Processing Sulphide Based Ores

[SaltwaterServr]

I work for a automated car wash manufacturer that also sells chemicals, we have hundreds of 5, 15, 30 and 55 gal plastic empty drums at our warehouse, most carwash companies do. Most are also willing to give them to whoever wants them, I know ours does. Might be worth it to check with any of these companies near you and ask if you can take a few I'm thinking they would let you no problem.

Do ya'll get the ones that the entire top screws off or just has the single port?

 

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[Asmbandits]

The 30 and 55 gallon have two bung holes in top, everything else just one

 

[gold tramp]

One of the ones I am chasing. As soon as I can get my phone to upload to my computer, I'll get some more up. Upgraded from a Galaxy SIII to a Note 5 and it is giving me fits.

could you get some stuff with a fresh break we can see ?
Gt.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Best one I have access to right now.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Best one I have access to right now.

Good old chalcopyrite making an appearance.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Exactly why I like to keep all black sands if possible! I separate the magnetite from the hemitite and sell the magnetite to a local blacksmith who makes his own steel for knives. ect. I also keep material separate from each state, so the blacksmith can say this steel was mined in this state or another as a selling point.

I went out to my claims yesterday. Got fried when I realized my sunscreen was in my prospecting pack that was stolen a few weeks ago.

The wash my claims sit on got a pretty good rain on Thursday I think. The black sand looks like this for miles.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

could you get some stuff with a fresh break we can see ?
Gt.

Some pieces from around two of my claims.

I've got quite a bit of ore with copper around my claims to the north and west that also show pyrite and chalcopyrite. There's also arsenopyrite to the extreme northeast corner of my claim, about 30' inside of the boundary line.

 

[raviraj]

thanks for the information.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Been awhile since I updated this one and I found something that requires further research as I have time.

I ran across some technical papers on coal desulfurization using perchloroethylene that should work for our process. So the perchloroethylene is heated to 250 degrees and put through the ore where it will selectively dissolve the sulfur even if it is in combination with other metals. As the perchloroethylene cools, the sulfur drops out as an almost pure elemental sulfur cake and the perchloroethylene can be reused over and over again.

Now everyone asks why bother? Elemental sulfur has value and if it is recovered instead of lost, it becomes a revenue stream and also keeps it from being released as SO2 so the ecofreaks have nothing cry about.

More on this as I research it further.

 

[Mad Machinist]

This will work for us. It will be a little expensive to set up as all components will have to be stainless steel. Oy does appear that pyrite was used as a catalyst to get the reaction going in some coals.

However, perchloroethylene is used in the CESL Process which is the pressure oxidation process used in autoclave. So the sulfides are processed as normal to produce a concentrate which can then be "leached" in a tank to remove the sulfur leaving the metal oxides behind to be processed as one chooses.

The hardest part about this is the fact that the perchloroethylene needs to be heated to 250 degrees to be effective. As I alluded to in another post, an Air Force Gun oil burner can be easily modified to use waste oil efficiently.

I think we have a winner here.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Don't need to convert a Beckett AFG. This will work better and is far cheaper.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Baby-Godzi...402036254043?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

 

[Clay Diggins]

Don't know what the vapor pressure is but perc dry cleaning fluid is very volatile. Seems at 250 degrees you are going to need a really large and expensive high pressure containment vessel to avoid gas releases. When you get in that situation I imagine the sulfur is going to be a big problem when it clogs and degrades the pressure valves.

Sounds like a real challenge to design a working system but it's a pretty cheap, non flammable and abundantly available chemical.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

Heavy Pans

 

[Mad Machinist]

Don't know what the vapor pressure is but perc dry cleaning fluid is very volatile. Seems at 250 degrees you are going to need a really large and expensive high pressure containment vessel to avoid gas releases. When you get in that situation I imagine the sulfur is going to be a big problem when it clogs and degrades the pressure valves.

Sounds like a real challenge to design a working system but it's a pretty cheap, non flammable and abundantly available chemical.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

Heavy Pans

760 mmHg at 250 degrees Fahrenheit which equals 14.69 psi. I have to remember sometimes that although I can bounce back and forth between imperial and metric systems, not everyone can.

Perchloroethylene boils at 250 degrees Fahrenheit but with pressure on it the boiling point goes up like most other liquids.

Further research is definitely warranted.

 

[Clay Diggins]

760 mmHg at 250 degrees Fahrenheit which equals 14.69 psi. I have to remember sometimes that although I can bounce back and forth between imperial and metric systems, not everyone can.

Perchloroethylene boils at 250 degrees Fahrenheit but with pressure on it the boiling point goes up like most other liquids.

Further research is definitely warranted.

I too figure about 15 pounds of pressure at 250 degrees in a closed system. Here's a quick online calculator.

Enthalpy is about 39.72 for Perchloroethylene.

If you can manage to keep water out of the system erosion of the stainless due to sulfur acidification would be minimal but you would still have real problems with the electric potential of sulfur deposition on the steel at low pressure transition points. A high enough added salt concentration could help with the sulfur deposition problem but the salt might produce it's own problems in a high pressure reaction. Something to look into.

All that pales in comparison to the erosion potential of the high chlorine availability from the perc. Those little chlorine atoms do a great job of breaking down the sulfide/metal bonds but they do an even better job of moving the chrome from the stainless into solution. You might have to consider a non metallic pressure vessel to pull this off. Fiberglas would probably work with a water jacket for heating. Resin Fiberglas can handle the chlorine, pressure and temps involved and is somewhat less expensive and lower maintenance than stainless.

All of that might be worth pursuing. Inexpensive and simple is good. The devil is in the details. Exogenous events cold change the calculations pretty quickly. Since the biggest consumers of perc are dry cleaners you would probably want to watch for them to protect the supply from over regulation and higher purchase and handling expenses for example. Inorganic hydrocarbons are falling out of favor with a poorly educated public. I ran into a similar problem with potassium ferricyanide several years ago. It's a common inexpensive fertilizer but it really sounds like it could be bad so it was more tightly regulated - you can still get the pure stuff but the cost went from very affordable in volume to unobtainum levels.


Heavy Pans

 

[Mad Machinist]

Clay,

Thanks for the insight into the stainless erosion. Didn't think about that. I'll do some digging into the fiberglass tank idea. Any way we could make this cheaper would be good.

 

[Mad Machinist]

For the price of a fiberglass tank for this, it is coming damn close to the price of having one made from titanium.

I carried a R stamp for pressure vessels for years so TIG welding one up wouldn't be a problem at this minimal pressure.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Clay,

Need your thoughts on an idea.

What if we took a standard steel tank, pipe, whatever, andnlined it with several layers of epoxy resin based fiberglass for acid resistance? Fiberglass is pretty easy to work and this would have the benefit of both being cheap and easily built and being repaired by miners.

 

[BlasterJ]

One other thing to consider (also from having done some welding) is that most of those Chlorinated solvents break down into Phosgene if you overheat them, and they are also miscible in water, so you probably need a spill containment barrier to make the state water quality people happy,

 

[Mad Machinist]

So here's my thoughts on the reactor that will take most of the abuse. A 420 gallon propane tank is 3' in diameter and 4 feet tall. A new tank is only $625 and rated for far more pressure than we would be dealing with here. Don't know about anyone else, but my life is worth more than that.

A couple of 36" pipe flanges rated for 150 psi get thrown in. Yes, there is welding involved.

Cut the tank in half, weld the flanges on, amd.let cool. Line the inside of both halves with 5 or 6 layers of acid resistant epoxy fiberglass. Let cure and bolt the halves together.

I left a few simple details out like the inlet and outlet but what say you all?

 

[Clay Diggins]

Clay,

Need your thoughts on an idea.

What if we took a standard steel tank, pipe, whatever, andnlined it with several layers of epoxy resin based fiberglass for acid resistance? Fiberglass is pretty easy to work and this would have the benefit of both being cheap and easily built and being repaired by miners.

I would think it would self destruct eventually. Fiberglass has an expansion coefficient of about 35 and steel is down around 10. Eventually the fiberglass would lose physical contact with the steel.

I think you are on the right track. Many commercial processes use resin lined steel vessels and tanks. The right resin would be more flexible and resistant than resin with glass fiber. Powder coating technology has come a long way. There are also a lot of advances of remote testing of these linings. Manufacturing defects are exposed with electrical resistance testing and weak or eroding linings can be tested with advanced surface temperature testing while the process is running.

With all methods it would seem the weak points are where there are big pressure changes in a relatively small area and the physical interfaces between individual components of the finished system.

I imagine if you could define which resin is appropriate and design the physical components with the structural limitations in mind the final question would be is it cost effective?

Invariably, as with any new process, design changes and modifications become the biggest expense.

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