Center of Engineering Maintenance of Production of Polar Division of “Norilsk Nickel” MMC, Norilsk, Russia

E. F. Grabchak, Chief Specialist of Laboratory of Engineering Maintenance of Copper Plant, phone: + 7 (3919) 25-64-94
M. Yu. Lapshina, Processing Engineer
Yu. A. Goryacheva, First Category Engineer of Laboratory of Engineering Maintenance of Copper Plant

“Baikal Mining Company” LLC, Moscow, Russia
D. A. Lapshin, Chief Specialist

Nowadays, copper electrolytic slags of Polar Division of “Norilsk Nickel” MMC and “Kola MMC” JSC are the primary channel of supplement of silver into the technological cycle of Copper Plant's metallurgical shop. As a result of many-year researches, specialists from the Polar Division of “Norilsk Nickel” MMC developed various methods of selective extraction of silver from copper electrolytic slags during their processing. In spite of high efficiency, extraction of silver in industrial conditions does not exceed 50% during the usage of technological scheme, which is currently applied in Copper Plant. Basically, limited extraction is connected with incomplete transfer of silver into solution on the operation of leaching of copper slag cinder. As it was substantiated, it is not possible to realize the complete transfer of silver into solution on this operation within exhisting technology, because of the content of silver in initial slags composition in the chloride form.
The following alternative schemes of silver extraction were developed within the foregoing problem solving:
— the scheme of selective extraction of silver from marketable concentrates of platinum metals KP-1 (КП-1), KP-2 (КП-2) and OK (ОК), which silver content reaches 55% (wt.);
— processing scheme of cakes of purification of waste gases of secondary anodes smelting in the furnaces EAF-1,5 (ДСП-1,5), which silver content reaches to 30% (wt.);
— processing scheme of cinders of copper slags with the stage of cakes leaching in sodium sulphite and single-stage sedimentation of silver. Introduction of proposed technical decisions makes it possible to do the following operations:
— increasing of selective extraction of silver from 50 to 80%;
— decreasing of duration of technological cycle of slags processing;
— increasing of quality of concentrates of platinum metals KP-1 (КП-1), KP-2 (КП-2).

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