Extracting antimony trisulfide from complex lead-antimony sulfide ore by two-step vacuum distillation

In this work, a two-step vacuum metallurgy method was proposed to produce Sb2S3 from complex lead-antimony sulfide ore. As revealed from the experimental results, jamesonite (Pb4FeSb6S14) is overall decomposed into PbS, Sb2S3 and FeS at 750 degrees C. The first step vacuum distillation was performed at 650 degrees C for 80 min, by which the purity of Sb2S3 collected was 99.07 wt%. The second step vacuum distillation was to carry out the residue after the first-step distillation at 800 degrees C for 40 min, by which the purity of Sb2S3 obtained after fractional condensation was 99.41 wt%. Then the total direct recovery of Sb in the two-step vacuum metallurgy method was 95.84%. The proposed method could be used to effectively exploit antimony resources from the source of complex lead antimony sulfide ore, produce high-purity Sb2S3 and achieve clean smelting as compared with conventional technology.