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By Jafar Safarian

Bauxite is the main raw material used for the production of alumina (Al2O3) through the well-known commercial Bayer process. This process has significant challenges such as limitation in using low-grade bauxites as they contain significant amounts of impurities such as Fe, Si, Ti. The Bayer process residue, which is known as red mud, is also a global environmental challenge due to huge amount of this low value residue production. An alternative sustainable process with high potential to solve these problems and produce valuable and consumable by-products is a pyrometallurgical-hydrometallurgical process in which the low-grade bauxite ore is treated through a smelting-reduction process, yielding iron alloys and a calcium-aluminate slag. Alumina is then produced from the slag by hydrometallurgical treatment. In the present work, the reduction of pellets produced from different bauxite ores by hydrogen is studied and it is shown that complete iron oxides reduction is possible. Further smelting and smelting-aluminothermic reduction of the reduced pellets show that iron and silicon ferroalloys can be produced, in addition to a proper slag for alumina extraction.

By Glenn Stevens

After 40 years of operation with the original design, Pan Pacific Copper determined it was necessary to rebuild the Saganoseki Flash Smelting Furnace to continue safe operation. The original design employed a rigid steel frame, which, through hearth growth, led to severe distortion of the frame. Contributing to the continued growth of the hearth were thermal cycles that occurred during the government mandated annual shutdowns. Hatch designed a unique sprung bound, pivoting binding frame to maximize crucible size within the existing furnace footprint, while integrating the PPC designed cooling jackets. The bound system maintains tight brick joints, while the new conductive hearth design with integrated bottom cooling produces a protective freeze layer to accommodate higher furnace throughput. Minimization of furnace downtime for the rebuild was achieved through effective construction planning, highly trained contractors, and through an efficient start-up and ramp-up to full production.

By S. H. Castro

The El Teniente molybdenite plant (Chile), with a nominal capacity of 3,200 tpd of bulk Cu-Mo concentrate, produced approximately 3,385 metric tonnes of Mo during 1998 by using the phosphate Nokes process (LR-744 reagent). This is the only Chilean moly plant which traditionally has depressed copper and iron sulfides with LR 744 reagent, which is a hydrolysis product of P2S5 and NaOH. El Teniente's ore Mo grade is 0.02%Mo and is concentrated to 0.45%-0.50% Mo in bulk Cu-Mo flotation. Subsequently, molybdenite is floated by selective flotation to depress Cu and Fe sulfides, such as chalcopyrite, bornite, digenite and pyrite, to produce typically a 49%-50%Mo molybdenite concentrate. An optimisation program during the last two years was undertaken to improve molybdenite recoveries. Current molybdenite plant technology at El Teniente and use of phosphate Nokes in the process process is reported. Use of phosphate Nokes reagent has increased average Mo recovery from 70.5% in 1977 to a mean 74.7% for the first 4 months of 1999. The global Mo recovery, including bulk flotation, incresed from 42.3% in 1997 to 46.8% in 1998, with a projection of 55.5% for 1999. Mo production per year has increased from 3,181 tons in 1997 to 3,385 tons in 1998 and a projected 4,000 tons for 1999.

Jan 1, 1999

By D. A. Hayman, J. D. Steenkamp, G. M. Denton

Design of furnace containment systems can be based on one of two design philosophies: Insulating or conductive lining designs. In insulating lining designs, management of the compatibility between refractory materials and process materials (typically liquid metal and/or slag) is an important criterion for furnace design, and an important process parameter to control during furnace operation. In conductive lining designs, management of the integrity of the layer of frozen material (freeze lining) on the interface between the liquid process material, and the refractory lining, is important. For example in ferrochromium production, both lining design philosophies are applied. The work presented here discusses the significance of lining design philosophy in the context of ferrochromium production.

Mar 1, 2017

By Theo Lehner

Nasty, according to the Collins Dictionary, comprises the adjectives: bad, critical, dangerous, dirty, odious, serious, severe, sickening, unpleasant etc. From this we may at first conclude that each individual smelter relying on its own specific business surrounding would have a special definition of its nasties. But common product standards and common metallurgy makes us experience common nasties. To get an idea of possible problem elements we start with the demands on the products: [ ]

Jan 1, 1994

By S. Peng, Vaughan R. Voller

"Free boundary problems are a common occurrence in materials processing operations. An important example is the filling of material into molds. This paper looks at filling problems associated with polymer processing, in particular Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) and Compression Molding. A general, single governing equation is developed which on numerical solution provides predictions for the position of the polymer front in the mold during filling. Both fixed and deforming finite element solutions are developed. Application to polymer filling test problems reveal that the fixed and deforming grid scheme are accurate and compare closely with each other.IntroductionProblems arising from the analysis of material processing operations often involve the tracking of a moving boundary, on which a balance conditions needs to be met, or the locating of a free surface that defines the solution domain. Material processing examples of so called ""free and moving boundary problems"" include; the tracking of solidification/melting fronts[l], the tracking of the metal/gas interface during the filling of a mold[2] and location and shape of a skull (freeze line) in a melting furnace[3].Computational solution of free and moving boundary problems usually fit into one of two classes, viz.1. Fixed grid scheme: In which the spatial domain is covered by a fixed grid (mesh) of node points and the solution uses an auxiliary variable (e.g. a local liquid fraction) to track the moving boundary or locate the free surface.2. Deforming grid scheme: In which the grid in the spatial domain is continuously deformed (or adapted in a steady state problem) such that a specified set of grid points lie on the moving boundary or the free surface.Details on the basic underlying features in these two classes of solution can be found in the excellent monograph by Crank [4]."

Jan 1, 1994

By M. Omneya El-Hussaini, M. Galal Abdel Wahab, A. Mohamed Mahdy, M. Fathi El Shahat

"Lead-zinc mineralization is distributed in Egypt along the Red Sea coast between El Qusier and Ras Banas. A representative sample from Um Gheig was collected and ground to -60 mesh for the mineralogical study. It contains hemimorphite (Zn2SiO4.H2O), sphalerite (ZnS), galena (PbS), calcite (CaCO3) and dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) beside the gangue minerals gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) and hematite (Fe2O3). Cadmium seems to be incorporated in the crystal structure of the zinc-lead minerals. The chemical analysis of Um-Gheig representative sample revealed that, it contains 16% zinc combined with 0.1% cadmium, 2.3% lead and 0.1% boron beside other elements.Pug and agitation leaching were performed on samples ground to -200 mesh to achieve the maximum dissolution efficiency of cadmium with respect to other elements. Cadmium leaching efficiency reached 90% by using 40% H2SO4 at S/L ratio 1/2 and stirring time 2 hours at 80o C. Cadmium was then separated as yellow precipitate of CdS from the sulfate leach liquor containing 0.9 g/l Cd, 145 g/l Zn, 0.15 g/l B and 0.01 g/l Pb. Separation of cadmium was carried out by direct precipitation using Na2S as well as H2S. The recovery of 94% cadmium free of zinc was achieved.IntroductionLead-zinc ores occur in Egypt in a few localities distributed along the Red Sea coast between El Qusier and Ras Banas. Um-Gheig Pb-Zn ore is a replacement deposit in limestone and calcareous sandstone in the basal series of the Middle Miocene rocks. The reserve of the ore deposits has been estimated by Soviet and German Experts to be about 900,000 Ton, Bishai [1]. As has been mentioned, zinc is a common element and cadmium is comparatively rare in almost zinc minerals. It was estimated that zinc is 200 times as abundant as cadmium. According to Bodas [2] about 2.1% of cadmium was carried by the Zn mineral hemimorphite (15.3% Zn) in Thailand. Also, Onal et al., [3] found that 164 g/t Cd was carried by Pb–Zn ore sample containing 10.17% Pb and 10.98% Zn from Aladag in Turkey. Cadmium metal has gained great importance due to its wide applications in civil and navy purposes as well as in nuclear field. It is characterized by its ability to absorb thermal neutrons during the chain reaction inside the nuclear reactors. It is also used in the manufacture of sheets which directed the chain reactions [4]."

Jan 1, 2008

By K. Adham

For use in many existing and emerging applications, the purification of natural graphite is required to achieve +99.9% carbon content with minimum metallic impurities. Currently, the hydrofluoric acid process is used, which carries certain environmental and workplace health and safety impacts. While thermal purification of graphite at temperatures over 2500 °C is a known alternative, such high-temperature furnaces are expensive to build and operate. Using chlorine at lower temperatures to purify graphite is also known and patented, but is currently limited to treating solid synthetic graphite shapes in small-scale batch furnaces. Chlorine treatment of natural flake graphite resources can be used commercially, if certain drawbacks are addressed through process improvements that can be helped with the use of fluidized bed reactor technology.

By Jinfu Xu, Youqing Cao, Yuting Lv, Hang You, Peng Jiang

"In present work, we reported the fabrication of composites consisted of M42 powder metallurgy high speed steel and 45 steel at one step via spark plasma sintering (SPS) technology. The interface microstructure, compositions and microhardness with the interface forming mechanism were investigated. The results show that the morphology and microhardness within the M42/45 steel interfaces exhibit a gradient distribution. The interfaces possessed a transition layer up to 10.2 ?m with few distortions and microcracks. The formation of M42/45 steel interfaces were driven by both fusion and diffusion processes. The former one was primary at the early sintering process, while the later one becomes dominant over the followed sintering process.IntroductionPowder high-speed steels have been widely used in cutting tools, cold-hot tools and dies, as well as in cut materials and structure parts with wear resistance and high-temperature resistance, due to its high hardness, good wear resistance, desirable cutting toughness and favorable hot hardness [1-2]. For materials of some parts in practical production, not only the favorable toughness is required to resist the impact action, but also the high hardness and exceptional wear resistance are demanded. According to the functional requirements and working conditions, bimetal composite materials are prepared in a certain mode, proportion and distribution, by designing two metals with different chemical and physical properties [3-6]. Considering the composites exhibit different properties in different positions of the parts with a combination of the advantages of two metals, they can obtain enhanced properties that the single one can not achieve."

Jan 1, 2012

By Stanko Nikolic

One of the keys to success in process development is incremental scale-up, allowing for potential problems to be identified and rectified. The ISASMELT™top submerged lance (TSL) process was developed to maturity using this method by Mount Isa Mines, now owned by Glencore. Commercialization only occurred once the process had been proven on each scale and as a result the ISASMELT™ technology now operates successfully around the world. An important parameter in the evolution of the technology has been the furnace campaign life. The initial commercial scale furnaces had minimal water-cooling. Although this led to shorter campaign lives, an extended development program resulted in the achievement of four-year campaign lives, without any water cooling. In tandem to the refractory designs Glencore Technology, supplier of the TSL technology, has progressed cooled copper lining designs for application to both the ISASMELT™ and ISACONVERT™ furnaces allowing for ultimate flexibility in the lining choice. This allows each ISASMELT™ operating site to minimize their overall life-cycle costs by balancing their campaign life with lining costs, energy inputs, and other shutdown requirements.

By Denise Corrêa de Oliveira

Household zinc based batteries, dry and alkaline, has become the most popular sources of electrical energy, and are widely used. Because of their heavy metals content such as mercury, zinc and manganese, spent batteries cannot be directly placed in common landfills without a pretreatment. As a municipal solid waste, these batteries may cause serious health problems and environmental impacts. These damages can be reduced by recovery (which means saving natural sources and energy), recycling and adoption of cleaner technologies. Although this worry has been increasing recently, and producers are doing efforts to reduce the mercury content, batteries still need proper safe disposal conditions or recycling processes. This work presents the efforts in progress to characterize and recycle mixed - dry and alkaline - spent batteries, by using low cost unit operations. Some possible recycling stages and recovery parameters of metals as zinc and manganese are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2001

By G. Cifuentes

It is known that the cathode purity and the electrolyte treatment are affected by the solids present in the electrolyte. Anodic slimes properties (e.g., chemical composition, crystalline composition, sedimentation) were studied in copper electrorefining. These properties were modified through anodic composition and current density. In this investigation, we have worked with anode material from the Ventana Smelting, Hernan Videla Lira Smelting (ex - Paipote) of ENAMI (National Mining Company) and El Teniente Smelting of CODELCO-Chile (National Corporation of Copper of Chile). The characterization of the anodic slimes was done as a function of current density and anodic composition.

Jan 1, 1999

By Marcelo R. Esquivel

A MmNi5 alloy is synthesized by a combination of mechanical milling and low temperature heating processes. Synthesis time is 40 h for powders milled in a low energy ball mill at room temperature. A reduction in milling time is obtained if massive sample is mechanically milled at shorter times (2 h to 10 h) and heated at temperatures lower (600 ºC) than the usual temperatures used in equilibrium methods (>800 ºC). The alloy formation is detected even at a combination of temperatures as low as 200 ºC and milling times as short as 5 h. The temporal evolution of mechanical milling process was followed by both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to detect the main stages of milling. Four stages were detected: Initial, Intermediate, Final and Completion. These stages were correlated to an enhancement of the synthesis method by combination of times of milling shorter than 10 h and temperatures of heating lower than 600 ºC.

Jan 1, 2006

By Daniel C. McLean

Extraction data for Cu, Zn and Fe were obtained from 4.5" and 10" columns using massive sulfide ore and natural acid mine water. The purpose was to determine if recycling of solution through the column would produce leach liquors of 4 g/l Cu and Zn at extraction rates of 1 g/l per pass at typical flow rates of 0.002 to 0.006 gpm/sq.ft. Test results exceeded expectations. Cu and Zn concentrations of 4 g/l were obtrained within 4 to 6 cycles. Concentrations greater than 6 g/l Cu and 8 g/l Zn were reached within 10 cycles. Concentrations of greater than 40 g/l of Fe and free sulfuric acid were obtained with no decrease in biological activity being observed. No reagents were used.

Jan 1, 1995

By Saskia Duyvesteyn

Ion flotation is a technique applicable to the removal of metal ions from dilute solutions, using ionic surfactants.- While there are a number of physical and chemical parameters that influence the ion flotation process, this paper focuses on two of the important chemical ones, namely frother concentration and ionic strength. The effect of several frothers, including ethanol, iso-propanol and MIBC at concentrations ranging from 0% to 0.4%, was studied for the model Cd-dodecylsulfate and Cu-dodecylsulfate systems. The ionic strength, as well as the effect of monovalent and multivalent counter ions, was also studied in the range of 1@3 - 1 M, at constant pH. The results are discussed in terms of applicability to a range of effluents from minerals and materials processing operations.

Jan 1, 1994

By Jong-Jin Pak

The present work reports the commercialization of a recycling process of spent acid to recover molybdenum. The process consists of ammonia gas neutralization of spent acid containing molybdenum, crystallization and filtration of ammonium molybdate, roasting and hydrogen reduction of molybdic oxide to produce a commercial grade molybdenum metal powder. The mother liquor, highly nitrogeneous residual solution after the filtration of ammonium molybdate, can be utilized to produce chemical fertilizers.

Jan 1, 2006

By Makiko Takahashi

A tool is being developed to predict and visualize the microstructural evolution of steels during quenching. This tool utilizes experimental data and reference data that are stored in a database to predict the microstructural development. The visualization tool animates qualitative representation of two- dimensional microstructure drawings as well as the quantitative volume fractions of phases present as a function of time. This is achieved by superimposing the Jominy End-Quench test results over the Continuous Cooling Transformation diagram of the alloy. The predicted microstructure is presented through the web browser to maximize the ease of use. In addition, a parallel coordinate system is used to aid in identifying similarities within the data set by presenting the large number of data at a glance. The results for 4140 steel that was quenched in a wide variety of quenchants will be presented to illustrate the prediction and visualization tools. Keywords: Quenching, Microstructure Prediction, Simulation, Data Visualization, Database, Applet, Animation

Jan 1, 2003

By Yves Fautrelle, Kader Zaidat, Hervé Combeau, Miha Zaloznik, Mohammed M'Hamdi, Bachir Saadi, Xiaodong Wang, Knut Omdal Tveito

"Numerical simulations of macrosegregation formation during horizontal solidification of a hypoeutectic Sn-Pb alloy in a rectangular cavity is presented and compared to experimental results. The experiment involves a melting phase, a holding stage at constant temperature with/without application of electromagnetic stirring, and finally solidification. We simulate all stages of the experiment and study the segregation of Pb throughout the experiment. A twophase volume averaged model is used for the numerical simulations, accounting for thermosolutal convection and assuming perfect microscopic mixing (lever rule). The influence of the melting phase and the electromagnetic stirring is studied with different cases to illustrate the consequences on the flow pattern and Pb segregation. The numerical simulations are compared to the experimental data and the impact of chemical inhomogeneities prior to solidification on macrosegregation formation is discussed.IntroductionMany extensive investigations have been performed so far on the solidification of metallic alloys. However, the melting process of metallic alloy has not attracted attention in a same manner. Nevertheless, melting of alloy may put forth peculiar effects as described in the present paper. It has been observed from a benchmark experiment [1, 2] that significant stratification might arise during the melting process of Sn-Pb alloy. That effect was put forth thanks to the analysis of the experimental temperature distribution which indicated that the convective fluid flow was almost zero. The effect was enhanced when the lead composition was higher (above 6wt.%). The present paper is aimed at confirming that the melting of an alloy containing a heavier solute may be accompanied with a stratification of the solute which exerts a stabilizing effect on the convective fluid flow. Results obtained from numerical modeling are compared with experimental data obtained from the benchmark facility."

Jan 1, 2012

By R. Moreau, V. Uspenski, K. Messadek, Y. Delannoy

Experiments and numerical simulations have been carried out to investigate the properties of quasi-2D turbulence. A new mercury model experiment has been built and tested in a uniform magnetic field up to 6T, (Ha~ 1000), ensuring a better two-dimensional behaviour than earlier versions (Alboussiere et al., 1997), limited to 0.2T. The quality of the experimental results has been improved in order to get wave number spectra (instead of frequency spectra) and higher signal over noise ratio (due to the higher magnetic fields). In parallel, some two-dimensional "direct" numerical simulations were performed using a commercially available code to solve a 2-D motion equation involving a source term to model the Hartmann layer. This term is derived from the condition of closure of the electric current, which allows to transfer the Hartmann effect into the 2D-core flow without simulating the layer itself (Sommeria & Moreau, 1982). No subgrid scale modelling is needed in such a two-dimensional situation where most of the energy is carried by the large scales.

Jan 1, 1999

By B. C. Tripathy

The effects of alkali metal ions Li+, Na+, K+and transition metal ions Cr3+ and Mo6+ on the cathodic current efficiency, deposit quality, crystallographic orientations, deposit morphology and polarisation behaviour of the cathode during nickel electrocrystallisation on stainless steel substrate from aqueous sulphate solutions containing boric acid were investigated. The alkali metal ions had virtually no effect on the cathodic current efficiency, deposit quality, crystallographic orientations, deposit morphology and cathodic polarisation. On the other hand, there were significant variations in the current efficiency and deposit characteristics when Cr3+or Mo6+ were present in the electrolyte. Current efficiency decreased by more than 10% even at lower concentrations (> 100 mg/L). Similarly purity of the deposits was affected by the presence of either of the metal ions. In the presence of Cr3+, there was progressive shifting of the nucleation potential of nickel towards more negative values, whereas, in the case of Mo6+the nucleation potential shifted initially towards positive values in the concentration range 2-40 mg/L, but then towards negative values when its concentration exceeded 40 mg/L.

Jan 1, 2003