Hydrometallurgy Essay

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Hydrometallurgy to Analyze a Chromite Sample 10/8/09 Introduction: Chromium is very important for industries in the present day. Chromium is essential in hardening steel, manufacturing stainless steel, and forming many useful alloys. Chromium is used to plate metals, pigments, leather processing, catalysts, surface treatments, and refractories. Chromium is used to prevent corrosion. The only ore that contains chromium is the mineral chromite, which is iron magnesium chromium oxide. Chromite has a high melting point and a stable crystalline structure. The purpose of this experiment is to determine the chemical content of an unknown metal ore sample to confirm that the unknown sample is mineral chromite. The content of the unknown sample will be determined by the use of a type of extractive metallurgy that uses the chemistry of an aqueous solution to remove metals from salts, minerals, and ores. This type of extractive metallurgy is called hydrometallurgy. First, the metal must be extracted by dissolving the metal in a solvent, and then the metal is removed from the solution. The waste materials are thrown out. Leeching, separating the waste and purifying the solution attained by leeching, and precipitating either the metal or a pure compound derived from the leech solution are necessary for this process of hydrometallurgy. Through these processes and skills, the chemical composition of the unknown sample can be determined. If the unknown sample contains magnesium, iron, and chromium then the sample is chromite. If the sample does not contain all of these metals, then it is not chromite. Experimental: 1) Each person should be wearing safety glasses, pants, shoes, and a shirt. 2) Mineral chromite contains magnesium, iron, and chromium. Tests will be done to determine if these are in the sample. 3) Magnesium does not absorb nor emit

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