Abstract: A process for recovering silver from chloride solutions comprising contacting the solution with amalgams of various metals from Groups 2b, 4a, 5a, or 8b of the periodic table or copper to replace the metal with silver and recovering silver from the formed silver amalgam. The process provides an improvement in the process for recovering copper from its ores in which the copper in the ore is solubilized as cuprous copper in a leach liquor and the copper recovered from the leach liquor as cuprous chloride by crystallization, the improvement being the removal of silver from the leach liquor prior to crystallization by use of the amalgam to produce substantially silver-free cuprous chloride crystals.

Abstract: A method for the separation and recovery of elemental sulfur from mixtures of foreign material and sulfur which comprises washing the foreign material and sulfur mixture to remove impurities which are deleterious to coalescence of the sulfur particles followed by adding as a cleansing and coalescence agent an alkali metal hydroxide or carbonate, heating the mixture to a temperature above the melting point of sulfur for one hour to coalesce the sulfur particles, and separating the coalesced sulfur from the foreign material.