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By Raymond F. Dalton

Despite the ready availability of numerous zinc sources, the process of solvent extraction- electrowinning (SX-EW) has as yet found little favour in the zinc industry. It is suggested that this is largely due to the previous lack of availability of suitable selective reagents having the particular features required to enable them to fit in to a solvent extraction-electrowinning based process for zinc, particularly with regard to strength and selectivity for zinc over iron. This paper describes work on the development of new selective extractants for the recovery of zinc from both sulfate and chloride aqueous solutions and suggests how they might be integrated into new zinc processes.

Jan 1, 1994

By Zhitong Sui

Based on several case studies on the precipitating behavior of valuable nonferrous metal compounds (VNMC) in molten slags a green technology for the recovery of VNMC from molten slags was proposed. This technology involves three steps: (I) The selective enrichment of the dispersed VNMC into the designed mineral phase in the molten slag; (2) The selective coarsening of the designed mineral phase to a critical grain size in the molten slag; (3) The selective separation from tailing of the grown mineral phase in the solidified slag by dressing or hydrometallurgy processes. This is a clean and low cost technique and has a great capacity to deal with a large quantity of slags. The utilization of the recovered VNMC such as Titanium, Boron, Vanadium compounds was summarized as examples of application. It was confirmed by experiments that the precipitating behavior of the designed mineral phases like Perovskite(CaTiO3), Suanite(2MgO*B2O3) and Sincosite(CaOoV2O5*P2O5) in molten slags is obviously affected by operation factors such as temperature, chemical composition, heat-treatment, additives and so on. The precipitating kinetics and mechanism of the VNMC from molten slags during solidification processes were also investigated.

Jan 1, 2003

By T. T. Chen

Gold in the Twin Creeks ore is primarily associated with arsenian pyrite. During pressure oxidation, the sulphides are solubilized, but part of the dissolved iron reprecipitates as jarosite and as an iron sulphate-arsenate-phosphate phase. The pressure oxidation products are subjected to cyanide leaching. The cyanide leach residues consist of quartz, gypsum, bassanite, anhydrite, small amounts of jarosite, an iron-sulphate-arsenate-phosphate phase, as well as trace amounts of orthoclase, rutile, pyrite, hematite and monazite; all these particles are dispersed in a fine grained matrix of illite-muscovite. The autoclave leach residues contain a small amount of carbonaceous matter. Many gold grains are detected on the surfaces of the carbon particles, and these gold particles are not leached during cyanidation. The gold particles are typically 0.1-0.2/Lm in size and commonly are embedded in the carbon surface or are coated with a K-AI-Si-S-O phase on the surface of the carbon. The gold grains are consistently associated with elevated CI contents (50-300 ppm Cl). The poor gold cyanide leach recoveries, which initially occurred in the Twin Creek developmental circuit under certain operating conditions, are attributed to the presence of chloride in the feed. This results in the formation of soluble gold chlorocomplexes in the autolcave and the subsequent sequestering of the gold on the surfaces of the carbon particles.

Jan 1, 2000

By Damien Wagner

To reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by the steel industry, particularly for ironmaking, the production of DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) using hydrogen as the reducing gas instead of carbon monoxide is being considered. In this context, the reduction of pure hematite by hydrogen was studied at the laboratory scale, varying the experimental conditions and observing the rate and the course of the reaction. All the reduction experiments were performed in a thermobalance and supplementary characterization methods were used like scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Mössbauer spectrometry. The influence of rising temperature in the range 550-900°C is to accelerate the reaction; no slowing down was observed, contrary to some literature conclusions. A series of experiments consisted in interrupting the runs before complete conversion, thus enabling the characterization of partially reduced samples. Interpretation confirms the occurrence of three successive and rather separate reduction steps, through magnetite and wustite to iron, and illustrates a clear structural evolution of the samples. Finally, the influence of the sample type was revealed comparing a regular powder, a nanopowder and a sintered sample. The regular powder proved to be the most reactive despite its larger grain size, due to a more porous final structure.

Jan 1, 2006

By C. Flores

A novel process using solid metals for the direct reduction of more noble metal ions from solvent extraction organics has been developed. Base metals recovery has been the principal focus of investigations to date but feasibility tests have now also been made on galvanically stripping selected precious metals. In this study gold (III) was loaded from an aqueous HAuCI4 .3H20 solution into a mixed organic 40 vol.% TBP, 10 vol. % D2EHPA in kerosene. The direct precipitation of metallic gold from the loaded organic phase using zinc powder and iron, aluminum and copper slabs at 70 °C was successfully demonstrated. The gold reduction rates were relatively fast even though the conductivity of the organic solutions is very low. The reaction rates were studied as a function of the variables zinc particulate size, oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere, water content in the organic phase, organic ratios and temperature. The gold morphology was usually powdery or dendritic in nature but continuous films were obtained in some instances. Activation energies were calculated and possible reaction mechanisms are discussed. In general, the results obtained were very promising and showed that gold can be successfully cemented from selected organic solvents by galvanic stripping using less noble solid metal reductants.

Jan 1, 1995

By Yongfeng Jia

Lime neutralization and co-precipitation of As(V) with iron(III) is the most widely used and most economical method for the removal of arsenic from mineral processing solutions and effluents. However, the arsenate fixation mechanism in the coprecipitated solids is not fully understood. It was suggested by various researchers to be a ferrihydrite precipitation process during which arsenate is removed by adsorption on ferrihydrite. In this study, XRD, EXAFS and microprobe were employed for the speciation of arsenic and the effect of various factors on arsenic solubility was also investigated. The results indicate that coprecipitation is a more complicated process than simple adsorption resulting in lower arsenic solubilities. Poorly crystalline ferric arsenate was observed for the first time to be present in the coprecipitated solids. In case of lime as base, there exists some type of Ca-Fe-arsenate association. A general term ?coprecipitate? is suggested to describe the precipitated arsenic-bearing solids instead of those widely used specific terms ?arsenical ferrihydrite? or ?arsenic-bearing ferrihydrite?.

Jan 1, 2005

By Chu Yong Cheng

The solvent extraction (SX) processes of the three pressure acid leach (PAL) nickel plants in Western Australia have been reviewed. The use of intermediate precipitation, solids/liquid separation and re-leach in the three W A nickel plants make these processes complicated and costly in capital and ?operation. The research work carried out by the SX group at the AJ Parker Cooperative Research Centre for Hydrometallurgy I CSIRO Minerals has led to the development of direct solvent extraction (DSX) processes to recover and purify nickel and cobalt from leach solutions. The simplicity of the process flowsheets and the expected savings in capital and operating costs are the major advantages of the new DSX processes over the reviewed processes. By using a new synergistic organic system in semi-continuous tests with a pilot plant leach solution (after iron precipitation) from BHP-BiIliton Stainless Steel Materials, the metal values (Ni and Co) together with zinc and copper were separated from the major impurities (Mn, Mg and Ca, together with Cl) in the first SX circuit. The co-extracted manganese, magnesium and' calcium were easily scrubbed out. After stripping, the metal values (Ni and Co) together with zinc and copper were concentrated, resulting in a much smaller second SX circuit and equipment in the down stream processes. The extraction and stripping kinetics of the metals with the new synergistic organic solution were very fast. The extraction and stripping almost reached steady state within 0.5 minutes. Semi-continuous test work with a synthetic leach solution, a cobalt pilot plant leach solution from Peko Rehabilitation Project Pty Ltd and a synthetic solution to simulate a concentrated laterite leach solution from BHP-Billiton Stainless Steel Materials showed that manganese, calcium, copper and zinc can be effectively and efficiently separated from nickel, cobalt and magnesium by extraction, scrubbing and stripping. This led to the development of another DSX process using D2EHPA to recover nickel and cobalt from leach solutions.

Jan 1, 2003

By Yasuyuki Murayama

MF is the semi-blast furnace which has been developed at Mitsui Miike Smelter in the 1960's to treat vertical retort residue. The MF has also been tested for treatment of various recycling materials and wastes. Now various secondaries and wastes (steel dust, zinc leaching residue, Cu-Ag sludge, spent catalyst and spent rubber, etc.) are mainly treated. Powder materials are briquetted with reductant before being fed to the furnace. Products are crude zinc oxide, matte, non-hazardous slag and steam. Zinc and lead are recovered in oxide dust, and copper and silver are recovered in the matte. The MF furnace can be widely applied to many kinds of materials which contain such non-ferrous metal-valuables. In addition, the improvement in operation and technology has effectively made the unit capacity much larger. The MF furnace now has many advantages for these treatment processes.

Jan 1, 1992

By Shenghui Guo, Jian Chen, Hongbo Zhu, Jinhui Peng, Linqing Dai, Qianxu Ye

"Response surface method (RSM) based on mono-factor experiment was applied for the process optimization of sintering of chromite fines by microwave. In RSM analysis, effects of binder addition amount, sintering temperature and holding time on the compression strength and shatter strength of the sinter were examined. Results showed that the optimal values of the above parameters were determined as follows: binder addition amount of 1.90% (in mass), sintering temperature of 1153? and holding time of 16 min. Under the optimized conditions, the compression strength was 11155.8? and shatter strength was 95.6849%. The results show that the process was optimized by response surface methodology is stable and feasible, and provide a new way for sintering of chromite fines.IntroductionChromite ore is the main feedstock for ferrochrome, and ferrochrome can be used as steelmaking additive to produce a variety of great strength, corrosion resistant and oxidation resistant special steel, which can be widely used in the aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding, military departments[1], and it has important strategic significance. At present, among the annual world's mined chromite the number of lump ore continues to diminish with its price rising sharply, while the proportion of ore fines been always increased, and the difference in prices between ore fines and lump ore is growing[2]. Despite the low price of chromite fines, and its rich in resources, it can be only used for ferrochrome smelting after agglomeration. Thus manufacturing blocks by using cheap chromite fines is an effective measure to reduce the cost of ferrochrome production and use the chromite resources[3]."

Jan 1, 2013

By H. Saint-Raymond, F. Gruy, P. Gardin, M. Cournil

"The control of inclusion elimination is getting more and more important to obtain clean steel. This paper presents a methodology under development for predicting cluster growth and elimination in ladle - RH system. The first key point is to express the collision efficiency, which is very specific for alumina cluster due to the non-wetting fluid. Second, a description of the two-phase flow in the system is necessary. In our calculations with Fluent CFD package and Lagrangian approach for bubbles, bubble growth is implemented, which improves the predictions. Using global reactor decomposition makes possible the prediction of the time evolution of cluster distribution. Important effect of fractal dimension is demonstrated.IntroductionElaboration of new steel grades requires not only to have a high purity in terms of C, O and N content but also to eliminate particles such as alumina or slag droplets. Flow optimisation making easier inclusion elimination is then a key figure to satisfy cleanliness requirements. Mathematical models of flow and inclusion behaviour are widely used for this purpose (1, 2). But having a predictive tool is still a challenge, because the number of phases is important in steelmaking industry: liquid steel, slag layer, bubbles and inclusions (with a large range of composition and rheology). The paper presents the methodology which is developed at IRSID to predict oxygen content evolution during RH degassing.The main mechanisms which have to be considered are :-inclusion growth by turbulent aggregation of elementary inclusions (keeping in mind that liquid steel is a non-wetting medium for inclusions); the difficulty is to express collision efficiency for alumina particles,-inclusion removal by flotation; the difficulty for alumina clusters stems from the complex morphology of particle; fortunately, the use of fractal concept makes it possible to cope with this problem.The paper describes the general modelling of inclusion removal taking into account the previous mechanisms. Hydrodynamic parameters are obtained by means of Fluent CFD package and a specific coding is developed for cluster growth."

Jan 1, 2001

By Shekhar Bhansali, Shyam Aravamudhan

"This paper reports on the design and simulation results of a silicon bulk-micromachined diaphragm-type piezoresistive pressure sensor capable of operating linearly over a wide dynamic range (0-1000 meters of water). The piezoresistor elements of the sensor are arranged in a wheat stone bridge configuration to achieve a higher output response. Simulation results (output voltage and sensitivity analysis) obtained using coupled MemPZR-MemMech module of the CoventorWare2003 Finite Element tool are presented. The effect of diaphragm size, diaphragm thickness and thickness of the piezos on output sensitivity were analyzed and optimized to get a linear response over the wide dynamic range.IntroductionThe physical and biological processes in the ocean are critically influenced by ocean parameters (pressure, salinity and temperature). Thus there is a need to develop inexpensive and reliable sensors to continuously measure large volumes of sea-space over long time spans. A key component in any such system will be a pressure/depth sensor. This sensor is routinely employed in marine applications such as wave and tide gauges, tsunami detection, platform leveling etc. More significantly, pressure measurement is needed for depth determination. Depth sensors are vital for remote operated vehicles (ROVs), profiling instruments and towed arrays.Several techniques have been routinely used in the past to measure pressure in the marine environment [1-3]. In general, the pressure sensor design is based on a flexible membrane as the spring element for the sensing pressure [4]. The deflection of the membrane, induced by the applied pressure, is converted into an electrical output through a component that is sensitive to diaphragm deflection (capacitive coupling) or associated stresses (piezoresistors, strain gauges). The temperature compensated pressure measurement can be readily converted to depth using"

Jan 1, 2004

By K. Soldenhoff

The Bulong deposit, situated near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and owned by Resolute Limited, is a lateritic deposit containing on average 1.1% nickel and 0.09% cobalt. A process has been developed and tested at the mini-plant scale for direct solvent extraction and separation of Co and Ni from solutions derived by acid pressure leaching of Bulong ore. In this paper, two solvent extraction processes are described. The first process uses Cyanex 272 to extract cobalt and reject nickel to the raffinate. The second process uses Versatic 10 to extract and purify nickel. The loaded strip nickel solution is suitable for electrowinning. Results of both batch laboratory tests and continuous mini-plant trials are presented. The selectivity of the solvents with respect to the major impurities such as Mn, Mg, Ca, and Zn is also discussed.

Jan 1, 1998

By T. Shimizu

In Japan, the emission standard of selenium in effluent was set at a maximum of20 mgll in Feb. '94 for the first time, and it is scheduled to be further decreased to a maximum of 0.1 mg/I from Feb. '97 due to tightening of the Water Pollution Prevention Act. Selenium (IV) and (VI) are generally found in effluent from precious metals refineries. Although selenium (IV) can be easily eliminated by some reducing agents, selenium (VI) is more difficult to be reduced. Therefore, many smelters are having difficulty in complying with the new emission standard. At Mitsubishi Materials' Naoshima smelter, the behavior and the elimination of selenium in effluent have been extensively investigated. As a result, it was found that two strategies were particularly effective. One of them is improving the overall operation of precious metals refinery, that is, feeding uniformly the effluent to the waste-water treatment plant, reducing the effluent volume by recycling and recovering more selenium (IV) in the effluent. The other is eliminating selenium (VI) in the effluent from the precious metals refinery. It was found that selenium (VI) can be effectively reduced by using hydrazine under high? sulphuric acid concentration and high temperature conditions. By using these measures, it is considered that Naoshima Smelter will be able to comply with the new emission standard.

Jan 1, 1996

By Batric Pesic

Dissolution of gold with sodium bromate solutions of various compositions was studied by using a rotating disc technique. The role of bromide ion, acid and externally added bromine was examined. It was found that sodium bromate could not dissolve gold in the absence of either acid or bromide ion, or both. When acid was absent, no bromine necessary for gold dissolution could be produced. When bromide ion was absent, formation of soluble gold bromide species, AuBr,-, was not possible. Bromate concentration had a complex effect, and it was dependant on bromide ion concentration. For fixed initial bromide ion concentration, gold dissolution rate increased with sodium bramate concentration increase until certain level, beyond which further increase of bromate concentration decreased the gold dissolution rate. The negative effect of bromate was explained by the depletion of necessary bromide ion. Sulfuric acid concentration effect was a function of initially present bromine.

Jan 1, 1992

By D. R. Spink

A partial desulfurization roasting (PDR) technique has been developed for use on zinc concentrates whereby the sulfide sulfur associated with the iron content is selectively removed over a very short residence ?time in the roaster. The resulting PDR product is then leached for the selective removal of the iron. The resulting leach restdite is an upgraded zinc sulfide concentrate which has a very low iron content. The up-graded zinc concentrate can be subjected to a conventional dead roast without formation of deleterious zinc ferrite so that hot acid leaching and jarosite (or other) iron precipitation steps are obviated. Examples are presented for the treatment of three very different types of zinc concentrates.

Jan 1, 1990

By Zhang Jianliang, Xu, Zuo, Runsheng, Haibin, Kexin, Jiao

Full oxygen blast furnace iron-making is one of the new technologies, which is most likely to realize large-scale application. In this paper, based on the technology of full oxygen blast furnace, the reduction behavior of pellets is studied systematically by using the analytic method of non-isothermal dynamics on the different atmosphere(CO,H2) and the dynamics model of gas-solid reduction reaction is constructed, which lay the foundation of reduction model establishment of full oxygen blast furnace burden. The result shows that the time of pellets which began to react is delayed with the increase of the content of H2. When the temperature is between 650 'C and 1050 'C, the content of H2 in the reduction atmosphere is larger, and the rate of the reduction pellets is larger. The reduction rate changes at 780 'C, and a certain amount of H2 in the reducing atmosphere will significantly improve the reduction reaction when the temperature is above 780 'C. Non-isothermal reduction behavior is controlled by interfacial chemical reaction and internal diffusion under high reduction potential. H2 ratio in reducing atmosphere increased from 0% to 100%. The reduction reaction of the apparent activation energy decreased from 49.03kJ-mor1 to 33.74kJ·mor1.

Jan 1, 2013

By Kenneth N. Han

Ammonia has been found to be an effective leaching reagent for gold, silver and platinum group metals in the presence of appropriate oxidants. Electrochemical and kinetic aspects of the dissolution of elemental gold in ammoniacal solutions have been investigated. The cathodic reaction of aurous di-ammine on the gold cathode has been investigated first. From this investigation, the standard electro-potential of the cathodic reaction .and hence. the Gibbs free energy of formation of the aurous di-ammine were established. The solubility of gold in ammoniacal solutions was also examined in relation to ammonia concentration, temperature and concentration of various oxidants. The anodic reaction of the gold disk in ammonia? in the presence? of various oxidants including oxygen, ozon, hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide, cupric and cobaltic ammine, and iodine was also examined and the results have been discussed. Excellent dissolution yielding of gold and many other metals, typically better than 95% recovery in 1'-2 'hours of leaching at a temperature ranging 80°C to 190°C has been observed. Test results of the dissolution of gold from elemental state as well as other sources including sulfidic ores and scrap are presented.

Jan 1, 1998

By Mark Tsirlin

Kinetics of the initial oxidation stages of diffusive silicide coatings on 8 molybdenum and niobium at 1100 - 1700 and under the pressure of 400 and 1330 Pa has been studied using methods of gravimetry and gas phase analysis of oxygen, as well as by SEK, XRD and EDMA methods. The first oxidation stage described by asymptotic equation in case of NbSi coating changed over to the stage described by parabolic equation. The asymptotic law was shown to depend on non - stationary conditions on the oxide layer boundaries. Interconnection between silicides and quartz structures, on the one hand, and peculiarities of oxidation kinetics, on the other, is [discussed. The possibility of estimation oxygen atom jump frequency in quartz and fractions of oxygen reacting with metal and with silicon proceeding from the analysis of the kinetic data was ascertained. Conditions of oxidation kine- tics transfer from asymptotic (or parabolic) stage to a non - protective "linear" stage, associated with volatile ~roduct formation, are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1995

By Rodney L. Williamson

Optimal estimation theory has been applied to the problem of estimating process variables during vacuum arc remelting (V AR), a process widely used in the specialty metals industry to cast large ingots of segregation sensitive and/or reactive metal alloys. Four state variables were used to develop a simple state-space model of the V AR process: electrode gap (G), electrode mass (M), electrode position (X) and electrode melting rate (R). The optimal estimator consists of a Kalman filter that incorporates the model and uses electrode feed rate and measurement based estimates of G, M and X to produce optimal estimates of all four state variables. Simulations show that the filter provides estimates that have error variances between one and three orders-of-magnitude less than estimates based solely on measurements. Examples are presented that verify this for electrode gap, an extremely important control parameter for the process.

Jan 1, 2001

By R. F. Hammen

Heavy metal contamination of water is a problem of immense national and international proportions. However, effective cleanup is complicated both by the toxicity and the low concentrations of metals in wastewater streams. Using high performance chelation chromatography, the solid phase extraction and purification of extremely dilute metals from water was highly effective. The process is based on selective displacement of metals from a chromatographic column containing a chelating resin. The resin is characterized by extremely efficient adsorption kinetics which allow rapid and complete removal of the metals.

Jan 1, 1993