ZIRCONIUM-BEARING RAW MATERIAL PROCESSING METHOD Russian patent published in 2010 - IPC C22B34/14 C01G25/02 

FIELD: metallurgy.

SUBSTANCE: invention refers to processing of zirconium-bearing natural raw material, namely zirconium concentrate, and can be used for obtaining microdispersed high-purity zirconium dioxide. Processing method involves fluoridisation of zirconium-bearing raw material, heat treatment of fluoridised product so that zirconium tetrafluoride is obtained, and its further pyrohydrolysis. Fluoridisation is performed by treatment of zirconium-bearing raw material with 10-20% solution of hydrofluoric acid with conversion of zirconium compounds to the solution, separation of solution from the formed settlement, addition of ammonium fluoride to the obtained solution with further extraction of deposited fluoridisation product. Heat treatment of the extracted fluoridisation product so that zirconium tetrafluoride is obtained is performed by thermal decomposition at 600-650°C with separation of ammonium fluoride and removal of ammonium hexafluorosilicate by distillation. Pyrohydrolysis of zirconium tetrafluoride is performed in gas phase.

EFFECT: decreasing the number of stages and reducing time consumption, as well as increasing the process efficiency during processing of raw material with high silicon dioxide content.

1 dwg, 2 ex