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By Thomas Buenger

The Hamburg smelter of Norddeutsche Affinerie AG is situated near the city of Hamburg’s downtown and is therefore particularly subjected to fulfill environmental requirements according to the German legal regulations. Thus, investments related to increasing concentrate throughput are always linked to packages to enhance the emission status of the smelter. This connection between environmental protection and productivity enhancement should be explained by the example of the Peirce-Smith converter plant of the Hamburg smelter. Such outstanding investments can be demonstrated by the transition from scrap charging via boat from the front side to a fully automatic and completely sucked scrap charging system.

Jan 1, 2009

By W. K. Connor, O&apos

The Bureau of Mines has conducted beneficiation, carbothermic reduction, and leaching tests of Mn oxide ores as part of its evaluation of the Mn and Co resources of the West- Central Arkansas District. The major Mn oxides in the ore include cryptomelane, psilomelane, pyrolusite, and lithiophorite. Cobalt is contained within the Mn oxides. Nonbeneficiated ore was reduced at 800' C with coal and leached in ammonium sulfate and ammonium carbonate leach liquors. Ore concentrates were calcined at 600" C prior to reduction under the same conditions as the raw ore. Head analyses reported up to 21 ptt Mn and 0.11 pct Co. Extractions of 70 to 90 pct Mn and 40 to 60 pct Co were achieved.

Jan 1, 1992

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 B. Bichel

For the last 70 years, molten blister copper has been transferred by rail in hot metal cars from the Copper Cliff Smelter to the Copper Cliff Copper Refinery (ex Ontario Refining Company) where it was processed in two (2) reverberatory anode furnaces by poling with logs, cast on four (4) wheels, and then electrorefined. This practice was modernized in 2001 with the installation of two (2) rotary anode furnaces at the. Copper Cliff Smelter which employ steam and. natural gas for reducing and which provide a significant reduction in emissions. A new casting shop with a single anode casting wheel is used to cast regular and stripper constant weight anodes which are transported by truck to the Copper Cliff Copper Refinery for anode preparation and electrorefining. This paper provides an overview of the copper circuit at the Copper Cliff Smelter and a description of the CDN$31 million capital project.

Jan 1, 2002

By L. I. Rosato

A novel hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of silver and gold from neutral leach residue that is based upon leaching with thiourea, is described. Laboratory and pilot plant studies have shown that 80-90% of the silver and 60-70% of the gold can be recovered by:? ( i) leaching zinc calcine with 'Spent electrolyte at pH 2.0-3.0 to generate a precious metal-bearing zinc ferrite residue, (ii) leaching of the thickened zinc ferrite with 3-5 g/L thiourea in a six stage carbon-in-pulp circuit, (iii) elution of silver and gold from the loaded carbon with a thiourea- butanol solution, (iv) thermal regeneration of the stripped carbon and (v) recovery of the precious metals from the pregnant eluate by cementation with zinc dust. The reasons for adopting the thiourea CIP leach and the preferred operating parameters for each process step are presented. The requirements for the destruction of any thiourea transferred to the zinc circuit are outlined, and the results of an integrated one tonne/day pilot plant operation at Canadian Electrolytic Zinc are given.

Jan 1, 1990

By T. Feldmann

Despite the ubiquity of applications for germanium, there is a lack of practically useful solubility data in acidic solutions. Previous studies were done at ambient temperature and only for commonly used acids (H2SO4, HCl). Hence, an investigation of the solubility of GeO2 in different acids was undertaken. Several inorganic and organic acids were studied in the concentration range of 1–11 mol/L and at 23, 40, and 60 °C. In the case of H2SO4 and HCl previous data was confirmed. Lower acidity resulted in a higher solubility for Ge at all tested temperatures. Tests done at 40 and 60 °C and low to moderate acidity levels, gave slightly increased solubility values at higher temperatures compared to 23 °C. This wasn’t the case at higher acidity levels, i.e., the solubility curves at different temperatures converge at high acidity. Lastly, a relationship of water activity and GeO2 solubility in different acid media was established.

By Chunlin Chen

Nickel-sulfide minerals are normally associated with copper and iron sulfides and often contain a minor amount of valuable metals such as cobalt and detrimental impurities such as arsenic. Metal losses in slag vary from process to process during the pyrometallurgical production of nickel and, depend on the feed composition, slag chemistry and operating conditions. Maximiz the metal recovery is one of major considerations to optimize operating condition for nickel smelting/ converting processes. At the same time, the deportment of minor elements between various phases during nickel smelting is of great importance by smelter operators. The Multi-Phase Equilibrium (MPE) is a thermodynamic package developed by CSIRO for simulating reactions between phases in multi-component and multi-phase systems [1]. Over the years the capability of the MPE model has been extended to cover the behavior of a large number of elements in high temperature systems. The sulfide smelting module of the MPE, which covers the minor elements such as As, Bi, Sb, Pb, Se, Te, Sn, Co and Zn, is capable of modeling the deportment of major and minor elements between various phases during nickel smelting. In this article the application of the MPE model in modelling the nickel smelting process is presented. The modelling results on the majors and minors are compared with the plant data. The deportment behaviour of arsenic in nickel smelting was analysed and the impact of slag chemistry on slag properties was modelled. These results can assist process metallurgists in exploring the optimum fluxing strategy for smooth operation and the potential practices for improving arsenic removal.

By C. B. Catanach

The development and in place leaching of a chalcocite ore body at Mountain City, Nevada is described. Block caving was used to induce permeability while ore removed during development was leached in heaps on the surface. Copper was recovered by precipitation on iron. Excess ground water which seeped into the mine was pumped into a deep disposal well. A parallel system was used to purify water by lime neutralization. Copper extraction was at an annualized rate of 11% during the first six full months of underground leaching and totalled approximately 30% during six months of heap leaching. Leach solution flow and distribution had a major effect on extraction rate. Enrichment of leach solutions with ferric sulfate did not produce conclusive results until analyzed with the aid of a leaching model.

Jan 1, 1976

By Peter K. Liaw, Charlie R. Brooks, David C. Joy, Wei Zhao

In this paper, effects of oxidation, porosity and fiber-fabric stacking sequence on flexural strength of a continuous silicon carbide fiber (SiCr) fabric-reinforced SiC ceramic-matrix composite (CFCC) were studied. The failure mechanisms were correlated with flexural strengths of CFCC samples, both before and after oxidation. Microstructures and fractography were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chemical change after oxidation, such as Si, C, and 0, and their distributions, were detected by the SEM energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) line-scan chemical analysis technique. These effects on the strength of the CFCC can be attributed to following reasons: (i) The decrease in the flexural strength after oxidation is mainly due to degradation of the strength of Nicalon fibers and the damage of fiber/matrix interface both caused by high-temperature chemical reactions, (ii) Porosity is not too important in affecting the strength of the CFCC, when the bonding of the forced flow chemical vapor infiltration (FCVI)-SiC matrix is stronger than that of the fiber/matrix interface. However, a higher porosity content will be harmful, because higher porosity will both decrease the effective elastic modulus of the FCVI-SiC and make pore-linkage easier to occur, which is more likely to cause premature failure, (iii) The variation in the lamina stacking sequence of the CFCC changes the elastic stress distributions along the thickness direction of specimens, the magnitude of ceramic matrix-cracking stress, the effective elastic moduli of the laminate, and different crack initiation sites as well as different failure modes, and thus, leading to the scatter in the flexural strength of the CFCC.

Jan 1, 1998

By Junwei Han, Wenqing Qin, Dawei Wang, Fen Jiao, Wei Liu

The removal of iron impurity from zinc calcine was studied by magnetization roasting and magnetic separation. The effects of roasting temperature, magnetic intensity, ore grinding, and leaching pretreatment on iron grade and recovery were investigated. The results indicated that iron recovery increased with the increase of roasting temperature or magnetic intensity, while iron grade was always less than 22%, depending on the fact that the magnetite were not liberated completely. The good liberation was difficult to be achieved by ore grinding but was easier by acid leaching, since the magnetite grains were very fine. After the leaching pretreatment, the recovery of 76.31% with iron grade of 53.24% was obtained by one roughing and cleaning. The SEM/EDS analysis showed that a part of sphalerite, zinc ferrite and other gangues were mixed into the iron concentrate, while some of fine magnetite was reported to the tailing.

Jan 1, 2016

By Larry M. Southwick

The smelting of copper and other non-ferrous metals have made considerable advances over the last 125 years. Many of the ideas and processes currently in use were attempted early in the history of smelting and were unsuccessful. Often the cause was incomplete understanding of the metallurgy involved, inadequate refractories, poor materials of equipment fabrication or trying too many new ideas at once. With time, these problems get solved and the technologies become commercialized .These were processes whose time had not come when originally proposed, but did eventually. On the other hand, there have been some concepts whose time will never come. They were impossible then and they are impossible now. The people that dream these up were either crackpots (they didn't know what they were doing, but thought they did), or charlatans (they knew they didn't know what they were doing, but didn't care). Both rely on bad science to propose metallurgical absurdities. These too have their place in the development of technology, though mostly negative, and several examples will be discussed in this paper. Three from around the turn of the century will be covered, as well as one from this decade. The last demonstrates that the art of creating absurdities has not withered, even after ninety years of scientific sophistication, and some can even be patented. The first three reached field trials due to the gullibility of company management. The last arose from a fortuitous mis-operation of a plant which solved a problem, but the explanation and patent which arose are metallurgically impossible.

Jan 1, 1999

By Zhenjun Tan, Lei Zhang, Jigang Li, Yifang Zheng, Jilai Xue

"Water electrolysis in 0.4 mol/L NaOH solution for hydrogen generation was carried out with ultrasound introduced through the anode. It was found that the cell voltage reduced by 150-300 mV in the current range of 20 mA to 40 mA with ultrasound frequency at 25.3 kHz. The cell operation became unstable when the cell current was larger than 75 mA with ultrasound. This reduction in cell voltage was due to removal of the gas bubbles on the electrode surface, which can be directly observed in the see-through cell of water electrolysis. Ultrasound with frequency of 33.3 Hz was also tried, but no better effect was obtained. The results suggest that ultrasound assisted water electrolysis can have potential in energy savings for hydrogen production.IntroductionIn electrolytic process, the electrode that the bubbles generated on its surface usually covered a thin gas film, which can be caused an additional voltage about 0.15-0.25V[l,2], especially in aluminum electrolysis. To solve the problem, loading the ultrasound removes the gas bubbles from the electrodes, this subject had been researched in recent years. From 1995 Jilai Xue et al[3,4,5]. applied the ultrasound in aluminum electrolysis in lab. The results from Sheng-De Li et al.[6] reveals that can decrease the cell voltage and have influences about the hydrogen and oxygen's output ratio. Although there are many paper about the applying of ultrasound such as in electrolysis[5,6], deposition[7,8], plating[9,10], oxidation of salts substance on the surface of electrodes[l 1] and so on, the effect of different frequencies ultrasound hadn't been investigated deeply.We focus on the anode voltage by different frequencies ultrasound and the bubble behaviors in this paper. The environment of this experiment is in alkaline solution. Through this exploration it can offer a basis for the applying of ultrasound in electrolysis."

Jan 1, 2011

By A. V. Tarasov

The insufficient scientific and technical level of a number of operations in the nonferrous metals industry encourages development of new processes and equipment, including smelting in liquid bath, flame-type sparged smelting unit for combined processes, electrothermal process with the use of alternating current (PDF furnace), electrothermal processing of complex raw materials and intermediate products at nonferrous metallurgical plants, etc. One of the most important aspects for development of new processes and equipment in the Gintsvetmet Institute is their environmental safety. Special attention is paid to environmental protection measures, which is also of important economic and social significance. This refers also to a complete extent to processing of reserves of man-made raw materials and wastes available at the existing operations with the use of innovative techniques ensuring not only resource conservation and environmental protection, but also abatement of negative impact on the nature due to accumulated industrial and domestic waste, reclamation of the land used for waste disposal and recycling of nonferrous metals. Technologies and equipment developed in the Gintsvetmet Institute and based on electrothermal processes determine the prospects for ensuring more integrated usage of ores and man-made raw materials.

Jan 1, 2006

By Y. Ikeda

Typical electric appliances were dismantled into component pieces to study the recyclability of these discarded goods. Types and weight ratios of these component materials were investigated and characterized. The results showed that if they are dismantled properly, these goods could be classified into several groups of similar materials and/or structures, namely those consisting of single materials, metal-plastic combinations, metal-metal combinations and complex combinations of many different materials. By separating each combination into recyclable materials and isolating hazardous materials, it was found that the final waste for disposal could be reduced and the recycling efficiency could be improved markedly as compared to the conventional shredding method. The metal-metal combinations account for 60% by weight of the total metal contents in electric appliances, and therefore, it becomes important to segregate these metals. For the complex combinations, a process consisting of pyrolytic decomposition of plastic contaminants followed by smelting of the residue is proposed. It is anticipated that nearly zero-emission recycling of electric appliances will be achieved by applying this treatment process.

Jan 1, 1995

By Duclerc Fernandes Parra, Luis Filipe Carvalho Pedroso de Lima, Washington Luiz Oliani, Danilo Marin Fermino, Ademar Benevolo Lugao

The modified polypropylene was obtained from isotactic polypropylene (iPP) in spheres by irradiation with gamma rays in the presence of acetylene. A new morphology with distinct rheology is obtained by this process in which occurs: degradation, branching and/or crosslinking. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of thermal aging on the crystallinity and morphology of the modified polypropylene, High Melt Strength Polypropylene (HMS-PP). The thermal stability was evaluated after aging of samples using a stove at temperature of 90 °C, in presence of air at different periods of time. Aging effects were characterized by: Thermogravimetry analysis (TG), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In thermooxidative conditions, the formation of oxidation products essentially involves a hydrogen abstraction by the peroxyl radical, leading to hydroperoxides as primary products and chemical degradation in the immediate crack tips. The effect of thermal degradation (chain scission and oxygen diffusion) on iPP was a more intense crack formation. Surface cracks increased with the aging time. In comparison of iPP, the modified PP samples had a morphological barrier inhibiting the penetration of oxygen into the sample and in consequence limit the propagation of degradation

Jan 1, 2015

By Masao Suzuki

Over 5 million cars are scrapped yearly in Japan. After dismantling. scrapped automobiles, they are put into a shredder for differential recovery of ferrous and nonferrous metals. The residue, which is called shredder dust, runs over 1.2 million tons per year. This paper reports a entire sequence of scrapping. cars. in Japan with the following sections: (1) production and scrapped car management, (2) material composition, (3) dismantling, (4) shredder plant, (5) differential recovery of metals including specific gravity separation and newly developed color separation.

Jan 1, 1995

By T. T. Chen

A mineralogical study of copper anodes and copper anode slimes was carried out to elucidate the silver phases present and the behaviour of silver during copper electrorefining. Most of the silver in the anodes is in metastable solid solution in the copper metal. As the copper dissolves, silver also dissolves, but is rapidly removed from solution by a variety of reactions. Some of the silver is precipitated as Ag by cuprous ions and some is precipitated as a complex CU-Ag-Pb-As-Se oxidate phase. Much of the silver, however, reacts with copper selenides to form, progressively, (CU,Ag) 2se, AgCuSe and Ag2se. The reaction commences at the periphery of the selenide grains and progresses inward; the result is commonly a silver-rich species on the outside of a silver-deficient core. Slimes collected periodically throughout the electrorefining cycle show a progressive silver enrichment of the selenides. Traces of Ag2Te also may be present, but the telluride seems to J:ie a rare constituent of most raw anode slimes.

Jan 1, 1989

By H. J. Roorda

With an increasing need to obtain metals by processing complex fine intergrown ores, the use of electron-optical techniques will become more important as a tool for mineralogical studies. Electron images enable a higher spacial resolution than can be obtained by optical microscopy and thus provide a powerful and necessary aid for the examination of small grains and finely locked particles. In this paper the mineralogy of Meggen ore was investigated. Both light-optical and electron-optical techniques were used to evaluate the mill feed and products of the concentrator. Detailed examination by reflected-light microscopy to assess the comportment of galena in the complex pyritic ore was inconclusive in establishing the cause for low lead recovery of only forty percent of the ore's lead content. Electron microprobe analyses indicated that the majority of the lead lost to the tailings was accounted for by extreme fine (often smaller than one micron) and complex intergrowths of galena in pyrite. The remainder was lost as fine free galena grains.

Jan 1, 1987

By William Petruk

Many gold operations lose gold during processing because some ore characteristics which affect recoveries have not been determined, and consequently the plant could not be designed to account for them. The ore characteristics can be determined with mineralogical techniques by analyzing the plant feed, final tailings and mill products. The plant feed and/or final tailings are commonly analyzed first as a separate project. Mill products are analyzed only if the process employs a minerals separation circuit to produce a concentrate (e.g. secondary flotation circuit to concentrate gold-bearing arsenopyrite), and if assays and materials balances indicate a recovery problem in the minerals separation circuit. Many ores have been evaluated at CANMET on a confidential cost-recovery basis by custom-designing a work plan which was dependent upon the problem and on the characteristics of the ore. The reasons for gold losses have been identified in most cases, and suggestions for modifying flowsheets have been proposed. The methods used in performing the analyses are described in this paper, and non-confidential results from in-house projects are provided as examples of the benefits of such analyses. The analytical methodology involves a combination of the following procedures: -producing heavy mineral concentrates and identifying the gold minerals in the concentrates; -determining quantities of invisible gold in gold-bearing sulphides, sulpharsenides, etc. by SIMS; -determining quantities and liberation characteristics of all gold minerals and gold-bearing minerals in the sample; -finding and identifying gold minerals in silicates; -extensive grinding and cyanidation to determine the ultimate amount of cyanidable gold; -determining impact of clay minerals and graphite; -performing a mineral balance for the gold in each sample; -performing a materials balance to determine the distribution of the gold minerals, gold-bearing minerals, and other minerals throughout the flowsheet, and; -interpreting the results.

Jan 1, 1995

By Yan Wen

For the impurities in the copper smelting waste acid, SO3, Cu, As, Pb, Zn, Re and other elements enter the waste acid and generate a lot of arsenic residue, gypsum and neutralized residue, in which Cu, Zn and Re metals have not been recycled. Cu, Re and As are separated by step-wise vulcanization. The valuable metals of Cu, Zn and Re are recovered by separating zinc through pH adjustment. Calcium injection is conducted for boiler for reducing the amount of SO3. The residues generated in the form of arsenate and hydroxide will be returned together with arsenic filter cake for smelting treatment so as to achieve the purpose of valuable metal recycling and solid waste reduction and harmless treatment.