Recovery of Germanium and Gallium from Coal Fly Ash and Flue Dust

This paper deals with the preliminary work done on the recovery of germanium from Indian coals and their wastes, namely flue dusts and fly ashes. Samples of coal, flue dusts and fly ashes were collected from different parts of the country and were examined spectrographically for their germanium and gallium contents. The presence of gallium was found to be more frequent. Sieve analysis of the samples containing germanium was performed in order to find out the possibility of beneficiating the samples for germanium and gallium. An all-glass set -up, based on the method followed in England was designed and fabricated.