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By Dachun Liu, Xuepeng Li

Smelting-acid leaching process is a way to treat high-content arsenic containing copper dust. However, smelting makes a low recovery of valuable metals and acid-leaching produces large amounts of arsenic-iron slag. Arsenic sulphuration volatilization at low temperature was studied, followed by pressure leaching to selectively recover Cu, Zn, and In from copper smelting dust while minimizing arsenic contamination.

Mar 1, 2017

By M. J. Collins

Direct pressure leaching of zinc sulphide concentrates was started? commercially in October 1980. Continuing research and development studies at Sherritt and feasibility studies for a number of clients have defined various pressure leach configurations for integrattons with existing roast- 1 each operations and for grass roots plants. Existing and potential applications of zinc pressure leaching are discussed.

Jan 1, 1990

By Liuyin Shi, Kang Liu, Fengqi Zhao, Yan Song, Zhiping Yang, Xing Fan

Due to the high energy consumption, long technical process, low usage rate of vanadium during the traditional smelting vanadium steel process, a new method for decarburization by CO2 to directly smelt vanadium-containing steel in blast furnace was proposed. In this paper, the thermodynamics of CO2 decarburization in molten iron process was calculated out by FactSage. The thermodynamic calculations indicated that in standard state, the transformation temperature of C and V was 1357 °C; the oxidation order of element was Si, C, V, Mn and S when using CO2 as oxidant. The experiment of blowing CO2 temperature showed that decarburization reaction temperature was 1550 °C, carbon content could be decreased to 0.676%, the decarburization rate was 88%. There was no effect on vanadium content in molten iron during the decarburization process, vanadium content was 0.323%, which meets the request of vanadium mould steel.

Mar 1, 2018

"Depletion of known ore reserves and increased demand for precious metals have caused a revolution in biohydrometallurgical processing technology for gold recovery. Known ore deposits and future discoveries are most likely to be lower grade sulfide ores that can be difficult to recover with current leaching technology. Future metal recovery operations will increasingly use bio-oxidation techniques.Bacteria are an integral part of mineral cycling and mineral transformation in nature. Although biological processes are recognized as part of the mineralization and oxidation reactions in some ore deposits, they have only recently been applied to enhancing metal recovery in hydrometallurgical procedures. This paper explores the traditional metallurgical application of biological leaching and oxidation reactions and reviews the complete range of bacteria available for metal recovery systems. Pre-treatment of ores with bacteria improves metal recoveries in tank leaching systems and shows promise for heap leaching methods.IntroductionThere is no longer any question that bacteria playa natural role in the on-going transformation of some ore deposits (1,2). As applied to sulfide ores, a few strains have been specifically identified that exhibit a natural leaching potential (3). These bacteria can be isolated from waters and soils in old mining districts where they contribute to continuing leaching and pollution problems in acid drainage and heavy metal solubilization. Sulfur and iron bacteria as well as many heterotrophic strains have also been found in ore deposits and sedimentary rocks at depths up to 2000 meters (4). Their presence in both ore deposits and processed ores shows the microbial association with natural leaching and the potential role that bacteria can play in the development of new leaching technology."

Jan 1, 1988

By M. J. Adam

The U.S. Bureau of Mines has investigated the partitioning of complex minerals to simpler phases using sulfidation reactions for selective extraction of mineral values. This report describes research in which thermal processing of the complex Ti-bearing mineral ilmenite (FeTi03) resulted in partitioning of the valuable Ti metal to the simpler compound rutile (TiO2). Samples of ilmenite were blended with elemental S for thermal treatment at various temperatures under controlled atmospheres in an effort to dissociate the Fe from the ilmenite complex. Product characterization revealed that the Fe was partitioned 'from the ilmenite, forming a rim of pyrrhotite/pyrite (FeS/FeS2) on a rut il e core. The products were agate milled and then subjected to cursory magnetic and flotation techniques in an attempt to physically separate the partitioned phases. Partitioning results and phase concentration data are reported relative to thermal treatment variables and physical separation techniques.

Jan 1, 1991

By Mikko Loponen

Outotec has developed an operator training simulator (OTS) platformsuitable for various hydrometallurgical processes. The complete solution is run in the cloud, where virtual client instances can be managed on-demand. The aim is to build a generalizable model that produces coherent results even when operating outside of ideal parameters, allowing the operator to train in unsteady state conditions such as start-up and shutdown. Complex software products are commonly associated with significant development time and cost. Utilizing modular software architecture, only the control system and processmodel are tailored for theOTS,whereas modules such as user administration and cloud-based client machine spawning can be imported, shortening development time. A generic acidic pressure oxidation process (POX) operator training simulation consisting of feed preparation, autoclave, dual-stage flash evaporation and off-gas scrubbing is described. Process is simulated using Outotec HSC Sim 9 process simulator and controlled by Siemens Simatic PCS7 control system.

By J. Pesl, U. Kemey, F. Sauert

"The CONTOP® smelting cyclone is a water-cooled, upright, high-intensity smelting reactor. The technology for the reactor was initially developed and brought into industrial-scale operation in the area of non-ferrous metallurgy. The two largest smelting cyclones were built with a capacity of 32 tons per hour of copper concentrate mix.The newest industrial CONTOP® plant treats up to five tons per hour of zinc-bearing residues including EAF dust. The highly concentrated zinc-lead oxide produced is sold to the zinc industry. The slag fulfills the leaching criteria and is used in waterway construction. The heat transferred to the cyclone cooling system and the off-gas boiler produces steam from which power is generated in a turbine.V AI has erected a new CONTOP® demonstration plant at MEFOS, Lulea, Sweden. A zinc volatilization rate of 90% was achieved during hot commissioning with Swedish EAF dust.Treatment costs in the range of 85 to 100 EUR per ton were estimated in a feasibility study on the treatment of 73,000 and 57 ,000 tons EAF dust for a group of steelmaking mills in Southern Europe."

Jan 1, 2000

"In this paper, a mobile heat treatment furnace from Akkermans Gloeitechniek, a Dutch company, was simulated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The furnace is cylindrical with four oil burners, and large metal products such as dredging pumps and impellers can be flexibly heat treated to obtain required microstructure and mechanical properties through stress relief, annealing, hardening and tempering. The furnaces are exposed to the open air, and thus the heat loss becomes significant and varies from day to day and from season to season. Since the temperature of the metal products to be heat treated can only be measured on the surface, the temperature evolution inside the metal could not be tracked in practice. CFD simulation provides a useful tool to predict the temperature evolution within the metal pieces and within the combustion space of the furnace. Energy distribution and heat loss can be subsequently estimated. An overall energy balance through temperature measurement indicted relatively low energy efficiency. Especially during the soaking period, the high energy supplied is barely used to compensate the heat loss of the furnace to maintain a constant temperature of the metal piece. The current CFD modeling aims to give advice on how to modify the design and optimize the operation to reach higher energy efficiency and low heat loss. The CFD model consists of turbulent combustion model, radiation model in participating media, and conjugate heat transfer between the combustion space and solid metal. Temperature measurement was carried out to provide thermal boundary conditions and overall energy balance of the operation. After the model validation with temperature measurement within the combustion space and metal surfaces, furnace optimization will be conducted.IntroductionHeat treatment is a common practice in metal production and manufacturing industries. Through heat treatment at certain temperatures with special patterns, unique mechanical properties of the metals and the metallic products could be obtained. ""Akkermans Gloeitechniek"" is a company situated in K.inderdijk, at location of LHC-Holland (www.ihccaland.com), the Netherlands. Heat treatment of metals is its core business. Various type of heat treatment are applied, such as stress relieving, soft annealing and hardening (quenching), tempering, transformation and precipitation. At the company 6 furnaces are in operation and the 7th is being built"

Jan 1, 2004

By Richard A. Heckman

Destructive Thermal Technology (DTT) is used in the management of various waste streams. DTT includes Destructive Distillation, Pyrolysis and Classical Incineration. Recent work has more clearly defined the differences in these technologies based upon a more rigorous thermochemical approach. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has chosen Classical Incineration as the Best Developed Available Technology (BDAT) for the management of hazardous organic wastes. Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) and Sewage Sludges (SS) are also managed using Classical Incineration. Three environmental problems plague the use of Classical Incineration. Destructive Distillation, on the other hand, avoids these problems. It is an environmentally benign DTT for managing a wide variety of organic waste streams, including hazardous wastes. Thermochemical analysis of the available data on the performance of three types of DTT will be discussed.

Jan 1, 1994

By J. R. Odekirk

The nature of mineral distributions and locking characteristics in mill products are important factors in understanding mill performance. Such data are obtained by microscopic point counting methods. Reduction 'of point-count data from volume to weight percentages, and reduction of data for each size fraction back to a head sample requires lengthy hand calculations. The use of computer processing for such data reduction results in obtaining information on a realistic time basis. An example of computer processed point-count data is presented.

Jan 1, 1981

By Shengqin Zhang, Yousef Mohassab, Feng Chen, Hong Yong Sohn, Mohamed Elzohiery, Amr Abdelghany

The kinetics of hematite concentrate reduction by mixtures of hydrogen and CO of various compositions has been investigated as part of the development of a flash ironmaking process at the University of Utah. This process produces iron directly from iron oxides concentrates by the gas-solid flash reaction based on the partial oxidation of natural gas, resulting in a significant reduction in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. The reduction kinetics of hematite concentrate of an average particle size 21.3 μm by the above mentioned gases in the temperature range 1423 to 1623 K (1150 to 1350 ºC) was investigated. Hematite concentrate particles can be reduced to > 90% by any of these reductants in several seconds of residence time typically available in a flash reactor. The activation energy ranged from 214 kJ/mol for hydrogen to 231 kJ/mol for CO.

Jan 1, 2016

By Wei-Tong Du, Yu Wang, Peng-cheng Li, Shu-Chao Wang

CaCO3 thermal decomposition produces CO2 and CaO, and CO2 can be used as a weak oxidant in vanadium extraction. CaO will also affect the vanadium extraction process. This experiment, taking self-blowing and temperature acquisition experiment system, through adding different quality CaCO3, studies the molten iron in the oxidation behavior of C, V and P and its impact, and analysis of CaCO3 decomposition of the heating effect of the molten pool. The result indicates that adding CaCO3 in the vanadium extraction process had no obvious effect on the oxidation of carbon, but partly increased vanadium oxidation which reached more than 90%. Increased CaCO3 additions also increased cooling the molten pool, with a maximum decrease in temperature of 20 K. In addition, the oxidation of P also increased, reaching 40%. The research has proved that CaCO3 can serve to oxidize V and P is effective in vanadium extraction.

Mar 1, 2017

By Y. Ono

In lightweight metal processing such as aluminum (AI) and magnesium (Mg), metal cleanliness is a crucial process parameter for refining, part manufacturing and recycling in order to obtain high quality parts and products. In this paper, techniques for cleanliness evaluation of molten AI and Mg using ultrasonic probes with clad steel buffer rods having high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are presented. Due to the high SNR of the ultrasonic probes used, backscattered ultrasonic signals from inclusions, which may be oxide films and/or particles, in molten Mg and those from silicon carbide particles, having an average size of 50f.Ull, added in molten AI are successfully detected with reflection configurations of pulse-echo and/or pitch-catch modes at an ultrasonic frequency of 10 MHz. In addition, relative cleanliness evaluation of molten Al and Mg is demonstrated. In order to establish the procedure and to investigate the optimum system configurations for cleanliness evaluation of molten metals, particle flow simulation system using water and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) particles has been constructed. Counting the number and measuring the size distribution of the PVC particles, having an average diameter of 128um, suspended in water with the PVC volume concentrations of 5ppm and 10ppm are performed with ultrasonic pitch-catch mode. The counted numbers of particles by the presented method and system have good agreement with the calculated results with a count error of less than 10% or two counts. Based on the results obtained with water simulation experiments, the prototype system for cleanliness evaluation of molten Mg by counting and sizing inclusions has been developed. Keywords: Ultrasound, Clad buffer rod, Molten metal, Aluminum, Magnesium, Inclusion detection, Cleanliness measurement, Counting, Sizing

Jan 1, 2003

By Zhi-yong Liu

A novel process, which includes hydrochloric acid leaching, iron powder cementation, sulphide precipitation and spray pyrolysis, was proposed to treat iron concentrate recovered from zinc kiln slag for comprehensive utilization. Treated by two-stage hydrochloric acid leaching, the leaching extents of Ag, Pb, Cu, Fe and Zn are 96.78%, 95.14%, 97.72%, 94.51% and 87.74%, respectively. More than 99% Cu and Ag are recovered from the leach liquor when iron powder is 25% higher than the stoichiometric requirement. More than 96% Pb and Zn is removed with three times of theoretical consumption of FeS, and the concentration of impurities of the final solution is less than 500 mg/L. Fe2O3 powder, which is spherical with a mean size of 12 μm and purity of 99%, is prepared with final solution at 700 °C. In this process, not only the metal values can be recovered effectively, but also the iron resources of zinc kiln slag can be converted into high purity Fe2O3, thus, the comprehensive utilization of iron concentrate recovered from zinc kiln slag can be realized.

By Susanne Pignolet-Brandom

Fourteen samples of crushed Duluth Complex rock were characterized by the QEM?SEM automated scanning electron microscope image analysis system to evaluate the application of the system to mining waste rock characterization. The system can reliably distinguish the iron sulfides, the copper-iron sulfides and the nickel-iron sulfides. Calcite was distinguished from all other minerals except fluorite. The volumetric abundances were verified by comparing elemental abundances calculated using the QEM"SEM volumetric percentages and appropriate mineral compositions with elemental abundances determined by standard laboratory procedure. The pH and sulfate concentrations of rinse water from laboratory leach experiments correlated well with the mineralogical data.

Jan 1, 1989

By Jiang Feng, Li Chuanhua, Zhang Libo, Peng Jinhui, Ju Shaohua

Solvent extraction of Cu2+ from the leaching liquor contain Cu and Fe use a microfluidic technology. Currently, the conventional copper extraction process has many problems such as long distance and small driving force of mass transfer. In order to solve the problems, studies are carried out on the extraction process of low grade copper leaching liquid using Lix984N as an extractant with a new microfluidic solvent extraction technology. The effects of flow rate on the separation and extraction efficiency between Cu and Fe are studied, and the results show that a steady liquid-liquid interface of laminar flow is form in the micro-extractor, and extraction efficiency is 78 % and 2.5 % for Cu and Fe at the contact times of 0.84s respectively. Besides, the separation coefficient between Cu and Fe is as high as 140.04. The studied microfluidic technology has the advantages like improving extraction efficiency and reducing reaction time and providing the potential application in the hydrometallurgy extraction of Cu.

Jan 1, 2015

By Xuewei Lv, Yuelin Qin, Guibao Qiu, Chenguang Bai

"Blast furnace slag (BF slag), is the main by-product in the ironmaking process, which contains large amounts of sensible heat. To recover the sensible heat, this paper described the hot experiments which were carried out in a rotary multi-nozzles cup atomizer, where the molten BFS was transformed into granules without water impingement; subsequently, a new method-pyrolysis the printed circuited board (PCB) with the hot BFS particle, was proposed for recovering the sensible heat in this study. The gaseous products were analyzed by gas analyzer. The residual of the PCB was analyzed by FT-IR and XRD respectively, and the obtained slag particles were analyzed by XRD.The results showed that it is a feasible process of pyrolyzing PCB powder with the hot BFS particle. The sensible heat of hot BF slag could be converted to chemical heat and a large amount of combustible gas could also be generated during the process.IntroductionDue to the rising of the product cost of blast furnace iron (BFI) and the increasing public awareness of environmental problems, the steel industries have to focus on the energy saving and emission reduction. Blast furnace slag (BF slag) is a byproduct from blast furnace exhaust temperature of 1450°C or so, is a high-quality waste heat resources. In China, the steel industry produces approximately 220Mt ofBFS per year, and the enthalpy of those slags is approximately equivalent to 13.3% of the whole energy consumption in the ironmaking process[!]. It can be seen, recycling waste heat is an important way of energy saving for iron and steel enterprises. The molten slag was treated by conventional water quenching method without any recovery of heat in spite of its huge potential. Also, the water quenching process consumes a plenty of water, pollutes the air and water[2]. Additionally, the extra energy is necessary for the drying process of slag to produce cement. As a kind of secondhand resource which can be reused, the BF slag contains a large amount of sensible heat. To recover the sensible heat of BF slag, three key problems should be considered, which refer to ( 1) the dry granulation of BFS without consuming water, (2) how to recover the heat of slag particles efficiently, (3) how to use the slag particles after heat recovery."

Jan 1, 2012

By Aert Driessen

Australia has large resources of rare earths -- 4.35 Mt of contained rare-earth oxides (REO) in the demonstrated category and 1.69 Kt in the inferred category. Australia's demonstrated REO resources are contained in about equal proportions in placer deposits, which also host Australia's titanium and zircon resources, and in hard-rock deposits. The largest single deposit of rare earths, at Mount Weld in Western Australia, is contained in regolith overlying a carbonatite pipe. It has a demonstrated resource of 1.73 Mt of contained REO and yttrium oxide. The largest demonstrated resources of REOs in placer deposits are in the Murray Bash, southeastern Australia -- a total of 1.90 Mt of contained RE0 in six deposits. However, the REO-bearing minerals (monazite and xenotime) are of secondary importance and their recovery will be determined by the market for titanium dioxide and zircon. The Murray Basin and other pre-Pleistocene basins offer the greatest potential for discovering more REO resources. Australia produces about 7000 t/year of REO in monazite and xenotime nearly all from Western Australia, as by-product of mineral-sand mining; monazite production is about 12 000 t/year (6600 t REO) and intermittent xenotime production is about 50 t/year (25 t REO). About 8000 t/year of monazite containing about 4400 t REO is not recovered separately, or is lost in tailings, as is an unknown but smaller amount of xenotime.

Jan 1, 1992

By Yuanbo Zhang, Zhixiong You, FENG ZHOU, Guanghui Li, Zhengwei Yu, Zhiwei Peng

Reduction disintegration of sinter significantly affects the coke consumption and productivity of blast furnace smelting. As we know, the reduction disintegration index (RDI+3.15) of sinter obtained from titanomagnetite concentrate is relatively worse than those from ordinary iron ores. In this study, the effect of sintering parameters, mainly involving coke breeze dosage and basicity on sintering indexes was investigated using titanomagnetite concentrate as raw material in an experimental-scale pot. Subsequently, RDI+3.15 of the sinter was detected according to the Chinese standard of GB/T13242-91. The results show that RDI+3.15 rises with the increase of coke breeze dosage, while it decreases with increasing basicity from 0.5 to 2.0 and then increases in the basicity range of 2.0-3.0. Finally, the microstructure of sinter before and after reduction was studied. And the mechanism of reduction disintegration was preliminary revealed by analyzing the morphologies and distributions of minerals in the sinter.

Jan 1, 2015

By Kazue Moriya

At the 1980 TMS-AIME world symposium, Dr. Davey mentioned that the traditional lead blast furnace is now being challenged by direct smelting processes. In the copper smelting field both the blast furnace and reverberatory furnace are also disappearing in favour of direct smelting processes such as Outokumpu flash smelting, Mitsubishi continuous smelting, Noranda furnace, Inco furnace and so on. Those new processes all have the following in common: (1) High degree of mechanization (2) Metallurgical reactions carried out in closed vessels (3) Application of oxygen and/or oxygen enriched air (4) Minimization of handling materials and gaseous volume (5) Minimum energy requirements (6) Removal of workers from near the furnace (7) Reduction of emissions of harmful gas to meet environmental regulations. (8) Improvement to the work place environment to avoid occupational hygiene hazards. Direct and continuous smelting of powdered concentrate in one vessel was a romance of the metallurgist since early times. However as mentioned above, in the copper field this objective is being achieved in practice. The industry however can't deny that the serious and severe regulation of environmental pollution in every country was the prime motive for the modernization of smelters. In early days, to meet regulations, it was anticipated that many economic difficulties such as higher capital and energy costs and extravagant use of resources and waste disposal would be the result. "Turn a misfortune into a blessing" is an old saying which reveals the current thinking and reacent developments in the nonferrous industries. In the last ten years in the lead smelting field, about two decades later than copper, commercial scale smelting using new furnance technology has started. The KIVCET process and QSL process, which is flash smelting and bath smelting respectively, are becoming major competitors. They will be sure to upgrade their processes to remain economically and environmentally viable in the comming decade.

Jan 1, 1990