Processing of low grade tungsten ore concentrates by hydrometallurgical route with particular reference to India

Premchand, (1996) Processing of low grade tungsten ore concentrates by hydrometallurgical route with particular reference to India. Bulletin of Materials Science, 19 (2). pp. 295-312.

[img]PDF
Restricted to NML users only. Others may use ->

4Mb

Abstract

Tungsten, because of its high strength and high melting point occupies a prime position amongst metals. With depletion of high grade resources considerable R and D work is still being carried out in tungsten producing countries around the world for the processing of low grade and secondary resources. The paper gives a brief review of the hydrometallurgical processes developed to recover tungsten from low grade concentrates. The R and D work carried out on purification and recovery of tungsten as tungstic oxide/ammonium paratungstate (APT) from a number of off-grade products such as table concentrate (WO3 = 66%, SiO2 = 2.2%, S = 1.8%), middlings (18-20% WO3, and 28-30% S) and jig concentrate (4.6% WO3) are discussed in this paper. It has been found that more than 75% of silica and 90% of sulphur could be removed from the table concentrate by curing with hydrofluoric acid and subsequent roasting of the desilicated product at 650 degrees C. In the case of middlings, it was possible to recover over 90% of tungsten as tungstic oxide by an oxidative roast followed by pressure leaching with soda. A detailed study on the low grade jig concentrate to recover tungsten as APT, showed that over 90% extraction was possible by adopting the pressure leaching-solvent extraction route. Effect of parameters such as soda concentration, time, temperature and pressure during leaching; as well as extraction and stripping behaviour of tungsten from leach solution at different pH and aqueous to organic ratio during solvent extraction with Alamine-336, were studied and a flow-sheet was developed for processing of jig concentrate analysing 4.6% WO3.

Item Type:Article
Official URL/DOI:http://www.nmlindia.org
Uncontrolled Keywords:low grade concentrate; pressure leaching; purification of concentrate and leach solution; solvent extraction; APT; crystallization
Divisions:Metal Extraction and Forming
ID Code:1045
Deposited By:Sahu A K
Deposited On:15 Jun 2010 12:31
Last Modified:08 Feb 2012 12:13
Related URLs:

Repository Staff Only: item control page