Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia
Very often, the production of silver causes devastating environmental issues, because of the use of toxic reagents like cyanide and mercury. Due to severe environmental damage caused by humans in the last decades, the social awareness regarding the sustainable production processes is on the rise. Te...
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MDPI AG
2018-02-01
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Series: | Metals |
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Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/8/2/114 |
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author | Alexander Birich Bernd Friedrich Lars Gronen Janet Katzmarzyk Ivan Silin Hermann Wotruba |
author_facet | Alexander Birich Bernd Friedrich Lars Gronen Janet Katzmarzyk Ivan Silin Hermann Wotruba |
author_sort | Alexander Birich |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Very often, the production of silver causes devastating environmental issues, because of the use of toxic reagents like cyanide and mercury. Due to severe environmental damage caused by humans in the last decades, the social awareness regarding the sustainable production processes is on the rise. Terms like “sustainable” and “green” in product descriptions are becoming more and more popular and producers are forced to satisfy the rising environmental awareness of their customers. Within this work, an alternative environmental sound silver recovery process was developed for a vein type silver ore from Mina Porka, Bolivia. A foregoing characterization of the input material reveals its mineral composition. In the following mineral processing, around 92.9% silver was concentrated by separating 59.5 wt. % of non-silver minerals. Nitric acid leaching of the generated concentrate enabled a silver recovery of up to 98%. The dissolved silver was then separated via copper cementation to generate a metallic silver product of >99% purity. Summarizing all process steps, a silver yield of 87% was achieved in lab scale. A final upscaling trial was conducted to prove the process’ robustness. Within this trial, almost 4 kg of metallic silver with a purity of higher than 99.5 wt. % was produced. |
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id | doaj.art-12c8de9d26194d0b8ad0b8be9c869d81 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2075-4701 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-21T01:51:44Z |
publishDate | 2018-02-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
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series | Metals |
spelling | doaj.art-12c8de9d26194d0b8ad0b8be9c869d812022-12-21T19:19:52ZengMDPI AGMetals2075-47012018-02-018211410.3390/met8020114met8020114Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in BoliviaAlexander Birich0Bernd Friedrich1Lars Gronen2Janet Katzmarzyk3Ivan Silin4Hermann Wotruba5Institute of Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling, RWTH-Aachen University, Intzestr. 3, 52056 Aachen, GermanyInstitute of Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling, RWTH-Aachen University, Intzestr. 3, 52056 Aachen, GermanyInstitute of Applied Mineralogy and Economic Geology, RWTH-Aachen University, Wüllnerstr. 2, D-52062 Aachen, GermanyUnit of Mineral Processing, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstr. 4-20, D-52064 Aachen, GermanyUnit of Mineral Processing, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstr. 4-20, D-52064 Aachen, GermanyUnit of Mineral Processing, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstr. 4-20, D-52064 Aachen, GermanyVery often, the production of silver causes devastating environmental issues, because of the use of toxic reagents like cyanide and mercury. Due to severe environmental damage caused by humans in the last decades, the social awareness regarding the sustainable production processes is on the rise. Terms like “sustainable” and “green” in product descriptions are becoming more and more popular and producers are forced to satisfy the rising environmental awareness of their customers. Within this work, an alternative environmental sound silver recovery process was developed for a vein type silver ore from Mina Porka, Bolivia. A foregoing characterization of the input material reveals its mineral composition. In the following mineral processing, around 92.9% silver was concentrated by separating 59.5 wt. % of non-silver minerals. Nitric acid leaching of the generated concentrate enabled a silver recovery of up to 98%. The dissolved silver was then separated via copper cementation to generate a metallic silver product of >99% purity. Summarizing all process steps, a silver yield of 87% was achieved in lab scale. A final upscaling trial was conducted to prove the process’ robustness. Within this trial, almost 4 kg of metallic silver with a purity of higher than 99.5 wt. % was produced.http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/8/2/114green silversustainable productionQEMSCANflotationcyanide free |
spellingShingle | Alexander Birich Bernd Friedrich Lars Gronen Janet Katzmarzyk Ivan Silin Hermann Wotruba Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia Metals green silver sustainable production QEMSCAN flotation cyanide free |
title | Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia |
title_full | Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia |
title_fullStr | Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia |
title_full_unstemmed | Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia |
title_short | Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia |
title_sort | alternative silver production by environmental sound processing of a sulfo salt silver mineral found in bolivia |
topic | green silver sustainable production QEMSCAN flotation cyanide free |
url | http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/8/2/114 |
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