An investigation on antimony production by using niederschlag process

Niederschlag process is commonly used to produce metallic antimony. The process is a metallothermic process which is conducted in one step for metallic antimony production. Using this method Sb₂S₃ is mixed with coal and metallic iron and subjected to reduction. During heating, antimony sulfide is decomposed and sulphur combines with iron to form the matte phase. Metallic antimony is collected at the bottom of the crucible. In this study, evaluation of Sb₂S₃ concentrate, extracted and obtained from West Anatolian Region of Turkey was investigated by using Niederschlag process. The reductant stoichiometry, reduction temperature and duration were carried out in the experiments. Chemical analysis methods by using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and X-ray diffraction spectrometry (XRD) techniques were used for the characterization of the concentrate, metallic nuggets and matte phases.