HAUER — PREPARATION OF LITHIA. 1 1 



associated with unaltered galena, some sulphate of lead, and a small 

 quantity of sulphur in a vein near Musen, in the Siegen mining- 

 district, and is known among the miners by the name of " burning- 

 galena/' [Count M.] 



On^the Preparation o/Lithja. By Chev. K. von Hauer. 



[Proceed. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, November 13, 1855.] 



The author in this communication explained his new method of ob- 

 taining lithia in large quantities and at a' comparatively low price. 

 The metallic base of the lithion-alkali was discovered in 1817 by M. 

 Arfvedson, in the laboratory of the celebrated Berzelius. As far as 

 we at present know it occurs only in mineral substances, especially 

 in petalite, lithion-spodumen, amblygonite, triphyline, apyrite, tour- 

 maline of Utoen, and lepidolite. All of these contain rather con- 

 siderable quantities of lithia, but occur rarely, except lepidolite, 

 which, although proportionally poorest in lithia, is met with in great 

 quantities at some localities. The Austrian Empire, possessing in 

 some places great stores of minerals scarce elsewhere, — such as tel- 

 lurium, in Transylvania, uranium, in Joachimsthal, &c. — has also a 

 considerable mass of lepidolite in Mount Hradisko near Rozna in 

 Moravia, where lithia-mica, in association with granite-veins, is im- 

 bedded in gneiss. 



M. Foetterle, having brought with him last summer a quantity of 

 this mica, afforded the laboratory of the Geol. Institute an oppor- 

 tunity for experimenting on the production of lithia. The methods 

 hitherto known for extracting this substance requiring great expense 

 of money and time, it ranks amongst the rarest and most costly of 

 chemical preparations. 



M. K. von Hauer tried the use of sulphate of lime, a substance 

 obtainable at a very low price. Lepidolite, finely pulverized, is mixed 

 with an equal weight of powdered gypsum, packed into hessian cru- 

 cibles, and submitted to a red heat for some hours. The firmly 

 agglutinated mass is comminuted after cooling, and thrown into hot 

 water, for the purpose of dissolving the sulphates of potash, lithia, 

 and manganese produced by the mutual action of the lepidolite and 

 gypsum. The solution, concentrated as much as possible by evapo- 

 ration, deposits partly its sulphate of potash. Manganese and a 

 small residue of gypsum are precipitated by sulphuretted ammonia 

 and oxalate of ammonia. The remaining solutii)n, having been filtered, 

 contains only sulphates of potash and lithia, and is treated with 

 soda, for the purpose of precipitating the lithia in the form of an 

 insoluble carbonate. The precipitate so obtained, when filtered and 

 washed, contains only an insignificant portion of carbonate of soda. 

 It may be reduced to a state of chemical purity by solution with 

 hydrochloric acid, and precipitation by carbonate of ammonia. 



One hundred parts of Rozna lepidolite, thus treated, give three 

 parts of carbonate of lithia, answering to 1 * 1 part of the pure alkali ; 



