Patent ID: 7485268

Claim:
A sulfate process for producing titania from a titaniferous material which includes the steps of: (a) leaching the titaniferous material with a leach solution containing sulfuric acid and forming a leach liquor that includes an acidic solution of titanyl sulfate (TiOSO 4 ) and iron sulfate (FeSO 4 ); (b) separating the leach liquor and a residual solid phase from the leach step (a); (c) separating titanyl sulfate from the leach liquor from step (b) and using at least part of the leach liquor that remains after separation of the titanyl sulfate as part of the leach solution in one of the leach step (a) or a further leach step; (d) hydrolysing the separated titanyl sulfate and forming a selected particle size distribution of hydrated titanium oxides from titanyl sulfate; (e) separating the hydrated titanium oxides from a liquid phase that is produced in the hydrolysis step (d); and (f) calcining the solid phase from step (e) and forming titania.