Tratamiento hidro-electrometalúrgicos de un concentrado de cobre con contenido de tetraedrita

Elimination of antimony and arsenic impurities is one of the major difficulties encountered in copper metallurgy. This is because the pure copper ore reserves are becoming exhausted and the resources of unexploited ores often contain relatively high amounts of antimony and arsenic. During smelting of copper concentrates, arsenic is easily removed into the offgas while antimony is not readily removed due to its lower partial pressure and high affinity for liquid copper. It is however imperative to selectively eliminate and recover the antimony impurity of the copper concentrates in an environmentally friendly process with a view of upgrading the concentrates for pyrometallurgical processing.This communication discusses (i) alkaline sulphide hydrometallurgy of antimony removal from a complex copper concentrate; and (ii) antimony recovery as a marketable product from synthetic alkaline sulphide pregnant leach liquors by electrowinning in a nondiaphragm cell. Also, the various experimental parameters that influence these processes are discussed.Godkänd; 2014; 20140501 (samawe