Heavy Metal Separation From Copper-Bearing Wastes

This invention relates to the separation of heavy metal values such as of zinc and lead from copper-bearing wastes. Such wastes are for example primary and secondary copper refinery flue dusts, brass foundry flue dusts and steel-making electric arc furnace flue dusts.

Secondary copper refiners' flue dust contains typically 48% Zn, 51/2% Pb, 41/2% Cu, 1% Sn and 1/2% Fe; brass works flue dust contains typically 71% Zn, 31/2% Pb, 14% Cu and 1/2% Fe; steel-making electric arc furnace flue dust contains typically 20% Zn, 5% Pb, 0.3% Cu, 0.4% Sn and 22% Fe (all by mass). In leaching zinc and/or lead from such dust it is desirable if the solubility of the copper can be depressed relative to the solubility of lead and zinc.

According to the present invention, a finely divided copper-bearing waste is leached in an alkali metal hydroxide solution having a concentration of from 5M to 12M (preferably 7M to 10M) at a temperature of from 80.degree. C. to boiling point (preferably 90.degree. C. to 100.degree. C.) in a concentration of 50 g to 200 g of said waste per liter of said hydroxide solution (preferably 70 to 100 g/l) such as preferentially to dissolve values other than of copper (e.g. lead and zinc), and the solution containing said values is separated from the copper-bearing residue, the leaching being characterised by adding to the hydroxide solution, simultaneously with or after adding the waste, 1% to 4% zinc based on the mass of the waste, the zinc having a surface area of at least 1/4 m.sup.2 /g, preferably at least 1 m.sup.2 /g. The zinc may suitably be from electrolysis of zincate solution, such zinc being dendritic and having a typical surface area of 5-10 m.sup.2 /g.

In this way, the copper stays mostly in the said residue, and thus does not interfere with later stages of recovering other metal values, such as zinc separation and lead separation, which may be conventional (e.g. cementation and electrolysis). Such stages are described in for example UK Patent Specifications Nos. 1568362, 1600022 and 1600287 and do not in themselves form part of the present invention; they will therefore not be further discussed here. The invention will now be described by way of example.

A sample of flue dust from a secondary copper refinery was treated with the object of dissolving lead and zinc values which it contained but inhibiting dissolution of copper which it also contained.

The dust had the following analysis by weight: Zinc 55%, Lead 6.8%, Copper 11.8%.

Ninety-eight parts by mass of this dust were intimately mixed with two parts of dendritic zinc powder, which will be further described in `Dendritic Zinc Powder Example`. The mixture was slowly added to a leaching vessel containing 10M sodium hydroxide aqueous solution held at 100.degree. C., to a total of 75 g of the mixture per 1 liter of the solution. The vessel was agitated throughout. The vessel contents were subjected to solid/liquid separation after 30 minutes (strictly, 30 minutes after exactly half the mixture had been added). The separated liquid was analysed, and the described procedure was found to have extracted into solution about 85% of the zinc, about all the lead, and only about 6% of the copper; thus, as was the object of the procedure, dissolution of copper had been substantially inhibited. The analysis of values in the liquid, in detail, was:

The anomalous result for lead arises from analytical difficulties in this concentration range.

The separated solid, containing principally copper, could be treated by conventional processes for copper filter cake for copper recovery.

The separated solution could be purified by cementation with zinc and filtration and then electrolysed to recover the zinc, as explained in the Dendritic Zinc Powder Example. This too involves processes which are well-known. UK Patent Specifications Nos. 1568362, 1600022 and 1600287 describe suitable processes.

As mentioned at the end of Example 1, such a purified solution can be electrolysed to recover zinc. Note that this solution would be not a Zn.sup.++ solution but a (sodium) zincate solution. The resulting electrolytic zinc would be a dendritic zinc powder. The dendritic zinc powder used in the Examples was made in this way. The specification of this zinc (column 3), with zinc to BS3982 (column 2) and a typical as-produced zinc dust (column 1) for comparison, was:

The dendritic zinc powder has such a high surface area that it is preferably stabilised against oxidation as soon as possible after it is made. In this Example, this was done by washing the zinc in water to remove sodium ions, then washing in methanol.

Note that, as well as the dendritic zinc powder, zinc to BS3982 would also have been suitable for use in the present invention, although the latter's efficiency at depressing copper dissolution relative to zinc and lead dissolution is lower. The low surface area of typical as-produced zinc dust makes it unsuitable (too inefficient) for use in the present invention.

A sample of brass works flue dust was treated with the object of dissolving lead and zinc values which it contained but inhibiting dissolution of copper which it also contained. Brass works flue dusts occur during the smelting of brass and are collected in the dust extraction equipment at the brass works. Typically these dusts have a high zinc content with copper and lead as the major impurities. All the metals occur in a finely divided and highly oxidised state.

The sample in question had the following analysis by weight: Zinc 71%, Lead 3.3%, Copper 13.9%.

Ninety-eight parts by mass of this dust were intimately mixed with two parts of the dendritic zinc powder described in the Dendritic Zinc Powder Example. The mixture was added as a batch to a leaching vessel containing 10M sodium hydroxide aqueous solution held at 115.degree. C.; 80 g of the mixture were added per liter of the solution, and the vessel was constantly stirred. After 20 minutes, the solids and liquid in the vessel were separated from each other.

The resulting liquid was found to have the following analysis by atomic absorption spectroscopy:

The anomalous result for lead arises from analytical difficulties in this concentration range.

Thus the liquid contained negligible copper, which was the object. The lead and zinc, which were the principal values contained in the liquid, could be separated by conventional processes, such as are mentioned in Example 1. Zinc recovered electrolytically from sodium zincate solution, such as the solution arising following the treatment of the present liquid to remove lead, could be used instead of the dendritic zinc powder from the Dendritic Zinc Powder Example, being indistinguishable therefrom.

The solids separated from the above-mentioned liquid contain approximately nil lead, relatively little zinc, and most of the starting copper. The solids are thus amenable to conventional copper recovery treatment.