<Original Papers>On the Metallurgy of Beryllium

In order to extract Be, the author investigated the fluorization and the sulphatization of Beryl. The composition of beryl used was 10.83% Beo, 14.87% Al_2O_3 and 64.83% SiO_2. The beryl powder and Na_2SiF_6 were mixed in the proportion of 1 : 4 and heated at 700℃ for 30 minutes. The fluorized product was leached with hot water. The extraction of Be was about 90%. The product was vitreous and the leaching was difficult, when the temperature was raised above 700℃ or the excess of Na_2SiF_6 was added. The mechanism of fluorization was expressed by the following equations, [chemical formula] The reaction of equation (1) was suitable at 650-700℃, to avoid thermal decomposition of Na_2SiF_6. Sulphatization of Beryl was possible, if the sample was heated at 1500℃ and quenched in water. The extraction of Be from this product was about 57% at 200℃ after 7-hour sulphatization. The extraction increased with the sulphatization temperature. When the sample was fused with CaO at 1600℃ and quenched in water, the extraction of Be was about 82% by treating with 70% H_2SO_4 at 300℃ for 1 hour. The composition of quenched product was 45.13% SiO_2,14.96% Al_2O_3,24.51% CaO and 7.79% BeO and the product was amorphous