Treatment of titanium ores
OwnerDerek J. Fray, Shuqiang Jiaoinventors
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Abstract
A method of producing titanium, comprising providing an oxide of titanium having a level of impurities of at least 1.0 wt %, reacting the oxide of titanium to form a titanium oxycarbide; and electrolysing the titanium oxycarbide in an electrolyte, with the titanium oxycarbide configured as an anode; and recovering a refined titanium metal from a cathode in the electrolyte.
Claims30
A method of producing titanium, comprising:
- providing an oxide of titanium in the form of an ore or ore concentrate having a level of impurities of at least 1.0 wt %, including at least 0.1 wt % calcium oxide and/or at least 0.1 wt % iron oxide;
- reacting the oxide of titanium to form a titanium oxycarbide;
- and
- electrolysing the titanium oxycarbide in an electrolyte, with the titanium oxycarbide configured as an anode;
- and
- recovering a refined titanium metal from a cathode in the electrolyte, the refined titanium metal having a level of impurities of less than 0.5 wt %.
A method of extracting a metal or semi-metal from an ore comprising an oxide of the metal or semi-metal, comprising the steps of providing the ore;
- reacting the ore to form a product comprising an oxycarbide, a carbonitride or an oxynitride of the metal or semi-metal;
- electrolysing the product in an electrolyte, with the product configured as an anode;
- and
- recovering the metal or semi-metal from a cathode in the electrolyte.
A method of extracting a metal from a nuclear fuel comprising uranium, comprising the steps of:
- providing the nuclear fuel;
- reacting the nuclear fuel to form a product comprising an oxycarbide, a carbonitride or an oxynitride of at least the uranium
- electrolysing the product in an electrolyte with the product configured as an anode:
- and
- recovering the metal from a cathode in the electrolyte.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.