PROCEDE D'EXTRACTION ET DE PURIFICATION DU GERMANIUM

摘要

The specification discloses the recovery of the germanium contained in very small proportions in zinc ores, the germanium being recovered in the form of one of its compounds; and to the purification of the thus recovered germanium compound until a high purity useful product is obtained. The process according to the invention leads to germanium oxide (GeO2), which can then be reduced to metallic germanium by any known process. Thus in one aspect there is provided a process which comprises successively the following steps:a) removing zinc from the tails of distillation columns in a plant for the refining of zinc from its ores;b) distillation under non-oxidizing conditions of the zinc removed in step (a);c) recovery of the distillation residue obtained from step (b);d) leaching the distillation residue with chlorine water to form germanium tetrachloride;e) recovery of the germanium tetrachloride;f) hydrolysis of the germanium tetrachloride into germanium oxide; andg) optional reduction of the germanium oxide into metallic germanium.