 1 After the ore has been prepared in either of the above described ways the electrolytic process is applied thereto. According to one method of carrying out such process the ore is placed in a receptacle containing the ferric-salt solution, together with a solution of common salt. The operations that take place are as follows: First, the ores are dissolved by the action of the ferric salts, which are thereby converted into ferrous salts; secondly, the dissolved metal is deposited on the copper plate by the action of the current; and, thirdly, the chlorine liberated by the electric current at the carbon pole effects the reconversion of the ferrous salts by combining with the base, and any excess of chlorine passing off in penetrating the above-mentioned ores has an energetic dissolvingaction thereon.

The drawings illustrate a construction of vessel which I prefer to use in carrying out the abovedescribcd process. It is made of Portland cement, which hasbeen found to be a good non-conductor of electricity, and which is painted inside and outside with a suitable down to within a certain distance from the bottom surface,c,this being coated with alayer of carbon. The openings left below the inner walls are provided with permeable surfaces at 00, Fig. 1, formed of felt, and the inner surfaces of the outer walls are coated with a layer of carbon, 11. The parts of the bottom floor between the outer and inner walls are situated at a lower level than the inner floor. The

electrical circuit is connected at one pole with the inner floor, and at the other pole with the two precipitating-plates X X, suspended in the small compartments of the vessel. The solution enters at the floor c of the inner compartment, and, after flowing upward and over the tops of the inner walls, 1), into the outer compartments, escapes through openings 0, near the bottom of these compartments.

By constructing thelower parts ofthe walls 12 of a permeable material the current is enabled to pass direct from the electrode 0 to the precipitating-plates X, instead of having to pass with the liquid over the tops of the walls b, whereby the precipitating-plates will be enabled to act more effectually in precipitating the metal from the solution, as such precipitation would otherwise only take place to any extent at the upper ends of the plates if the electric current only found its way over the walls. By this arrangement the solution is subjected in the best manner to the action of the precipitating-plates, and can be made to permeatein a continuous manner through the ore. Centrally in the inner compartment is a revolving stirrer, e.

The nature of the lye containing the ferric salts employed in the above-described process will vary according to the nature of the ore to be treated, and no definite rules as to its composition can therefore be given.

A suitable lye for the treatment of chlorinated metals is one hundred parts of water to twenty parts of common salt, five parts of persulphate of iron, and five parts of sulphuric acid. The lye may, however, also be used without the common salt when the process is used in connection with chloride ores, and I wish it understood that chlorine is evolved, whether the solution contains chloride or the ore itself is chlorinated.

I layno claim to anything shown, described, and claimed in English Patent No. 2,882 of 1878. The differences between that invention and mine will be apparent on a comparison of the two inventions.

I disclaim herein what is shown and claimed in Letters Patent N 0. 291,670, dated January 8, 1884.

What I claim is- 1. The herein-described process of separating gold, silver, copper, and other metals from chlorinated or chlorine-containing ores by electrolytic action, consisting in first roasting the ores or subjecting them to an equivalent oxidizing treatment, as specified, and then subjecting the ore to the action of ferric-salt solutions, and at the same time passing an electric current through said solution, whereby the metal becomes dissolved and precipitated, and chlorine gas is generated at the positive pole, which reconverts the resulting ferrous salts into ferric salts, substantially as herein set forth.

2. In the process of separating gold, silver, copper, and other metals from their ores by electrolytic action, the method of dissolving and precipitating the metal from its ore, and reconverting ferrous salts into ferric salt, consisting in subjecting the ore to the action of ferric-salt solutions under the influence of an electric current, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this 8th day of June, 1883.

MGH. BODY. Witnesses:

L. SAnsoN, A. HEssELs.

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