Minor Metals - Cadmium

Metallurgical literature has no record of any ore beneficiated for cadmium alone, and the cadmium of commerce is derived from zinc ore, with which cadmium is generally associated. Zinc ores free from cadmium—e.g., the ores of the Franklin and Stirling mines, New Jersey, and of Broken Hill in Rhodesia—are rare. Blende concentrates of 50 to 60 per cent grade have contained (in production of important tonnage) as much as I per cent Cd, which is unusually high. The concentrates from the Tri-State district average from 0.3 to 0.4 per cent Cd, which is high. The concentrates from mines west of the Rocky Mountains seldom are higher than 0.2 per cent. In the periodic system of the elements, cadmium is in the same group with zinc. Its properties and compounds are similar. Its metallurgy is also similar. Cadmium has a melting point of 320°C. and a boiling point of 778"C., while the melting point of zinc is 415'C. and the boiling point gos°C. These conditions, together with the lower reduction temperature of cadmium oxide, indicate means for. separating cadmium from zinc. Cadmium in spelter is viewed, if not as an impurity, at least as an alloying element that may be objectionable, its special effect being hardening. However, for some purposes, a little cadmium in spelter is desired, and 0.4 per cent may be permissible, even in spelter for rolling. Cadmium in spelter for brassmaking is completely volatilized at the temperature of that process, and in bygone days an immense quantity of cadmium must have been lost in the fumes from these furnaces. Pyrometalltjrgy—Early Cadmium compounds, sulphide and oxide, being more volatile than the corresponding compounds of zinc, loss of cadmium begins to occur from the first furnace operation. In normal roasting, even with Tri-State ore, this loss may not be very high. Raw ore, assaying 0.4 per cent Cd, may be expected to give a roasted product of the same assay, which would imply a cadmium loss of about 15 per cent. Roasted ore, assaying 0.4 per cent Cd when distilled at ordinary furnace temperature, yielded spelter containing about half of that in the ore charged. The first draw of spelter under these conditions may assay 0.8 per cent Cd (accounting for 22 per cent of the cadmium recovery) and after the several draws of spelter have been equalized the cadmium content may average 0.35 per cent. If, therefore, 2000 lb. of blende averaging 0.35 to 0.4 per cent Cd is roasted and distilled, there may be obtained 1000 lb. of spelter, assaying 0.35 per cent Cd or 3.5 lb. content, which entering into Prime Western spelter will be sold at the spelter price. It will be observed from the outline hereinbefore (summarizing conditions prior to the introduction of sintering) that the main loss of cadmium occurred in the distillation process and by failure to condense, which could be ameliorated by attaching a prolong to the condenser, thus collecting