Asbestos Waste Treatment—An Effective Process to Selectively Recover Gold and Other Nonferrous Metals

We investigated the potential of tailings generated from chrysotile asbestos fiber production as a source of iron, nonferrous metals, and gold. We proposed the use of granulometric separation and systematically examined different enrichment processes, namely magnetic separation, gravity concentratio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Omirserik Baigenzhenov, Alibek Khabiyev, Brajendra Mishra, Indira Aimbetova, Sultan Yulusov, Inkar Temirgali, Yerzhan Kuldeyev, Zhanar Korganbayeva
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-11-01
Series:Recycling
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2313-4321/7/6/85
Description
Summary:We investigated the potential of tailings generated from chrysotile asbestos fiber production as a source of iron, nonferrous metals, and gold. We proposed the use of granulometric separation and systematically examined different enrichment processes, namely magnetic separation, gravity concentration, and enrichment using a Knelson concentrator, to extract the valuable components. The characterization of the initial tailing samples revealed that it comprises primarily of serpentine, brucite, antigorite, hematite, vustite, sillimanite, and magnesium oxide. Using the suggested enrichment process, we isolated gold, chromite, and nickel-cobalt concentrates as valuable products in addition to magnetite. The new approach exhibited high separation efficiency for iron, nonferrous metals, and gold, allowing their satisfactory extraction.
ISSN:2313-4321