Union Miniere process

Miscellaneous. Where a copper refinery is adjacent to a lead (qv) plant it is feasible to recover the selenium in slimes by smelting them in conjunction with lead-bearing materials. Utilizing the lower temperatures needed to melt lead, the selenium is volatilized from a lead bath or cupel blown with air. The selenium is recovered from flue dust and fume by scmbbing. This is the process used by Union Miniere at its Hoboken plant in Belgium. 

Assessing the end point of the distillation process was initially difficult with much variability in the level of zinc in the product bullion. Ultimately a technique fiom Union Miniere, where the Jfinal temperature of the distilled zinc, furnace vacuum and the zinc assay from the previous charge are used to predict the endpoint of the next charge, was adopted as standard procedure once the new batch refinery was commissioned. This was found to reliably predict the endpoint of the distillation phase. 

A. Caufriez, M. Dubois and E. Lejay, Zinc Cellhouse, Concept and Practice at Union Miniere , Zinc and Lead Processing. J. E. Dutrizac, J. A. Gonzalez, G. L. Bolton and P. Hancock, Eds., The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, Montreal, Canada, 1998,337-352. 

The high performance of the process was proven in the pilot plant campaigns, illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. Performance was demonstrated by a high zinc recovery, low power consumption, and the high quality of the SHG Zn produced. Analyses of zinc plates produced in the Skorpion pilot plant on May 9,1998 and certified by Union Miniere are ... 

GOETHITE FROM RESIDUE TO SECONDARY BUILDING MATERIAL-UNION MINIERE S GRAVELIET PROCESS... 

Overall, the Graveliet project was helpful as it allowed Union Miniere to investigate, on a suffieiently large scale, the possibilities of the Graveliet process. It can be concluded that, to a large extent, the assumptions about the process and the product that were formulated at the beginning of the project have been confirmed. 

Torfs, K.J. Vliegen, J. (1996) The Union Miniere goethite process plant practice and future prospects. Iron Control Disposal. In Dutrizac, J.E., Harris, G.B. (eds.) Proc. Int. Symp. Iron Control HydrometalL, 2nd ed., pp. 135-146. Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 

By 1938 Union Minieres price cutting had Eldorado reelii. The Canadians only hope was to make a deal with the Belgians. They put out feelers, and eventually the two companies reached an understanding which divided the world market into separate, exclusive sales territories. But just as radium prices b an to climb back to their former, profitable levels, the outbreak of the Second 5brld War dismpted the market. Without access to customers abroad, Eldorado s radium business was not viable. The company closed its mine in 1940, keeping its refinery in operation for the time being to process stockpiled ore. 

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