A METHOD FOR THE CONTINUOUS ELECTROWINNING OF PURE TITANIUM METAL FROM TITANIUM SLAG, ILMENITE AND OTHER SEMICONDUCTIVE TITANIUM OXIDE COMPOUNDS

摘要

This invention relates to a method for the continuous electrowinning of puretitanium metal from titanium slag and other electrically semiconductivetitaniummixed oxides particularly ilmenite, other natural titanium ores or synthetictitaniumoxide compounds. In addition, the method relates to the preparation ofsemiconductive electrodes made of these titanium oxide compounds. The methodinvolves crushing and grinding a mass of crude titanium slag, separatingmagnetically the major impurities in the ground slag, melting the mass ofpurifiedtitanium slag, casting the molten purified titanium slag into rectangularslabs orcylindrical rods forming a dense, solid, and homogeneous conductive material,using the dense solidified shapes of titanium slag as electrodes into acontinuouselectrolytic process conducted into a molten salt electrolyte at elevatedtemperatures. Extracting by direct current electrolysis the pure titaniummetal fromthe dense cast titanium slag electrodes.