Process for the recovery of nickel, cobalt and manganese from their oxides and silicates
AssigneeCato Research Corporation
InventorsPaul R. Kruesi, Veryl H. Frahm, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for the recovery of nickel, cobalt or manganese from their oxides or silicates wherein such process, which requires the application of heat, is improved by utilizing microwave energy as the source of heat. The microwave energy may be utilized to cause the reduction of these values enabling such reduced values to then be recovered by conventional leaching processes. The microwave energy may also be used in conjunction with the chlorination of such values to produce their chlorides which are subsequently separated from the gangue and then processed by conventional means to obtain the metal values.
Claims19
In a process for the recovery of a metal selected from the group consisting of nickel, cobalt and manganese from an ore material comprising an oxide or silicate of said metal and gangue, wherein the recovery process utilizes heat, the improvement in combination therewith comprising the step of subjecting said ore material to microwave energy wherein said microwave energy is preferentially absorbed by the metal oxide or silicate over the gangue and wherein the process involves a chemical reaction of the metal oxide or silicate.
In a process for the recovery of a metal selected from the group consisting of nickel, cobalt and manganese from an ore material comprising an oxide or silicate of said metal and gangue, wherein the metal values are converted to their metal chlorides, the improvement comprising supplying heat needed to effect such a chlorination via microwave energy wherein said microwave energy is preferentially absorbed by the metal oxide or silicate over the gangue.
A process for the recovery of a metal selected from the group consisting of nickel, cobalt and manganese from an ore material comprising an oxide or silicate of said metal and gangue, comprising heating the metal oxide or metal silicate in an oxygen-free atmosphere with microwave energy to a temperature of from about 200.degree. to about 600.degree. C. in the presence of a source of chlorine in order to obtain the metal chloride wherein said microwave energy is preferentially absorbed by the metal oxide or silicate over the gangue.
A process for the recovery of a metal selected from the group consisting of nickel, cobalt and manganese from an ore material comprising an oxide or silicate of said metal and gangue, wherein the metal values are converted to their chlorides comprising heating the metal oxide or metal silicate in an oxygen free atmosphere with microwave energy to a temperature of from about 200.degree. C. to about 600.degree. C. in the presence of ferric chloride and recovering the metal from its chloride form wherein said microwave energy is preferentially absorbed by the metal oxide or silicate over the gangue.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.