The recovery of gallium from a Virginia feldspar ore
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Date
1940
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Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute
Abstract
A method of extracting gallium from a Virginia feldspar has been determined.
The steps in this method are:
- Grinding of the ore to a very small particle size (200 mesh)
- Extraction of gallium by “leaching” the ore with sodium hydroxide
- Acidification of the sodium hydroxide solution with hydrochloric acid and subsequent extraction of the acid solution with ether to separate the gallium from aluminum, vanadium, and titatium, and other metals
- Removal of iron by precipitation of ferrous sulphide with hydrogen sulphide
- Precipitation of gallium by cupferron
- Ignition of the cupferron precipitate to gallium oxide