IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING NICKEL FROM ORES OR SUBSTANCES CONTAINING NICKEL
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Parkes, of Gravelly Hill, near Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING NICKEL FROM ORES OR SUBSTANCES CONTAINING NICKEL."
Sealed the 28th August 1877, and dated the 2nd March 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Parkes at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd March 1877.
HENRY PARKES, of Gravelly Hill, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Chemist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING NICKEL FROM ORES OR SUBSTANCES
CONTAINING NICKEL."
My improvements are more particularly applicable to that class of nickel ores
known as pimelite, and that are now obtained in great abundance in New
Caledonia, the nickel in which is contained in an oxidized state as a silicate of nickel
and magnesia with iron.
This invention consists in a method or methods of obtaining solutions of nickel
from such oxidized nickel ores containing about ten per cent. of nickel, whether in
the raw state or calcined; it is reduced to a fine powder, when I mix with the ore
as above prepared strong concentrated sulphuric acid of commerce, alone or combined
with a comparatively small quantity of strong nitric, hydrochloric, or hydrofluoric
acid, or with substances capable of evolving such acids, and also in the employment
with the strong sulphuric acid of a solution of an alkaline hypochlorite as of lime
or soda; or I pass a current of chlorine gas into the mixture of acid and ore;
or I pass chlorine into a mixture of the ore suspended in water and kept in
agitation.
For the purpose of mixing the finely divided ore with the acid or mixtures above
named, I find it sufficient to place one ton of the ore on a stone floor or vessel,
making a hole in the middle of the mass, into which I pour the strong sulphuric acid
or the mixtures above named, rapidly mixing it up by hand or other means to the
consistence of wet mortar; in a few minutes a remarkably intense chemical reaction
takes place, the whole mass becoming highly beated, and then suddenly giving off
a large volume of acid vapour for a short time only; when the chemical reaction is
over the whole mass becomes immediately solid and hard as stone, and may. be
Dino A1

page_text: broken up and placed in other suitable vessels for dissolving out the nickel by the
addition of water, or it may be dissolved in the vessel in which the reaction was
effected; it at once takes up the water even without the aid of heat, and the stone-
like mass is softened and crumbles to a soft state, which can be stirred up or agitated
with the water by hand or mechanical means, so as to separate as much of the soluble
nickel salt as possible. The insoluble portion is allowed to settle, and the clear
fluid syphoned off or separated by any other convenient means. The solution of
nickel thus obtained is principally a sulphate, which may be freed from iron,
magnesia, and other soluble impurities by the well known means.
When the solution is freed from impurities the nickel is precipitated as an oxide
by the usual reagents, and may be reduced to the metallic state by the ordinary
methods; or it may be obtained in a metallic state by magneto or electric currents
in the usual way; or the nickel in solution may be separated by magneto or electro
deposition.
When acting upon the crude or calcined ore by means of chlorine, the finely
divided ore is suspended in water and agitated by suitable means whilst the current
of chlorine is passed through it. The solution obtained in this case is a chloride,
from which I separate the nickel from the impurities by the same means as described
when treating a sulphate solution.
From the purified solution the nickel may be precipitated as an oxide, or
obtained in a metallic state by magneto or electric currents as before described.
My improvements also consist in the fusion of New Caledonian nickel ores with
lead or zinc, or their oxidized compounds, with carbon and fluxes, so as to reduce
the nickel or alloy with lead or zinc. The nickel may be separated by solution of
the alloy by the usual means; or the nickel may be separated from the lead by
calcination or oxidation of the alloy, which I prefer to be in a granulated state, and
dissolving out the nickel by sulphuric acid or hydrochloric acid; or the nickel may
be separated from the granulated zinc alloy mixed with carbon by distilling off the
zinc in suitable vessels, or by dissolving the zinc compound in acids and separating
the nickel by any of the usual methods.
In order to obtain nickel from its alloys with copper (by preference such an alloy
as is obtained when smelting nickel ores, under a Patent granted to Alexander Parkes
for extracting nickel from New Caledonian ores, 'dated February 10th, 1876, No. 540),
I cast the nickel alloy into plates or other forms, and place them as the positive
anode in a solution of sulphate of nickel or copper, and I take a thin plate of
copper or other form as the negative anode, and connect these with magneto
machines, such as Wyld's, or voltaic electric currents may be used to separate the
copper from the nickel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Parkes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 31st August
1877.
HENRY PARKES, of Gravelly Hill, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Chemist. " IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING NICKEL FROM ORES OR SUBSTANCES
CONTAINING NICKEL."
My improvements are more particularly applicable to that class of nickel ores
known as pimelite, and that are now obtained in great abundance in New Caledonia,
the nickel in which is contained in an oxidized state as a silicate of nickel and
magnesia with iron.
This Invention consists, first, in methods of obtaining solutions of nickel from such
oxidized nickel ores containing about 10 per cent. of nickel,. whether in the raw state
or calcined; it is reduced to a fine powder, whenI mix with the ore as aboye prepared
strong concentrated sulphuric acid of commerce, alone or combined with a com-
paratively small quantity of strong nitric, hydrochloric, or hydrofluoric acid, or with

page_text: substances capable of evolving such acids, and also in the employment with the
strong sulphuric acid of a solution of an alkaline hypochlorite as of lime or soda;
or I pass a current of chlorine gas into the mixture of acid and ore; or I pass
chlorine into a mixture of the ore suspended in water and kept in agitation.
In carrying out this part of my Invention I first select the New Caledonian ores,
so as to represent about 10 per cent. of nickel in the bulk; I prefer to grind it to a fine
powder, and to every ton weight, whether calcined or not, I add so much con-
centrated sulphuric acid of about 1.80 specific gravity, with by preference from 5
to 10 per cent. of hydrofluoric acid of ordinary strength, as will make it into a thick
paste, or I add to the mixture some substance as fluor spar, capable of evolving
hydrofluoric acid; this I mix up as quickly as possible by rabbling or by other
mixing machinery.
.
:
I find it is quite sufficient to place the nickel compound on a stone or cast-iron
floor, over which is a hood to conduct the large volume of vapour given off into a
condensing chamber to collect the same, and utilize the acid again. Spreading the
ore or compound out so as to form a mass of 5 to 8 inches deep, making a large
hole in the middle, into the hole I pour the strong acid, and mix up as before
stated into a mass of about the consistence of mortar; this I leave in a heap until
the chemical action is over, which will be in from 10 to 30 minutes, but sooner if
assisted by heat, such as a fire under the floor or the vessel in which the operation
is performed; the stony looking mass so obtained I break up and throw it into
wooden or stone vessels, containing by preference hot water; the nickel salt is at
once dissolved out, and more rapidly if agitating apparatus is employed; there is no
'difficulty in operating upon from 5 to 10 tons at one time; it is only necessary to
employ suitable mixing machinery, and the chemical reaction may be effected in
iron or stone pans or other formed vessels.
If I employ other acids, such as nitric acid or hydrochloric acid, or substances
capable of evolving them when in contact with the sulphuric acid with the above, I
do so in about the same proportion, viz., from 5 to 10 per cent.
When I employ with the acids before named chlorine or an alkaline bypochlorite,
as of soda or lime, I use a larger quantity of acid, so as to make a fluid or pasty
mass, so that the chlorine can pass through the mixture, or it may be forced through
it, and when I simply employ water in which the nickel powder is introduced and
kept suspended in it by agitation, I pass the chlorine into it for several hours, say,
from 5 to 20 or more, in order to form a chloride soluble in water. The solution of
nickel formed by either of the foregoing operations, if not pure enough to be at
once formed into oxide of nickel, may be freed from iron, magnesia, &c., by any of
the well known methods, and the oxide of nickel is then precipitated, and reduced
to a metallic state also by the ordinary method of reducing oxidised compounds of
nickel.
may observe that the solution of nickel is more quickly obtained the finer the
nickel ore or compound is ground, and if it is found that all the nickel is not
separated by the first operation, the residual part of the ore or compound is collected
and mixed up with the fresh ground ore, and treated if necessary over and over
again until exhausted of nickel; or the partly exhausted ore may be fused with
other nickel compound to form a sulphuret of nickel, and the nickel separated by the
well known methods.
My improvements also consist in the fusion of New Caledonian nickel ores with
lead or zinc, or their oxidised compounds, with carbon and fluxes, so as to reduce the
nickel or alloy with lead or zinc.
In carrying out this part of my Invention I prefer to grind the ore fine, and to
every ton I employ from 5 to 20 per cent. of granulated lead or zinc, or of their
compounds representing a like proportion of lead or zinc, together with carbon
(anthracite), and as a flux I prefer fluor spar or lime, or carbonate of baryta in about
2 hundredweight to each ton of ore, or alkaline fluxes may be used; the alloy of nickel
with lead or zinc I granulate by running it from the reverberatory or other furnace
in which it is melted into water. The nickel I separate by dissolving the alloy in

page_text: sulphuric acid, in which case the lead is left as an insoluble sulphate, and the nickel
in solution may be freed from the other impurities, and the nickel obtained by the
ordinary methods; or the nickel may be separated from the lead by calcining or
oxidizing the alloy and dissolving by muriatic acid; or the zinc may be distilled
from the nickel alloy with the addition of carbon by the usual methods employed
in the manufacture of zinc ; or the zinc may be separated by dissolving in acid.
The lead or zinc alloy is brittle, and may be granulated by grinding between rolls
or edge runners before dissolving or distilling.
Another part of my Invention consists in separating nickel from alloys with
copper principally in the following manner :-
I employ by preference such an alloy as that prepared under Letters Patent
granted to Alexander Parkes, 10th February 1876, No. 504; I cast the alloy of nickel
and copper into plátes or other forms; these are placed in a solution of sulphate of
nickel or copper as the positive anode, and in the same solution I place a thin plate
of copper or other form as the negative anode, and either by inagneto machines,
such as Wylde's, or other magneto machines or by voltaic electric currents, I cause
the decomposition and deposition of the copper to be effected, and thus separate the
nickel as a by-product, which along with some otheri mpurities settles at the bottom
of the vessel, and the nickel may be refined in the usual way..
I claim the several improvements herein described in obtaining nickel from ores or
substances containing nickel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Parkes, have hereunto set my hand
and scal, this Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our. Lord One
thousand eight-hundred and seventy-seven.
JAMES HEELEY
ALEXANDER PARKES.
HENRY PARKES. (L.S.)..