Thermal treatment of complex sulfide ores in N 2 and H 2 Atmospheres: A new approach for the extraction of their valuabl
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INTRODUCTION
THE exploitation of many complex sulfide ores CSOs) is not economically feasible using conventional technologies because of their low liberation size. In the future, CSO will probably become a more important source of base metals as existing easy-to-process ores are exhausted. During the last decade, several international symposia concerning the mineral processing and metal extraction of CSO have been held to review existing and emerging technologies. II-71 Overviews of existing and emerging technologies for the pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical treatments of CSO are summarized by Themelis and Kellogg, LSj Mackey and Tarassoff, t91 and Wesely. II~ Examples of these new technologies can be found in References 11 through 16. Basic thermodynamic, mineralogical, and biohydrometallurgical studies of CSO have been conducted by numerous authors. I17 261 A major problem of CSO processing is the finely disseminated mineralization of minerals such as chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena in a pyrite matrix with average liberation sizes of about 30/zm. It may be noted that some of these minerals are amorphous. The mineral processing of such materials requires grinding and sequential flotation. A complex reagent-addition scheme is necessary, recovery rates of the desired metals are low, and unit operation costs are high. On the other hand, I. GABALLAH, Senior Researcher, is with the Laboratory of Environment and Mineralurgy, National Center of Scientific Research, Paris 75007, France. E. ALLAIN, Researcher, is with Mineral Processing and Environmental Engineering, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, Vandeeuvre Cedex 54501, France. M.-CH. MEYER-JOLY, formerly Researcher with Mineral Processing and Environmental Engineering, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, is with the Laboratory of Environment and Mineralurgy, National Center of Scientific Research, Paris 75007, France. K. MALAU, formerly Researcher with Mineral Processing and Environmental Engineering, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, is Senior Researcher with Mineral Technology Development Center, Bandung, Indonesia. Manuscript submitted September 25, 1991. METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B
bulk flotation may produce a concentrate with reasonable recovery rates. Unfortunately, such bulk concentrates are rarely suitable for subsequent metallurgical operations. The production of sulfur dioxide is one of the key problems associated with the processing of CSO. Sulfur dioxide emissions pose an environmental threat. Conversion of the SO2 to H2SO4 is marginal because of the transportation cost and the state of the sulfuric acid market. On the other hand, the recovery of sulfur as elemental sulfur is viewed as an economic opportunity, especially as it is safe and inexpensive to transport. Sulfur dioxide emissions can be reduced to less than 20 pct of the sulfur input by using the existing and emerging technologies at a relatively high cost, which decreases the competitiveness of existing plants. I271 Other authors sug
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