Iron Removal Process for High-Purity Silica Sands Production by

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1999, 38, 4443-4448

4443

Iron Removal Process for High-Purity Silica Sands Production by Oxalic Acid Leaching F. Veglio` ,*,† B. Passariello,‡ and C. Abbruzzese‡ Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica e di Processo, Universita’ degli Studi di Genova, via Opera Pia 15, 16145 Genova (Albaro), Italy, and Istituto per il Trattamento dei Minerali (C.N.R.), via Bolognola 7, 00138 Roma, Italy

In this article, a leaching study, carried out on a quartz sample to obtain high-purity silica sands, has been presented. A leaching process by using oxalic acid to remove low iron content from the ore under study and to obtain a material suitable for fiber optic production has been evaluated. A characterization study has been carried out to establish the location of the iron impurities on the ore: 77 g/t was the maximum iron contamination, whereas, a final iron content