Radmila Marković

Behaviour of non-standard composition copper bearing anodes from the copper refining process

This paper addresses on investigation the possibility of electrolytic treatment the sulphur acidic waste solution, obtained in the conventional electrolytic copper refining process. Beside the high copper concentration, the high concentration of other metals, in this case nickel, is the main characteristic of these waste solutions. Due to this fact, the copper bearing anodes with non-standard nickel, lead, tin and antimony content were specially prepared for the refining process. Nickel content of all anodes was approximately 7.5 mass%, and the content of lead, tin and antimony was varied. The preliminary results, obtained using the standard electrochemical techniques, have indicated that the copper bearing anodes could be used under the same conditions as well as in the conventional copper refining process. The measurements in constant galvanostatic pulse have pointed out that the all chemical elements from copper bearing anodes were dissolved and only copper was deposited onto the cathode. It was also pointed out that Ni concentration in the base working electrolyte (sulphur acidic waste solution), after 72 h of process, increased to 102 mass% at T(1)=63+/-2 degrees C and up to 122 mass% at T(1)=73+/-2 degrees C, while arsenic concentration decreased to a minimum value.

Mine Waste Water Management in the Bor Municipality in Order to Protect the Bor River Water

The fact is generally known that all human societies depend on the availability of natural resources (coal, iron, nonferrous metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, etc.) and possi‐ bility of their use [1]. One of three main conclusions of The World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg from 08/26/2002 4/9/2002, was that the concept of sus‐ tainable development underlines that long term efficient development, both for developed and developing countries, has to be based on three favorite topics: environmental protec‐ tion, economic development and social cohesion, both on national and global levels.

Dewatering of sludge obtained by neutralisation from sulfuric-acid waste solutions

The aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of removing the liquid phase from the sludge using the mechanical dewatering methods. The sludge was obtained by neutralization of sulfuric acid waste solution from the process of copper electrolysis, using 1M Ca (OH)2 with and without addition of FeCl3 and AlCl3 as coagulants. Classical method of filtration by gravity and vacuum filtration method were used for tests of sludge dewatering process in the laboratory conditions. Solution volume, amount of sample, dewatering duration was measured during the experiments. The obtained results, presented in this paper, showed that using the vacuum filtration method, high of sludge sample was reduced for 75%, which is almost three times higher value compared to the results obtained using the gravity filtration. Data relating to the time of filtration, using different methods, show that in application of vacuum filtration method the dewatering time is almost 200 times faster compared to the time dewatering with gravity filtration. The shortest settling time was registered for the sludge that was obtained by neutralization process without coagulants addition.

Copper Recovery from the Mine Tailings by Combination of Flotation with High-Pressure Oxidative Leaching and Solvent Extraction

The aim of this research was to develop a copper recovery process from mine tailings (0.34%Cu) using flotation followed by high-pressure oxidative leaching (HPOL) and solvent extraction. The results of HPOL using the concentrate of mine tailings obtained by flotation under the optimal conditions of the previous study shown that an efficient copper dissolution of 94.4% was achieved in an H2O media, while the copper concentration of PLS reached to be 2.9 g/L. The solvent extraction of PLS obtained from the optimal HPOL showed that 91.3% copper was recovered in stripped solution under the determined optimum conditions, in which the copper concentration achieved to be 44.8 g/L. Finally, a proposed copper recovery process from the concentrate of mine tailings was developed by combination of HPOL and solvent extraction, while a total copper recovery of 86% was achieved.