Process for the recovery of aluminum from aluminum-aluminum carbide mixtures

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR RECOVERING ALUMINUM FROM A MIXTURE COMPRISING ALUMINUM AND ALUMINUM CARBRIDE, COMPRISING THE STEPS OF PREPARING A MOLTEN FLUX CAPABLE OF FORMING A SLURRY OF SAID FLUX AND ALUMINUM CARBIDE IN SAID MIXTURE AND WHEREIN THE FLUX IS AT LEAST ONE OF THE COMPOUNDS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF ALKALI METAL HALIDES AND ALKALINE EARTH METAL HALIDES, PROGRESSIVELY ADDING TO SAID FLUX AN AMOUNT BY WEIGHT OF A MIXTURE OF ALUMINUM AND ALUMINUM CARBIDE SUCH THAT THE ALUMINUM CARBIDE CONTENT OF SAID MIXTURE IS APPROXIMATELY EQUAL TO THE AMOUNT BY WEIGHT OF SAID FLUX BUT WHERE IN THE AMOUNT OF ALUMINUM PLUS ALUMINUM CARBIDE IS GREATER THAN THE AMOUNT BY WEIGHT OF THE FLUX, AND AGITATING THE COMBINATION OF SAID MIXTURE AND SAID FLUX WHEREBY SUBSTANTIALLY ALL THE ALUMINUM IS SEPARATED OUT.