Abstract
An efficient method of separating valuable elements (copper, cobalt, chromium, and sulphur) from copper smelting slag of Luanshya district of the Copperbelt province in Zambia has been developed. The as-received slag material was characterised via scanning electron microscope. The valuable elements were separated through a combination of magnetic separation, flotation, and gravity separation steps. Magnetic separation of the as-received material separates cobalt/iron and copper/sulphur/chromium rich fractions due to differences in magnetic properties. Residual copper in the magnetic fraction was upgraded to more 25 weight% via flotation. By comparison, flotation of the non-magnetic fraction yielded low grade copper concentrate due to high presence of sulphur. Chromium was upgraded by a factor of more than 5 when the non-magnetic fraction was subjected to gravity concentration. The effect of particle size was studied during magnetic separation of feed material.
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© 2023 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
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Namiluko, Y.C. et al. (2023). Extraction of Valuable Metals from Luanshya Copper Smelting Slag with Minimal Waste Generation. In: Alam, S., et al. Energy Technology 2023. TMS 2023. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22638-0_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22638-0_10
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