Extraction of rutile

Patent Pending The invention relates to production of lutile, which has high added value as refining raw material for metallic titanium, white pigment, photocatalyst, or functional coating material, with remarkably reduced energy and resource consumption as compared with that of prior art and though simplified steps. The invention provides a method for the extraction of rutile which comprises oxidizing ilmenite with air to convert it into two phases, namely, rutile phase and pseudobrookite phase, dissolving only the pseudobrookite phase in dilute sulfuric acid or dilute phosphoric acid while recovering the lutile phase as insoluble matter, and subjecting the resulting solution to reduction of iron ions and then hydrolysis to thus recover residual rutile through titanic acid (TiO(OH)2).