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.
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