Process for the recovery of certain constituents of waste slag from reverberatory refining of copper pyritic-type ores

Claim 1

A WET PROCESS FOR THE SEPARATION, ISOLATION AND RECOVERY OF THE ACID-SOLUBLE METALLIC AND NON-METALLIC VALVES IN WASTE SLAG RESULTING FROM THE REVERBERATORY REFINING OF COPPER PURITIC TYPE ORES WHICH COMPRISES: CRUSHING THE SLAG; ADDING A WARM SOLUTION OF AT LEAST ONE MINERAL ACID SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF HCL AND H2SO4 TO SAID CRUSHED SLAG, SAID SOLUTION HAVING A NORMALITY OF BETWEEN 3.0 AND 4.5 AT THE TIME IT IS ADDED TO THE SLAG; MIXING THE SLAG AND ACID FOR AT LEAST ABOUT 8 MINUTES UNDER CONDITIONS SUCH THAT THE TWO ARE NOT PERMITTED TO REACH A TEMPERATURE EXCEEDING 175*F., WHEREBY THE FORMATION OF SILICA GEL IS AVOIDED; SEPARATING THE SOLID INSOLUBLE RESIDUE FROM TH SOLUTION OF SILICIC ACID AND THE ACID SALTS OF THE ACID SOLUBLE IRON, ALUMINUM, COPPER, ZINC AND CALCIUM ORIGINALLY PRESENT IN SAID SLAG; RECOVERING THE IRON, COPPER, CALCIUM, SILICON, ZINC AND ALUMINUM VALUES FROM SAID SOLUTION, AFTER ADDING A HYDROXIDE TO SAID SOLUTION TO RAISE THE PH OF SAID SOLUTION TO AT LEAST ABOUT 2.8 AND NOT MORE THAN ABOUT 6.5.