Search Documents

By Rui-Qing Li, John G. Peacey, Peter J. Hancock

"Noranda has been investigating a pyrometallurgical process for the direct recovery of zinc from zinc concentrate and zinc and iron containing residues. The process consists of injecting dry zinc concentrate and secondary zinc materials into a molten iron oxysulphide bath, volatilizing metallic zinc into furnace off gas essentially free of sulphur or S02, fixing sulphur contained in the feed materials as iron oxysulphide matte which is disposed, and recovering metallic zinc in an ISP type lead splash condenser. Combustion of petroleum coke with air or oxygen enriched air inside the oxygen containing matte supplies part of the heat, and the products of combustion dilute the zinc-laden gas to a desired level.This paper describes the process concept, thermodynamic background, experimental tests, mass and heat balance calculation for a conceptual flowsheet, environmental stability of the residue and advantages and disadvantages of the process. Experimental tests have successfully proved the process concept and thermodynamic predictions. Direct smelting of zinc concentrate and residues inside an iron oxysulfide bath has a great potential to become a cost effective and flexible zinc smelting process.1. INTRODUCTIONZinc is mainly produced by a roast-leach-electrowinning process route, which accounts for about 80% of the world primary zinc production. This process produces high quality zinc with very high zinc recovery (>95%) but suffers from several major drawbacks such as using high cost electricity as reductant, producing environmentally problematic iron containing leach residue (jarosite or goethite) and the difficulty in treating secondary zinc feed materials containing high impurity levels, such as electric arc furnace dusts from the steel industry, and other complex sources. Also in some areas, markets for sulphuric acid are distant resulting in negative realizations on acid sales.The Imperial Smelting Furnace (ISF) process is the major pyrometallurgical process to treat zinc-lead concentrate. The advantage of this process over the electrolytic zinc process is its flexibility in treating high-lead, bulk concentrates with high recoveries of lead, copper and precious metals. However, this is a two-stage process involving sintering of Zn-Pb concentrates followed by blast furnace reduction. The process requires large amounts of high-quality coke which is a major operation cost, and the sintering process which results in serious environmental problems."

Jan 1, 1996

By Zhongning Shi, Ramana G. Reddy

"By cyclic voltammetry and potentiostat electrodeposition using Potentiostat/Galvanstat, electrochemical behavior on Ag electrode in electrolyte 0.2M NaOH+0.01MPb(NO3)2-0.01M TeO2 -0.01M TlNO3 solution were also carried out at 298K. The processes of electrodeposition of Tl2Te3 and PbTl4Te3, a thermoelectric material, are reported along with analysis of the composition of the obtained deposits. The results showed that two different underlying processes are occurring depending on deposition potential. One process involves the reduction of TeO3 2- and Tl+ to Tl2Te3 in a potential interval of -0.70V < E < - 0.89V (vs. Hg/HgO). A second process at more negative reduction potentials involves reduction of TeO3 2-, Pb2+ and Tl+ to PbTl4Te3 in a potential interval of -1.02V < E < - 1.19V. The crystalline Tl2Te3 and PbTl2Te3 were deposited electrochemically on Ag substrates at -0.84V and -1.10V respectively. Thermoelectric (TE) material can form a temperature gradient across the material to make electric voltage, which is popular in waste heat utilization and recovery industry. Lead telluride, PbTe, is a small band gap semiconductor of 0.32eV at 300K. PbTe can change its n-type semiconductors with Pb-rich to p-type semiconductors with Te-rich[1]. And it is one of the best TE materials used in thermoelectric generators working between 500K and 600K, or even at a higher temperature of 800K.Three facto,rs play a role in the performance of a thermoelectric material: electrical conductivity (s), thermal conductivity(?), and the Seebeck coefficient (S). These can be combined with absolute temperature (T) to give a figure of merit (ZT) for the material, ZT = s2sT/?. By increasing the electrical conductivity and decreasing the thermal conductivity, which can enhance the ZT value, many efforts, such as alloying with other elements and making the materials nano-sized, have been done to improve its properties recently. Hsu et al. reported that the ZT value of Cubic AgPbmSbTe2+m is increased to 2.2 by doping Ag-Sb to PbTe.[2]."

Jan 1, 2011

By K. Mansfield

Spent Pot Lining (SPL) is an unavoidable waste product of the electrolytic process in the smelting of aluminium. SPL is considered to be a hazardous waste in various countries because it contains significant quantities of absorbed fluorides along with traces of cyanide. In 1995, Portland Aluminium undertook the investment of AUD$26,400,000 to construct a Research and Development processing facility at Portland, Victoria, Australia, to treat SPL. Extensive research, development and design were carried out over 5 years prior to the investment decision. This study led Portland Aluminium to install an Ausmelt pyrometallurgical furnace to combust and melt the SPL producing a hydrogen fluoride (HF) laden gas, which was cooled and then converted to aluminium fluoride (AlF3). Both the cooling and AIF3 manufacture were processes developed by Portland Aluminium. Many commissioning, equipment reliability and process problems have been encountered that had not been experienced in the trials at Ausmelt or in the developmental process for the treatment of the furnace offgases to form AlF3. Designs based on anticipated process expectations have had to be re-engineered by the SPL team to ensure plant and operational success. In June 2001, the installation of the final major component - a slag granulation process - was completed. This has produced a vitrified (glassy) slag that is expected to have leachability qualities acceptable to the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to allow commercial end uses of the slag material to be developed. Today (September 2001), the smelter has successfully used the fluoride product, namely 65- 70% AIF3, in aluminium production and the SPL plant has significantly increased throughput with expectations to be at annual design rates of 12,000 tonne of SPL in early 2002. "The Alcoa Portland SPL Process" has been technically developed and is a proven process for the treatment and recovery of valuable components from SPL materials.

Jan 1, 2002

By Petrus Christiaan Pistorius, Ming Tang

Magnetite concentrate is pelletized and then hardened by elevated-temperature oxidation to hematite, to produce pellets for ironmaking. Previous work showed that the rate of oxidation is under mixed control of gaseous mass transfer of molecular oxygen through the pellet pores, and solid-state diffusion into the oxidizing grains. Because of the partially limiting role of solid-state diffusion, concentrate size distribution strongly affects pellet oxidation. Previously, a simple mixed-control model was formulated to describe isothermal oxidation. In that model, the main effect of concentrate size distribution was on the plateau level of oxidation which is reached at a given temperature. However, the extent of plateau oxidation increases with increased temperature, requiring a more complex model for non-isothermal oxidation. In this paper, predictions of the non-isothermal model confirm the strong effects of concentrate size distribution and oxygen enrichment. In particular, a greater fraction of coarse magnetite particles would be beneficial, decreasing the size of the macroscopic unoxidized pellet core.

Jan 1, 2015

By Stephen Chryssoulis, Stamen Dimov

Detection and quantification of precious metals (Au, Pd, Pt, and Rh) in spinels and silicate minerals is important for establishing the maximum attainable recovery by sulphide flotation. To achieve this goal subpart per billion (ppb) detection limits are required plus the ability to quantify results. Existing quantitative microbeam techniques (EPMA, PIXE, SIMS, TOFLIMS) have limits of detection in the O. l-200ppm range. Time-of-flight resonance ionization mass spectrometry (TOF-RIMS) is a microbeam analytical technique that allows for the identification and quantification of atomic species in very small quantities. It utilizes a tunable laser source for resonant excitation and ionization of a particular element of interest and has some unique features: elemental selectivity, linear response over a large dynamic range and very high sensitivity. The analysis consist of three steps: (i) the solid sample is vaporized by laser ablation to form a plume containing neutral atoms, (ii) the neutral atoms of a specific atomic element in the plume are resonantly excited and ionized by another tunable laser, and finally (iii) the ions created are mass analyzed in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. A TOF-RIMS mass spectrometer was developed at AMTEL for trace element analysis of Au, Pd, and Rh in minerals. The spectrometer was calibrated using homogeneous CANMET and NIST reference samples covering three orders of magnitude in concentration. Attained minimum detection limits (MDL=2cr of the background) are in the low ppb range.

Jan 1, 1999

By Masanori Abe, Yoshitaka Kitamoto, Kazuhiro Nishimura

"Ferrite plating is a chemical processing which utilizes Fe2+ - Fe3+ oxidation to synthesizing polycrystalline films of ferromagnetic spinels (MFe20 4, M = Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Al, Cr, TI, etc:) directly from an aqueous solution at 24 - 100°C. This low temperature process allows us to fabricate new ferrite film devices on · substrates of such non-heat-resistant materials as plastics, GaAs integrated circuits, and biomaterials. Synthesized from an aqueous solution the ferrite plated ·films are highly biocompatible. Thus various magnetic device and biomedical applications have been proposed and realized using ferrite-plated films. Ferrite-encapsulated polymer microspheres are applied to antibody carries for enzyme immunoassay, and also to toners/carriers for photocopying. Perpendicular magnetic recording media utilizing plated CoNi ferrite films are proposed. The low-temperature synthesized films of NiZn and Co ferrites are potentially used as soft-magnetic and/or insulating layers, respectively at high/microwave frequencies.IntroductionFerrite plating is a processing which facilitates the formation of crystalline spinel ferrite films with various compositions, (Fe, M)30 4 (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Al, Cr, TI, etc.), directly from an aqueous solution at 60 - 100°C [1]. This opened the door to fabricating novel ferrite-film devices using substrates of such non-heat-resistant materials as plastics and GaAs integrated circuits [2-4]; conventional ferrite film preparation techniques such as sputtering, vacuum evaporation, MBE, LPE, etc., require high temperatures(> -600°C) for crystallization of ferrites, which deteriorates the non-heat-resistant substrates. Recently we extended ferrite plating to be preformed at room temperature [5, 6]. This enables us to use as substrates such organic materials as biomaterials (e.g. enzymes) having very low heat-resistance."

Jan 1, 2000

By James C. Foley

In-situ characterizations of green state part density and sintering state have long been desired in the powder metal community. Recent advances in non-contact electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) technology have enabled in-situ monitoring of acoustic amplitude and velocity as sintering proceeds. Samples were made from elemental powders of Al (99.99%), Al (99.7%), Ag, (99.99%), Cu (99.99%) and Fe (99.9%). The powders were pressed in a uniaxial die and examined with acoustic waves for changes in velocity and amplitude during sintering. The changes in acoustic properties were correlated with mechanical properties. Evolution of a series of reverberating echoes during sintering is shown to provide information on the state of sintering, changes in sintering kinetics as well as having the potential for detection of interior flaws.

Jan 1, 2001

By Robert R. Beebe

On the night of August 1&apos;9-20, 1995, seepage was seen at the toe of the Omai tailings dam in Guyana. The mill was immediately shut down, and within two hours the flow, then mostly water, was diverted into an inactive mining pit nearby. At about the same time a second more serious break occurred at a point where water and solids could flow directly into the Omai River. By the time Ii coffer dam could be completed in the early morning of August 24, some 4.2 million cubic meters of tailings water and solids had escaped from the dam, of which nearly2.9 million cubic meters had reached the Omai River. This paper outlines some initial Process considerations and operational decisions which might have contributed to the dam&apos;s failure, describes how the Government of Guyana and the operator, Omai Gold Mines Limited, cooperated in dealing with immediate problems and shows how the Government set about investigating the accident. In particular, the paper details the work of a Process Review Committee comprising Guyanese and foreign experts convened to assess the gold processing and effluent management systems at Omai, and to recommend actions where appropriate.

Jan 1, 1998

By C. A. Young

The remediation of cyanide (CN-) and nitrate (NO)-) anions in mine and agricultural waters by various photolytic methods has been reviewed and investigated. Photolytic methods such as direct photolysis, homogenous photolysis, and heterogeneous photocatalysis are briefly described and compared. Results and discussions show that each method has certain advantages and disadvantages. For each method, Eh-pH diagrams prove useful for determining reaction mechanisms. Preliminary results obtained for cyanide oxidation and nitrate reduction show that homogeneous photolysis can be superior due to faster kinetics than the other methods. The photolytic methods were individually, not simultaneously, tested and compared. Differences in concentrations of products were obtained and attributed to differences in photoconversion efficiencies and other inherent characteristics of .the photolytic methods. Various reaction mechanisms are proposed in accordance with the literature as well as measurements obtained from solution analysis using ion selective electrodes and ion chromatography .

Jan 1, 1995

By John A. Herbst

Plantwide control of mineral processing operations has long been sought for its potential benefits. These benefits include minute-to-minute optimization, reacting to disturbances in ore characteristics and equipment status as they happen and the coordination of all unit operations in pursuit of the highest performance level. However several difficult challenges have kept us from fully realizing those benefits. One of these challenges has been to provide fairly complete quantitative descriptions of Unit operations to account for critical interactions within and &apos;between unit operations. In some cases we understand the physics and chemistry very well and can incorporate that &apos;knowledge into phenomenological models. In other cases our knowledge is incomplete, so we must rely on other forms of knowledge such as fuzzy logic or neural nets. Another challenge to be met has been to simultaneously compute a large number of manipulated variables. In the past this challenge was met by optimizing only unit-by-unit, rather than on a global basis to significantly reduce the number of variables. In this paper, a procedure that globally optimizes one or two important variables is outlined. This procedure comes much closer to true plantwide optimizing control while remaining computationally feasible. Finally, another major challenge is to choose a meaningful global objective that can be calculated With the models and can be effectively optimized. Financial goals seems to be the objectives of choice. This paper discusses recent progress In overcoming the challenges and illustrates a promising approach which is being pursued at :Mexicana de Cobre&apos;s &apos;La Caridad copper ore concentrator. At M de C, advanced ,control strategies have been &apos;installed one at a time in the crushing, grinding and flotation sections. During this period, the throughput of La Caridad, Mexico&apos;s largest copper concentrator, &apos;increased from 76;000 tpd to 90,000 tpd. Plantwide integration is expected&apos; to gain an additional 3% improvement in profitability.

Jan 1, 1996

By E. Krystad, G. Tranell

"The kinetics of boron removal from liquid silicon during slag refining, as a process step in the production of solar grade silicon, has been investigated by means of small scale mass transfer experimental series at 1600°C, using a graphite crucible. The slags were SiO2-CaO based, with or without addition of approx. 19 wt% MgO. Experiments were carried out at slag-metal ratios of 1 or 2, where the silicon initially contained approx. 250 ppm boron. The metal-slag mass transfer coefficients for boron were found to be in the order of 1-3 · 10-6 m/s and were largely influenced by slag composition. The mass transfer rate was higher for the MgO-containing slag than the slags without MgO. The final equilibrium distribution of boron between metal and slag, LB, was determined to be in the order of 2.3-3.3.I. INTRODUCTIONRecent years have seen a race in industry and research aimed at obtaining a reliable metallurgical route for production of silicon for solar cells (SoG-Si) from metallurgical grade (MG) silicon. Metallurgical routes can successfully challenge the traditional chemical routes for production of SoG-Si if they generate metal of sufficient purity while being less expensive in terms of production cost and energy consumption. Efficient removal of boron is one of the greatest obstacles in the refining of silicon by a metallurgical route, because the segregation coefficient of boron in silicon makes directional solidification unfeasible; in addition, the vapour pressure of boron is not high enough for removal by vacuum refining. However, the thermodynamic properties of boron makes removal from silicon by oxidation possible, and thus the process of slag refining of silicon has been receiving increasing attention as a method for boron removal."

Jan 1, 2012

By QinGuo, Shenghui Guo, Lei Li, Jinhui Peng, Linqing Dai, Libo Zhang

The ferrous removal process after carbothermic reduction of chromite fines with microwave heating combined with leaching was investigated. Under the following conditions: Reaction temperature: 1150 , Reaction time : 40min, Semi coke ratio: 12% , the iron content of the reduction product : 13.05% . Metallization achieved was 52.7%. Reduced chromite was leached with 8% of H2SO4 and FeCl3 aqueous solution. The results show that: the recovery rate of chromium can reach 88.06%, the mass ratio of chromium to iron is 3.5:1 for leaching 30 minutes with 8% of H2SO4; the recovery rate of chromium can reach 88.91%, the mass ratio of chromium and iron is 2.56:1 for leaching 4h at room temperature with FeCl3 aqueous solution (100g/L). The leaching time of latter is longer but can realize the circulation effectively and reduce the waste liquid processing problem.1

Jan 1, 2016

By A. Kontopoulos

The extraction of nickel and cobalt from low-grade greek laterites by sulfuric acid leaching has been studied. Batch and continuous mini-plant atmospheric leaching as well as pressure leaching techniques were employed. Atmospheric leaching at temperatures as high as 95 OC generally resulted in low Ni extractions (up to 82%), high acid consumption (650-850 kg/t ore or 80-100 kg/kg Ni) and high Fe co-dissolution (30%). Pressure leaching at 260 OC increased Ni extraction to over 98%, with minimal Fe co-dissolution (2.5%); acid consumption was 300 kg/t ore (31 kg/kg Ni). Detailed experimental results and conceptual flow sheets for atmospheric and pressure leaching are presented.

Jan 1, 1991

By B. Q. Li, Y. Shu, K Lynn

"This paper discusses the effects of magnetic field and internal radiation on the melt flow and solidification morphology during solidification processing of oxide crystals for optoelectronic and remote sensing applications. The numerical solution of the integral differential equation characterizing the internal radiation and the magnetohydrodynamic equations describing the magnetic and transport phenomena is obtained by applying the combined discontinuous and continuous finite element method. The results show that both internal radiation and an externally applied magnetic field can have important effects on the melt flow and solidification behavior during the melt processing of oxide materials.IntroductionOptical single crystals are widely used in optical and electronic devices. These crystals are often grown from high temperature oxide melts under strictly controlled conditions. As in the well-known single crystal growth processes for semiconductor wafers, thermal gradient in the melt is a major contributing fuctor to the oxide melt pool. Unlike the semiconductor single crystal growth processes, however, the oxide melt is semitransparent and internal thermal radiation plays an important role in redistributing the thermal energy in the melt pool. Our recent experience with pilot-scale plant measurements also shows that the oxide melt is electrically conducting, although its electrical conductivity is considered much lower than the liquid metal or semiconductor melt.The fact that the oxide melt is absorbing and emitting in the thermal radiation frequency range makes it difficult to study the thermal energy transport in the melt pool. This is because thermal radiation is governed by a hyperbolic differential equation, which is different from those describing the transport processes in liquids. Also, our understanding of how thermal radiation interacts with other transport mechanisms such as convection and conduction is rather limited at point in time, in particular in high temperature oxide melts for optical single crystal processing."

Jan 1, 2004

By John A. Herbst, William T. Pate

"Plantwide control of mineral processing operations has long been sought for its potential benefits. These benefits include minute-to-minute optimization, reacting to disturbances in ore characteristics and equipment status as they happen, and the coordination of all unit operations in pursuit of the highest performance level. However, several difficult challenges have kept us from fully realizing those benefits. One of these challenges has been to provide fairly complete quantitative descriptions of unit operations to account for critical interactions within and between unit operations. In some cases we understand the physics and chemistry very well and can incorporate that knowledge into phenomenological models. In other cases our knowledge is incomplete, so we must rely on other forms of knowledge such as fuzzy logic or neural nets. Another challenge to be met has been to simultaneously compute a large number of manipulated variables. In the past this challenge was met by optimizing only unit-by-unit, rather than on a global basis to significaritly reduce the number of variables. In this paper, a procedure that globally optimizes one or two important variables is outlined. This procedure comes much closer to true plantwide optimizing control while remaining computationally feasible. Finally, another major challenge is to choose a meaningful global objective that can be calculated with the models and can be effectively optimized. Financial goals seems to be the objectives of choice.This paper discusses recent progress in overcoming the challenges and illustrates a promising approach which is being pursued at Mexicana de Cobre's La Caridad copper ore concentrator. At M de C, advanced control strategies have been installed one at a time in the crushing, grinding and flotation sections. During this period, the throughput of La Caridad, Mexico's largest copper concentrator, increased from 76,000 tpd to 90,000 tpd. Plantwide integration is expected to gain an additional 3% improvement in profitability."

Jan 1, 1996

By S. L. Kher

The Singhbhum Copper Belt located in the state of Bihar in Eastern India bears evidence of ancient workings and indicates the existence of a civilized habitation in this region in the past. It was in 1833. how- ever, that the first official announcement of the occurrence of copper in the district was made. Although the occurrence was confirmed in 1847, it was not until 1857 that the first company was formed to exploit the deposits. This Company was dissolved in 1859 and from then until 1920, there were many unsuccessful attempts to develop and exploit the copper deposits in the Singhbhum area. In 1920. the Cordoba Copper Co. took an option on the Mosaboni area, which is nearly 10 km away from the present works located at Moubhandar, Ghatsila and exercising the option in 1924, purchased the mining rights from the Cape Copper Company. The Cordoba Copper Co. was then converted into Indian Copper Corporation Ltd. This was subsequently taken over by the Government of India in March 1972 and is now known as Indian Copper Complex (ICC), forming one of the two smelting units of Hindustan Copper Ltd.

Jan 1, 1976

By Onuralp Yucel, Ahmet Turan, Murat Alkan, Hasan Ozer

SHS (Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis) is one of the important methods to synthesize B4C powders. The process contains the reaction of boron oxide powders (B2O3) with magnesium reducing agent and carbon black carburizer. SHS products are leached in HCl media to purify synthesized B4C powders in the following step. In the present study, effects of various functional additives (KClO3, KHSO4, MgSO4.7H2O, NaCl, MgO and Na2SO4) in the SHS stage were carried out. Various proportions of the additives were mixed with the initial SHS charge mixtures. Two different molar ratios were employed in the initial SHS mixtures as 1:3:0.8 B2O3:Mg:C and 1:2.5:0.8 B2O3:Mg:C. After the SHS step, HCl leaching process was applied to the SHS products. Filter cakes were dried and characterized by using X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy, BET and chemical analysis techniques.

Jan 1, 2015

By Jillian Spindura

This work investigates the carbothermic reduction of the complex sulphide mineral, pentlandite, in the presence of lime. The effects of change in temperature and the use of different carbon sources are studied and the role of these variables on the reducibility of pentlandite mineral is discussed. The microstructures of the heat-treated pellets are examined using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopic techniques. The latter analytical method also allows any variation in the morphology and composition of the metallic phases formed, with temperature, to be considered. The kinetics of the reduction process is studied and the magnitude of the overall activation energy is determined from the plots of percentage reduction versus time.

Jan 1, 1996

By Yushiro Hirai

Saganoseki smelter & refinery had operated two flash smelting furnaces from 1973, attaining 330,000 mtpy of copper production in 1989. In 1996, however, it carried out a "integration of two flash furnaces". That is, it doubled the feeding capacity to one flash furnace to shut down another furnace while maintaining the same production. Single flash furnace operation has successfully started in March 1996 accomplishing a great reduction of the total production cost. The production had reached to 350,000 mtpy in 1997, and further increased to 450,000 mtpy by executing the expansion program with single flash furnace in 1998. This paper introduces results of the single flash furnace operation and describes about an outline of the expansion.

Jan 1, 1999

By B. C. Jena

Activities of carbon, cobalt and nickel were evaluated in the ternary systems iron-carbon-cobalt and iron-carbon-nickel for the temperature range 1300-1600°C for cobalt and 1300-1700°C for nickel. The carbon activities were determined from the knowledge of activities (1) in the binary system iron-carbon, (2) in the dilute ternary systems and (3) from the knowledge of carbon saturation data. The activities were mathematically expressed with the Taylor series expansion of Wagner&apos;s interaction parameter formalism modified to suit concentrated solutions. The cobalt and nickel activities were determined from the knowledge of carbon activities by applying the Gibbs-Schuhmann integration and from cobalt and nickel activities in the binary systems iron-cobalt and iron-nickel. Partial molar enthalpies of mixing were determined based on the temperature behaviour of the activity coefficients.

Jan 1, 1992