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A Study on the Selective Leaching of Valuable Metals and the Configuration of Iron Silicon Phases in Copper Smelting Slag by Oxidative Pressure Leaching

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Abstract

In this research, copper smelting slag was processed under a pressurized oxygen atmosphere and low acidity conditions to achieve the selective extraction of copper and zinc and to let the iron and silicon in the slag be transformed and reconstructed into hematite and amorphous silica, respectively. The composition and the structure of the raw materials and the leaching residue were characterized by ICP-AES and XRD, and the mechanism of the selective leaching of copper and the phase reconstruction of ferrous and silicon were revealed. The results showed that under the following conditions: a sulfuric acid concentration of 0.4 mol/L, a reaction temperature of 200 °C, a liquid–solid ratio of 6 mL/g, an oxygen partial pressure of 600 kPa, a leaching time of 80 min, and a particle size of − 150 to + 74 μm, the leaching efficiencies of the Cu, Zn, Fe, and Si from copper smelting slag were > 95 wt%, > 98 wt%, < 0.6 wt%, and < 2.0 wt%, respectively. Moreover, the iron and silicon in the leached residue were in the form of hematite and amorphous SiO2, respectively, and the contents of copper and zinc were both less than 0.1 wt%.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their sincere appreciation to the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 21978122 and 21566017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, No. 253 Xuefu Road, Kunming, 650093, Yunnan, China

    Yalong Liao, Guangxiong Ji, Gongchu Shi & Jiajun Xi

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  1. Yalong Liao
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  2. Guangxiong Ji
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Correspondence to Yalong Liao.

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The contributing editor for this article was Atsushi Shibayama.

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Liao, Y., Ji, G., Shi, G. et al. A Study on the Selective Leaching of Valuable Metals and the Configuration of Iron Silicon Phases in Copper Smelting Slag by Oxidative Pressure Leaching. J. Sustain. Metall. 7, 1143–1153 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-021-00404-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-021-00404-9

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