Direct extracting lead sulfide and antimony trisulfide via a vacuum distillation method

Jamesonite is a significant complex mineral containing antimony, lead, iron and other elements. At present, the traditional smelting method has high sulfur dioxide pollution and low metal recovery. This paper puts forward a method of treating jamesonite by vacuum distillation. The decomposition behavior of jamesonite (Pb4FeSb6S14) in argon and 10 Pa, the volatilization of pure sulfides and the vacuum distillation behavior of jamesonite under 10 Pa were also studied. The separation of lead and antimony via two methods, namely multi-step condensation and one-step multi-stage condensation was developed. The results show that the initial decomposition temperature of jamesonite is higher than 600 °C in argon and about 500 °C at 10 Pa. The final decomposition products are antimony trisulfide, lead sulfide and ferrous sulfide. The decomposition temperature can be effectively reduced under negative pressure. Pure antimony sulfide volatilizes violently at 630 °C-760 °C, and pure lead sulfide sublimates violently at 887–1098 °C, respectively. The purity of antimony sulfide and lead sulfide obtained by multi-step condensation experiment is 99.12% and 98.74%, respectively. The purity of antimony sulfide and lead sulfide obtained by one-step multi-stage condensation is 98.12% and 89.26%, respectively. Zinc sulfide is also enriched by a multi-stage condensation, with a purity of 99.40%. This method can achieve the separation of Sb2S3 and PbS directly from jamesonite, significantly reduce the production cost compared to the traditional process.