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Deep cleaning of a metallurgical zinc leaching residue and recovery of valuable metals

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Abstract

Huge quantities of zinc leaching residues (ZLRs) generated from zinc production are dumped continuously around the world and pose a potential environmental threat because of their considerable amounts of entrained heavy metals (mainly lead). Most ZLRs have not been properly treated and the valuable metals in them have not yet been effectively recovered. Herein, the deep cleaning of a ZLR and recovery of valuable metals via a hydrometallurgical route were investigated. The cleaning process consists of two essential stages: acid leaching followed by calcium chloride leaching. The optimum conditions for extracting zinc, copper, and indium by acid leaching were a sulfuric acid concentration of 200 g·L−1, a liquid/solid ratio of 4:1 (mL/g), a leaching time of 2 h, and a temperature of 90°C. For lead and silver extractions, the optimum conditions were a calcium chloride concentration of 400 g·L−1, a pH value of 1.0, a leaching time of 1 h, and a temperature of 30°C. After calcium chloride leaching, silver and lead were extracted out and the lead was finally recovered as electrolytic lead by electrowinning. The anglesite phase, which poses the greatest potential environmental hazard, was removed from the ZLR after deep cleaning, thus reducing the cost of environmental management of ZLRs. The treatment of chlorine and spent electrolyte generated in the process was discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1302274 and 51674026), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 230201606500078), and the Yunnan Technical Innovation and Personnel Training Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Peng Xing, Bao-zhong Ma, Peng Zeng, Cheng-yan Wang, Ling Wang, Yong-lu Zhang & Yong-qiang Chen

  2. Yunnan Yuntong Zinc Co. Ltd., Kunming, 650051, China

    Peng Zeng & Qiu-yin Wang

  3. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Shuo Wang

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  1. Peng Xing
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  2. Bao-zhong Ma
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  5. Ling Wang
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  9. Qiu-yin Wang
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Correspondence to Cheng-yan Wang.

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Xing, P., Ma, Bz., Zeng, P. et al. Deep cleaning of a metallurgical zinc leaching residue and recovery of valuable metals. Int J Miner Metall Mater 24, 1217–1227 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-017-1514-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-017-1514-2

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