IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ORES AND SOLUTIONS CONTAINING COPPER AND IRON, OR EITHER OF THEM, TO OBTAIN PRODUCTS THEREFROM
Year: 1862

page_text: 1862.
I, GUSTAV BISCHOF, junior, of Swansea, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ORES AND SOLUTIONS CONTAINING
COPPER AND IRON, OR EITHER OF THEM, TO OBTAIN PRODUCTS THEREFROM," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating ores and solu-
tions containing copper and iron, or either of them, to obtain products
therefrom. By treating copper ores by well-known processes, solutions con-
taining a mixture of the sulphate of copper and iron may readily be
obtained.
My Invention is applicable to the treatment of such solutions, and also to
the treatment of other solutions containing sulphate of copper and sulphate of
iron, or either of them, and consists in the combined use of the processes
herein-after described, by means of which the metals are obtained as oxides.
Where the solution treated contains both sulphates, the oxides may be obtained
either separately or mixed together, as desired. I proceed as follows:-To
the solution to be treated I add chloride of calcium, or other chloride of an
alkaline earth, or of an alkali which is capable of separating the sulphuric acid
from sulphate of copper and sulphate of iron. It will probably, however, in
almost every case, be most convenient to employ chloride of calcium. In this

page_text: manner I obtain in solution chloride of copper and chloride of iron, or one
of these, and a sulphate of an alkaline earth or alkali (either soluble or other-
wise) which is separated. This being done, I add to the solution of metallic
chloride, lime, magnesia, or baryta. Lime, or a mixture of lime and magnesia,
will, however, be most practically useful. In this manner I obtain a pre-
cipitate of oxide of copper and oxide of iron, or one of these. Mixed oxides
so obtained may readily be smelted to obtain metallic copper. Oxide of
copper, if obtained separately, may be similarly treated, or otherwise used as
oxide of copper. Oxide of iron, if obtained separately, may be applied to any
use to which other precipitated oxide of iron is applicable.
When treating a mixed solution of sulphate of copper and sulphate of iron,
it is sometimes desirable to obtain separately the oxide of copper and the oxide
of iron. This is more especially the caso when the oxide of iron is in large
excess. For this purpose I add to the mixed sulphate solution, or preferably
to the mixed chloride solution obtained therefrom, as herein-before described,
oxide of copper obtained by processes herein described or otherwise. The
oxide of copper becomes dissolved by the solution, and the iron is precipitated
as oxide, and then separated. The remaining chloride of copper solution is
treated in the manner before described to obtain oxide of copper free from
oxide of iron.
In this last process in place of oxide of copper, the copper ore known as
atacamite may be employed, and this in many cases is a useful process for
separating the copper from such ores, and the process may be varied by
employing it to decompose solutions containing iron only; that is to say,
without copper. Similarly the copper may be obtained as comparatively pure
oxide from oxide and carbonate ores.