Karyaev V.I., Komkov A.A., Kuznetsov A.V., Plotnikov I.P. Recovery of Copper and Zinc from Copper Smelting Slags During Reducing-Sulfidizing Treatment

DOI: 10.18503/1995-2732-2020-18-2-4-12

Abstract

The paper presents the laboratory studies concerned with the bubbling reducing-sulphidizing depletion of copper smelting slags containing zinc. The slag samples used in the present studies were taken at the outlet of the slag electric settling tank of the Vanyukov furnace (VF); the samples contained about 3.4% zinc by mass. The main objective of the research was to establish the capabilities and the degree of the copper and zinc recovery from VF slag into individual products. The paper describes the procedure of the performed experiments. The outstanding feature of the procedure was a multi-stage batch feeding of the sulfide collector phase, applying a run-of-mine copper concentrate with a copper content of about 19%. Such approach allows for distributing a load of sulfidizing agent for the entire slag processing time and maintaining a matte suspension structure in slag close to the continuous feeding conditions. The paper discusses the chemical composition of the final products and the distribution of copper and zinc. The consumption of the reducing and sulphidizing agents varied in the conducted experimental studies. It was shown that the most significant influence on copper recovery into matte was exerted by the consumption of the sulfidizing agent; when a consumption of the sulphidizing agent was about 7–10% of the depleted slag weight, a residual copper content was below 0.4%. At the same time, the consumption of the reducing agent mainly influences the zinc recovery from slag: by adding graphite in the amount of 3–4% of the weight of depleted slag, we decrease the residual zinc content to 0.1% or lower. The conducted laboratory studies on the depletion with reducing and sulphidizing agents show a high recovery degree of both target and impurity elements from the depleted slag samples that indicates the potential efficiency of the considered slag depletion method.

Keywords

Slag depletion, sulphidizing agent, reducing agent, sulphurization, bubbling, copper recovery, zinc recovery, copper smelting slags.

For citation

Karyaev V.I., Komkov A.A., Kuznetsov A.V., Plotnikov I.P. Recovery of Copper and Zinc from Copper Smelting Slags During Reducing-Sulfidizing Treatment. Vestnik Magnitogorskogo Gosudarstvennogo Tekhnicheskogo Universiteta im. G.I. Nosova [Vestnik of Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University]. 2020, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 4–12. https://doi.org/10.18503/1995-2732-2020-18-2-4-12

Vladimir I. Karyaev – Postgraduate student, NUST MISIS, Moscow, Russia. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alexey A. Komkov – PhD (Eng.), Associate Professor, NUST MISIS, Moscow, Russia. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alexander V. Kuznetsov – Director for Engineering NORD Engineering Company, Moscow, Russia. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ilya P. Plotnikov – Postgraduate student, NUST MISIS, Moscow, Russia. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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