Processing of metallurgical slag

Manufacture of various-purpose electronic devices results in accumulation of electronic scrap. One of the approaches to processing e-scrap is smelting which produces waste in the form of slag containing many recoverable valuable components. With a view to developing processing technique for slag after e-scrap smelting, relevant studies were carried out on a slag sample containing copper at a mass fraction of 9.8±0.4%. Copper in the sample was mainly represented by a metal phase. From the analysis of information on processing of the similar feedstock, the objectives set for the studies included: the analysis of recoverability of end products at the stage of ore pretreatment; the development of optimum conditions for flotation of escrape smelting slag. The proposed processing technology involves selective grinding of slag to the size of -0.6 mm with extraction of metal phase to concentrate with subsequent milling and flotation of the ground product. The studies demonstrate possibility of obtaining a copper concentrate with the mass fraction of 72.91% of copper at its recovery of 16.14% at the stages of ore pretreatment. Flotation produces a copper concentrate with the mass fraction of 16.3 % of Cu at its recovery of 73.63%. The loss of copper with tailings in the proposed technology totals 2.85%. It is found that the promising trend of producing a higher quality concentrate is flotation of thick pulp in the accumulation mode, with periodic removal of froth from flotation cell.

Uporova I. V., Penkov P. M., Bekchurina E. A. Processing of metallurgical slag. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2024;(3):141-154. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2024_ 3_0_141.

I.V. Uporova¹, Engineer, e-mail: uporova2013@mail.ru,
P.M. Penkov¹, Engineer, e-mail: Pavel.Penkov@m.ursmu.ru,
E.A. Bekchurina¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Assistant Professor, e-mail: efalej@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7304-2824,
¹ Ural State Mining University, 620144, Ekaterinburg, Russia.

I.V. Uporova, e-mail: uporova2013@mail.ru.

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