Iron redox-equilibria and sulphide capacity of PGM melter-type slags

Abstract

New measurements have been made on the ferric to ferrous ratio as well as the sulphide capacity for platinum group metals (PGM) melter-type slags. In South Africa, these slags are produced from the smelting of low-grade copper–nickel sulphide ores, Nell [Nell, J., 2004. Melting of platinum group metal concentrates in South Africa. The South African institute of Mining and Metallurgy 104 (7), 423–428]. The typical mass compositions are 5–10% Al 2O 3, 2–15% CaO, 5–30% FeO x , 15–25% MgO and 40–60% SiO 2 with a molar basicity defined as (CaO + MgO)/SiO 2 of 0.6–1. The industrial furnaces operate at temperatures ranging from 1450 to 1600 °C under fairly reducing conditions (typically a pO 2 close to 10 −8 atm at 1500 °C). The gas–slag equilibrium was studied by subjecting a synthetic slag to controlled atmospheres in a vertical tube-furnace using Ar–CO–CO 2 (–SO 2) gas mixtures. The ratio of ferric to ferrous was determined at 1450 °C for oxygen activities, defined as pCO 2/ pCO, ranging from 0.11 to 1.75 by analysing the quenched slags using the standard titration and XRF techniques. The measured Fe 3+/Fe 2+ ratio increased from 0.029 to 0.110 with the increasing oxygen activity. Slight non-ideal iron redox behaviour was observed, as has been reported for low alumina and low iron-containing slags. The present results are in good agreement with the trends found in the literature for similar multi-component slag systems (mostly iron bath smelting slags). Sulphide capacity was measured at partial pressures of oxygen and sulphur of approximately 10 −9 and 10 −3 atm respectively, with total-iron contents of 8.2 and 15.6 wt%, and temperature ranging from 1450 to 1525 °C. The present sulphide capacity data ranged from 10 −4.43 to 10 −3.71. The expected increase in sulphide capacity with increasing temperature was observed, and at a given temperature, the sulphide capacity increased with an increase in iron oxide content.