DOI: 10.18503/1995-2732-2026-24-2-56-66
Abstract
Problem Statement (Relevance). The Ural region has been the metallurgical center of Russia for approxi-mately 300 years, and over this long period, a large amount of slag, including copper, has accumulated there. Studying their material composition is a relevant issue, as their mineral composition must be assessed before disposal. Many slags are potential ore that can be further processed. The Polevskoy Metallurgical Plant (1724-1930) was a major pro-ducer of blister copper. A small copper slag dump remains, created in the final years of the plant's operation, and its material composition remains barely studied. Currently, the slag dump pollutes the environment and, therefore, there is a need for its disposal. Objectives. The research is aimed at studying the material (mineral) composition of copper slags of the Polevskoy Metallurgical Plant. Methods Applied. The geochemical composition of the slags has been de-termined using an Agilent 7700X mass spectrometer (South Ural Federal Scientific Center of Mining and Geophysics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), and the chemical composition of the minerals has been determined using a TESCAN MIRA LMS, S6123 scanning electron microscope with an INCA Energy 450 X-Max 80 energy-dispersive unit from Oxford Instruments (Institute of Geology and Geochemistry, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences). The latter device has also been used to take photographs of the minerals. Originality. The study of the material (mineral) composition of slags has been carried out using the modern nomenclature of the Commission on New Minerals of the International Mineralogical Association and using the methods of classical mineralogy. Result. The mineralogy of copper slags from the Polevskoy Metallurgical Plant, which are stored in a small dump at the western foot of Dumnaya mountain, has been studied. It has been found that they are represented by two types of slags that are different according to their mineralogical and geochemical characteristics. The first type is composed of a fayalite and pigeonite aggregate with the presence of magnetite, glass, forsterite, chalcocite, cuprostibite, domeykite and copper. The second type is represented by a fayalite and augite aggregate with the presence of magnetite, breithauptite and sul-fides (idaite, cubanite, bornite, chalcopyrite, galena). The first type of slag is characterized by an ―ultrabasite‖ geochem-ical trend, and the second by a ―basite‖ trend. It has been concluded that the first type of slag has been obtained as a result of the remelting of ―cement copper‖, and the second type has been obtained as a result of the processing of cop-per-sulphide ores of the Zuzelski deposit. Practical Relevance. The studied copper slags can be put into additional pro-cessing. They differ from each other according to their magnetic properties (the second type of slag is highly magnetic and can be easily separated). From the first type of slag, copper (with associated gold) can be separated, as well as mag-netite concentrate containing titanium, vanadium and chromium. From the second type of slag, it is possible to separate sulfide concentrate containing not only copper, iron, zinc, but also lead and nickel using flotation. Magnetic separation can be used to separate magnetite concentrate, which also additionally contains titanium impurities and 5% ZnO.
Keywords
Fayalite, pigeonite, magnetite, sulfides, mineralogy, slags, Polevskoy Metallurgical Plant.
For citation
Erokhin Yu.V., Makarov A.B., Zakharov A.V., Khiller V.V., Leonova L.V. Material Composition of Copper Slags from the Polevskoy Metallurgical Plant. Vestnik Magnitogorskogo Gosudarstvennogo Tekhnicheskogo Universiteta im. G.I. Nosova [Vestnik of Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University]. 2026, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 56-66. https://doi.org/10.18503/1995-2732-2026-24-2-56-66
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