Extracting antimony trisulfide from complex lead-antimony sulfide ore by two-step vacuum distillation

Abstract

In this work, a two-step vacuum metallurgy method was proposed to produce Sb₂S₃ from complex lead-antimony sulfide ore. As revealed from the experimental results, jamesonite (Pb₄FeSb₆S₁₄) is overall decomposed into PbS, Sb₂S₃ and FeS at 750 °C. The first step vacuum distillation was performed at 650 °C for 80 min, by which the purity of Sb₂S₃ collected was 99.07 wt%. The second step vacuum distillation was to carry out the residue after the first-step distillation at 800 ° C for 40 min, by which the purity of Sb₂S₃ obtained after fractional condensation was 99.41 wt%. Then the total direct recovery of Sb in the two-step vacuum metallurgy method was 95.84%. The proposed method could be used to effectively exploit antimony resources from the source of complex lead antimony sulfide ore, produce high-purity Sb₂S₃ and achieve clean smelting as compared with conventional technology.

Keywords

vacuum distillation / lead-antimony sulfide ore / antimony trisulfide / direct recovery rate

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