Improvements in or relating to the Treatment of Ores.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Dec., 1899
Cification Left. 1st Oct., 1900-Accepted, 3rd Nov.,
1900
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Treatment of Ores.
J, SOLOMON GANELIN, of Philadelphia, but at present of Luisenstrasse 31A,
Berlin, Germany, Doctor of Philosophy, do hereby declare the nature of this
avention to be as follows:
-
This invention relates to a process which is based on a property possessed by
ome salts in a fused state, as fused chlorides or double salts thereof, and
itrates, of dissolving considerable quantities of metallic oxides, particularly
ead, silver, and zinc oxides; and further on a property possessed by such fused
ubstances of enabling the metals to be separated as such by electrolysis, or by
means of metallic zinc or lead, or, when these fused substances are dissolved in
water, of leaving the oxides absorbed as a residue for the most part insoluble in
water.
Now according to this invention these observations are utilized for the separa-
tion of metals, especially lead, silver, and zinc, or of oxides thereof, from their
ores, by proceeding e.g. in the following manner :-
The ores e.g. occurring in nature, which contain such metals alone or together,
if they do not already occur as oxides, but as carbonates or sulphides, as blende,
calamine, or the well known lead-zinc ores at Broken Hill, are e.g. first ignited
or incandesced, or roasted, in order to convert the metallic compounds contained
therein into oxides. They are thereupon mixed with a flux, preferably e.g. the
fused double salt, zinc-sodium chloride etc. and stirred until the oxides contained
in the ore have been dissolved in the fused double salt. The fused substance
obtained is then separated from the insoluble portions, as silicates, and gangue,
in any suitable manner, as e.g. by decanting, filtering, or in a centrifugal machine,
and after cooling is dissolved in water, so that the oxides remain for the most
part in the salt solution as an insoluble precipitate and are separated therefrom
by filtering and washing, whilst the original double salt is recovered by evapora-
tion from the zinc chloride double salt solution for the purpose of being used
again.
Instead of separating the oxides of the metals from the fused mass, the metals
can be also separated as such. In this case the fused mass is e.g. electrolized
without preliminary separation, or even after separation from the insoluble con-
stituents (silicates, gangue, etc.,) so that the metals separate out one after
another .e., first silver, then lead, and then zinc-at the cathode, whilst oxygen
goes to the anode. A necessary condition for this action is that the metal to be
5 separated out be not more basic than the oxide of the metal whose salt is used
for dissolving the oxide in question. For example, if zinc oxide be dissolved in
a lead chloride flux the zinc could not be separated out from the fused mass,
since at the moment of the separation of the zinc it will at once act on the lead
chloride and separate out lead instead of zinc.
10
The separation of the metals as such, and preferably the separation of lead and
silver from the fused mass can be also effected by precipitation c.g. by means of

page_text: a suitable metal, as by means of metallic zinc or lead. For this purpose there
is added to the hereinbefore described fused mass rather more than the theo-
retical quantity of zinc, for example, calculated from the equation:
Ag,OPbO + 2Za
==
2ZuO+Pb+ 2Ag.
The metals are thus caused to separate out, whilst the zinc oxide formed is at
once dissolved in the flux. The fused salt thus freed from lead and silver now
contains in solution the zinc originally in the ore and also that added in the form
of zinc oxide for the separation of lead and silver, and from this solution the
zinc oxide can be separated out by dissolving the fused mass in water as herein-
before described, whilst by evaporating the remaining liquor the original zinc
chloride double salt can be recovered for further treatment of ores.
Dotal the oth
1000
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.
Improvements in or relating to the Treatment of Ores.
I, SOLOMON GANELIN, of Philadelphia, but at present of 31A, Louisenstrasse,
Berlin, Germany, Doctor of Philosophy, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to the treatment of ores, especially ores containing lead
or silver, or both.
According to the Specification of my Patent No. 26046 of 1897, ores containing
lead sulphide, or silver sulphide, or both, are treated by adding these sulphide
ores to a fused halogen salt of a metal, as, for example, zinc, cadmium, man-
ganese, aluminium, or magnesium, a double decomposition taking place, the lead
or the silver (or both) of the ore combining with the halogen radical of the
molten salt, and the metal of the latter combining with the sulphur of the ore.
By this reaction also the sulphide of iron often contained in such ores in large
quantity is partially dissolved.
Experiments carried out with this process have shown that it is possible to
render soluble also ores which contain silver or lead, or both, not as sulphides,
but in the form of oxides, whether naturally so or rendered so artificially, as by
roasting. In this case the iron present, is not dissolved as is the case in the
previously mentioned process.
On account of this fact, ores occurring in nature and containing lead or silver
or both, not in the form of oxides, but of carbonates or sulphides, as for example
the well known lead zinc ores at Broken Hill, are first ignited or incandesced,
or roasted, in order to convert the metallic compounds contained therein into
oxides. They are thereupon mixed with a flux, preferably the fused double salt
zine sodium chloride, to dissolve the said oxides, and stirred until the oxides of
lead or silver or both contained in the ore have been dissolved in the fused double
salt.
By this reaction the oxides are probably converted into chlorides or oxy-
chlorides or basic salts according to the following equations: —
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page_text: present in the ores, if the ores are first roasted, is not dissolved by the chloride
employed, whereas, when the sulphide ores were dissolved in the fused chloride
according to the previous process, the iron was also rendered soluble by the
chloride employed, so that the lead obtained in the subsequent reduction was
contaminated.
In contra-distinction to the previous process, the copper contained in the ore
is dissolved when working according to this invention, since the copper is present
as an oxide and not as a sulphide.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The process of treating ores containing metals in the form of oxides whether
naturally so or rendered so artificially, especially ores containing oxide of
lead or oxide of silver or both whether naturally so or rendered so artificially,
which process consists in introducing these ores, instead of sulphide ores, into a
fused halogen metal salt in a manner similar to that of the process described in
the Specification of Letters Patent No. 26046 of 1897 substantially as and for the
purpose set forth.
2. The process for treating ores containing lead or silver or both hereinbefore
set forth.
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.