Recovery method for valuable metals in copper anode slime

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024287644-A1
Application number	US-202218043943-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 12, 2022
Priority date	Oct 13, 2021
Publication date	Aug 29, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

Provided is a recovery method for valuable metals in copper anode slime. By using the recovery method of the disclosure, selenium, copper, tellurium, arsenic, lead, bismuth, and precious metals gold and silver in the copper anode slime are recovered. The method adopts two-step vacuum carbothermal reduction to replace reduction smelting of anode slime and stepwise blowing of noble lead in the traditional pyrometallurgy, and avoids the emission of arsenic-containing soot in the traditional process. The recovered gold-rich residue contains almost no base metals such as lead, bismuth, antimony, and arsenic. After subjecting the gold-rich residue to leaching gold by chlorination and reduction, a gold powder could be obtained therefrom with a lower content of base metals than traditional processes. Therefore, the method greatly reduces the amount of produced slag, shortens the production cycle, and reduces the loss of precious metals in the slag.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A recovery method for valuable metals in copper anode slime, comprising the following steps:
mixing copper anode slime with a concentrated sulfuric acid to obtain a first mixture, and subjecting the first mixture to sulfation roasting to obtain a selenium-containing soot and a calcine; subjecting the selenium-containing soot to water absorption, first reduction, and drying in sequence to obtain a crude selenium; mixing the calcine with a sulfuric acid solution to obtain a second mixture, and subjecting the second mixture to oxygen stressing and acid leaching to obtain a copper-tellurium-containing leachate and a copper-selenium-tellurium-removed anode slime; mixing the copper-tellurium-containing leachate with a copper powder to obtain a third mixture, and subjecting the third mixture to second reduction to obtain a copper-tellurium slag and a copper sulfate solution; mixing the copper-selenium-tellurium-removed anode slime with a first charcoal to obtain a fourth mixture, and subjecting the fourth mixture to low-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction at 400° C. to 550° C. to obtain an arsenic oxide volatile and an arsenic-removed anode slime; subjecting the arsenic-removed anode slime to high-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction at 850° C. to 1,100° C. to obtain a lead-bismuth mixed volatile and a gold-silver-antimony-rich residue; subjecting the gold-silver-antimony-rich residue to vacuum distillation to obtain a silver-antimony volatile and a gold-rich residue; subjecting the silver-antimony volatile to refining by oxidation to obtain an antimony oxide volatile and a crude silver, and subjecting the crude silver to electrolysis to obtain silver; and subjecting the gold-rich residue to leaching gold by chlorination, third reduction, and electrolysis in sequence to obtain gold.

2 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein a mass ratio of the copper anode slime to the concentrated sulfuric acid is in a range of 1:(0.7-1.2); the concentrated sulfuric acid has a mass concentration of 98%; and the sulfation roasting is conducted at 250° C. to 650° C. for 1 h to 4 h.

3 . The recovery method of claim 2 , wherein the mass ratio of the copper anode slime to the concentrated sulfuric acid is 1:1.

4 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein the sulfation roasting is conducted in a rotary kiln with a kiln head temperature of 250° C. to 300° C., a mid-kiln temperature of 500° C. to 600° C., and a kiln tail temperature of 550° C. to 650° C.

5 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein the crude selenium has a purity of 85% to 99%.

6 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein during the oxygen stressing and acid leaching, the sulfuric acid solution has an acidity of 100 g/L to 140 g/L; a dosage ratio of the sulfuric acid solution to the calcine is in a range of (5-8) L: 1 kg; and the oxygen stressing and acid leaching is conducted at 100° C. to 150° C. and 0.8 MPa to 1.2 MPa for 0.5 h to 4 h.

7 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen stressing and acid leaching has a copper removal efficiency of greater than or equal to 98%.

8 . The recovery method of claim 6 , wherein the sulfuric acid solution has an acidity of 120 g/L to 130 g/L; and the dosage ratio of the sulfuric acid solution to the calcine is in a range of (6-7) L: 1 kg.

9 . The recovery method of claim 6 , wherein the oxygen stressing and acid leaching is conducted at 120° C. to 130° C. and 0.9 MPa to 1.0 MPa for 0.5 h to 1 h.

10 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein during the low-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction, a mass of the first charcoal is 20% to 35% of that of the copper-selenium-tellurium-removed anode slime; and the low-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction is conducted at a system pressure of 1 Pa to 50 Pa for 2 h to 6 h.

11 . The recovery method of claim 10 , wherein the mass of the first charcoal is 25% to 30% of that of the copper-selenium-tellurium-removed anode slime; and the low-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction is conducted at 450° C. to 500° C. and the system pressure of 10 Pa to 30 Pa for 3 h to 4 h.

12 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein before the high-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction, the arsenic-removed anode slime is mixed with a second charcoal;
a mass of the second charcoal is 0% to 10% of that of the arsenic-removed anode slime; and the high-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction is conducted at a system pressure of 1 Pa to 50 Pa for 2 h to 6 h.

13 . The recovery method of claim 12 , wherein the mass of the second charcoal is 1% to 5% of that of the arsenic-removed anode slime.

14 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein the high-temperature vacuum carbothermal reduction is conducted at 900° C. to 1,000° C. and a system pressure of 10 Pa to 30 Pa for 3 h to 5 h.

15 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein the vacuum distillation is conducted at 1,300° C. to 1,500° C. and a system pressure of 1 Pa to 50 Pa for 6 h to 8 h.

16 . The recovery method of claim 15 , wherein the vacuum distillation is conducted at 1,400° C. to 1,500° C. and a system pressure of 1 Pa to 10 Pa for 6.5 h to 7.5 h.

17 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein the refining by oxidation is conducted at 950° C. to 1,100° C. for 3 h to 10 h.

18 . The recovery method of claim 17 , wherein the refining by oxidation is conducted at 1,000° C. to 1,050° C. for 5 h to 8 h.

19 . The recovery method of claim 1 , wherein subjecting the gold-rich residue to leaching gold by chlorination, third reduction, and electrolysis in sequence comprises:
subjecting the gold-rich residue to the leaching gold by chlorination to obtain a gold-leaching solution; introducing sulfur dioxide into the gold-leaching solution to conduct the third reduction to obtain a gold powder; and subjecting the gold powder to the electrolysis.

20 . The recovery method of claim 2 , wherein the sulfation roasting is conducted in a rotary kiln with a kiln head temperature of 250° C. to 300° C., a mid-kiln temperature of 500° C. to 600° C., and a kiln tail temperature of 550° C. to 650° C.

Assignees

• Univ Kunming Science & Technology

Inventors

• Yang Bin
• Xu Baoqiang
• Jiang Wenlong
• Deng Juhai
• Liu Dachun
• Tian Yang
• Li Yifu
• Kong Lingxin
• Yang Jia

Classifications

• C22B15/0071

  containing sulfur · CPC title

• C22B7/007 Primary

  by acid leaching · CPC title

• C25C1/20

  of noble metals · CPC title

• C22B30/04

  Obtaining arsenic {(extraction of metal compounds by leaching in organic solutions C22B3/16; treatment or purification of solutions by adsorption on solids C22B3/24, by liquid-liquid extraction C22B3/26, by ion-exchange extraction C22B3/42)} · CPC title

• C22B15/0056

  Scrap treating · CPC title