Extraction of Lead from Hydrometallurgical Processing of Copper Shaft Flue Dust

Abstract

Pyrometallurgical copper production is carried out in thermal aggregates. Input waste materials with a copper content between 5% and 99% Cu are treated in the individual aggregates. In a shaft furnace, except for molten black copper, slag and shaft flue dust (SFD) are produced as waste. SFD is emitted from the melt and then is captured by fabric filters. This kind of SFD is defined as ‘hazardous waste’ according to the European Waste Catalogue. SFD contains an attractive quantity of valuable metals like Zn, Sn and Pb. This work focuses on the hydrometallurgical treatment of SFD from secondary copper production with the aim of obtaining usable lead-based products.

Keywords

• copper dust
• hydrometallurgical processing
• lead precipitation
• shaft flue dust