IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING NICKEL ORES AND ALLOYS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Parkes, of Stockland House, Slaid, Gravelly
Hill, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING NICKEL ORES AND ALLOYS."
Sealed the 14th July 1876, and dated the 10th February 187
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Parkes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th February 1876.
ALEXANDER PARKES, of Stockland House, Slaid, Gravelly Hill, near Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick. "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING NICKEL ORES AND
ALLOYS."
This Invention has mainly for its object to obtain nickel alloys and nickel from
carbonate and other oxidized ores of this metal, as for example the ores obtained
from New Caledonia. For this purpose I fuse the oxidized ore of nickel, together
with oxide of copper and carbon, and together with a flux consisting of fluor spar,
or fluor spar and china clay, or it might be with cryolite or other flux. By this means
I abtain an alloy consisting mainly of copper and nickel. If this crude alloy con-
tains iron I afterwards treat the alloy with a further quantity of oxide of copper,
by this treatment the iron will be oxidized and separated from the alloy.
The alloy of nickel and copper obtained as above described may if not con-
taminated to too great an extent with other metals be used at once in the manu-
facture of German silver, and such like alloys, or the nickel may be separated from
the copper as will be well understood.
In place of reducing the nickel ore together with oxide of copper, it may also be
reduced together with sulphur or sulphate of lime or baryta, together with carbon
and the flux above mentioned. By this means a sulphide of nickel will be obtained
which can be afterwards freed from sulphur by calcination, or if the sulphide
contain too great a proportion of impurities it inay be dissolved and treated by
the ordinary wet process.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Alexander Parkes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th August
1876.
ALEXANDER PARKES, of Stockland House, Slaid, Gravelly Hill, near Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick. "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING NICKEL ORES AND
ALLOYS."
This Invention has mainly for its object to obtain nickel alloys and nickel from
New Caledonian nickel ores and other oxidized ores of this metal. For this
purpose I fuse oxidized compounds of New Caledonian ores of nickel with oxide of
copper together with fluxes, in order to collect the nickel and copper in a metallic
state reduced together from their oxidized condition to an alloy so fusible that it
can be smelted in a reverberatory or other furnace, and when properly melted it is
tapped into sand beds by preference metal and slag together; when cool the nickel
and copper alloy is found well separated from the slag; or the slag may be first
skimmed off the surface as in copper smelting, and the nickel alloy run into water
to granulate it.
The nickel alloy whether in pigs or granulated is now placed in a calcining or
roasting furnace, and submitted for about 4 or 5 hours to calcining or roasting, in
order to oxidize a considerable portion of the alloy especially the iron it may
contain, when the heat is increased, and the alloy melted down with silica or lime
in the roasting furnace; by this treatment most of the iron and other impurities are
separated from the nickel and copper; if not all taken out oxide of copper is
thrown on from time to time to free the alloy from iron in the form of a black
silicious slag; this is skimmed off after every addition of oxide of copper from time
to time, and when the workman finds from experience that all or most of the iron
is practically separated the alloy is either tapped out into sand beds or water or
ladled out with iron ladles and poured into iron moulds. From 2 to 3 cwt. of oxide of
copper will be sufficient for 1 ton of rough metal. Or in place of roasting or
calcining the crude nickel and copper alloy as at first formed I melt it down at once
in a roverberatory furnace, and add oxide of copper (by preference mixed with
silica or lime or aluminous substances) from time to time, fuse and skim off the slag
until it is found that all or most of the iron is oxidized and separated in the
slag.
Second. The alloy well freed from iron and other impurities may be at once used
in the preparation of alloys called German silver, by fusing it with varying pro-
portions of copper and zinc; but before doing so I prefer to refine and toughen the
alloy (after it has first been roughly refined) to separate any remaining iron or
other impurities as before described. This may be done in crucibles, reverberatory
furnaces, or in a cupellation furnace; the alloy is to be fused and if any impurity
such as iron or other deleterious matter remains more oxide of copper is added and
after the reaction is finished the flux is removed by skimming it off, and then I
enploy a refining process similar to copper refining by "poling" or I refine by
means of a toughening flux of borax and fluor spar with a little carbon or other
refining flux. The metal thus obtained is of the finest quality.
In carrying out the first part of my process on a large scale at the New Caledonian
Nickel Works, Birmingham, I have found the following proporions of flux and
oxide of copper most satisfactory. For 1 ton of New Caledonian nickel ore of 10%
nickel, I employ from 2 to 3 cwt of oxide of copper, 3 to 4 cwt. of fluor spar or
cryolite, 2 to 3 cwt. of anthracite coal, 1/2 to 1 cwt. of rock salt; all the above sub-
stances are by preference ground so as to pass through a sieve ¹/th of an inch mesh,
all being well inixed and made damp with water to prevent loss when throwing the
charge into the furnace. The charge is melted in a reverberatory furnace in from
4 to 5 hours; in order to collect the alloy of nickel and copper, formed by fusion of
the above proportions of substances together I put into the melted charge from 1
to 2 cwt. of metallic copper in a granular state about one hour before tapping out the

page_text: charge. This addition collects the nickel alloy more completely. I either run the
whole of the melted charge into sand beds or I skim and tap it into water.
Third. Another part of my Invention consists in fusing New Caledonian nickel
ores and other similar nickel ores, especially if of low per centage, together with
sulphur or sulphate of lime or sulphate of baryta together with carbon and the
fluxes above mentioned; by this means a very fine sulphide is formed, casily converted
into nickel of the finest quality or an alloy of nickel, by the method first above
named or by the well known wet method of preparing nickel. The fluxing will
greatly depend upon the proportion of earthy matter in the ore; I also employ iron
pyrites, copper pyrites, or arsenical compounds as fluxes to the New Caledonian ores
and sulphate of soda or rock salt.
For 1 ton of New Caledonian nickel ore, say of 5%, I find the fluxing is well
effected by the following proportions:-20 cwt. of nickel ore; 1 to 2 cwt. of fluor
spar; 2 cwt. sulphate of lime or sulphur; 2 cwt. carbon anthracite; all the sub-
stances are ground and passed through a sieve 1/6th of an inch in the mesh well
mixed, wetted with water, and charged into a reverberatory furnace by preference.
This charge will melt well in from to 5 hours, and may be run out altogether into
sand beds, or first skimmed, and the regulus run into water to granulate it; or the
regulus may be ground by machinery.
The regulus is either to be calcined and fused with oxide of copper to collect and
form a nickel alloy, as at first described, and treated in the same way, or the
regulus may be treated by the well known wet method of refining nickel.
In place of fluor spar I sometimes use cryolite and sulphide of iron or copper as
fluxing matters with salt and carbon in obtaining a regulus.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Parkes, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six.
ALEXANDER PARKES. (L.S.)