The composition features and perspective of use for the copper slag recycling waste
In the solution of environmental problems and the shortage of mineral raw materials for copper smelting enterprises promising is the involvement in the development of waste copper smelting production, in particular the copper slag dump, processing technology which involves crushing followed by production of copper concentrate. Material with dimension of ≤0.05 mm containing about 3.4% zinc, 0.4% copper, 0.4% lead, 35.0% iron, so-called “technical sand” accumulates as a waste. For the development of new technologies of extraction of useful components and recycling of waste “technical sands”, a determination of minerals-concentrators of non-ferrous metals and studying the peculiarities of their spatial distribution in the wreckage of the slag, forming “technical sand” is needed. Study of a “technical sand” composition of the Sredneuralskii Copper Smelting Plant is made by the “Geoanalitik”, an analytical centre of the Ural Branch of RAS. Using electron microscopy the JSM-6390LV scanning electron microscope with INCA Energy 450 X-Max 80 attachment in the wreckage of a slag, forming “technical sand”, mineral phases of fayalite, pyroxene, quartz, wustite, magnetite, hematite, matte, spaz and glass have been determined. In all studied phases an approximate balance of mineral elements has been calculated. A possibility of the useful components’ extracting from this type of waste by hydrometallurgical methods is considered.