Development of a Sustainable Process for Complex Sulfide Ores Containing Anglesite: Effect of Anglesite on Sphalerite Floatability, Enhanced Depression of Sphalerite by Extracting Anglesite, and Recovery of Extracted Pb<sup>2+</sup> as Zero-Valent Pb by Cementation Using Zero-Valent Fe

The presence of anglesite (PbSO<sub>4</sub>) in complex sulfide ores negatively affects the separation of Cu-Pb sulfides and sphalerite (ZnS) due to lead activation, and PbSO<sub>4</sub> rejected to tailings dams contaminates the surrounding environment with lead. To address...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kosei Aikawa, Mayumi Ito, Atsuhiro Kusano, Sanghee Jeon, Ilhwan Park, Naoki Hiroyoshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-06-01
Series:Minerals
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/12/6/723
Description
Summary:The presence of anglesite (PbSO<sub>4</sub>) in complex sulfide ores negatively affects the separation of Cu-Pb sulfides and sphalerite (ZnS) due to lead activation, and PbSO<sub>4</sub> rejected to tailings dams contaminates the surrounding environment with lead. To address these problems, this study investigated the application of ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) pretreatment extracting PbSO<sub>4</sub> to ZnS flotation and the recovery of the extracted Pb<sup>2+</sup> as zero-valent Pb by cementation using zero-valent iron (ZVI). The application of EDTA pretreatment could extract ~99.8% of PbSO<sub>4</sub>, thus depressing ZnS floatability from 82% to 30%. In addition, cementation using ZVI could recover ~99.7% of Pb<sup>2+</sup> from the leachate of EDTA pretreatment.
ISSN:2075-163X