Silver Leaching from Lead-Zinc Process Tailings in Balya Mines

Some silver and other valuable metallic elements accumulate inside tailings of lead-zinc flotation process in Balya mines. It is therefore investigated in this paper to recover silver by leaching from the tailings fraction of the flotation plant. Representative tailing samples were systematically provided from the actual lead-zinc flotation circuits in order to obtain composites before leaching with hydrochloric acid (HCl), nitric acid (HNO3) and oxalic acid (H2C2O4). Within this study, effects of different types of acids with variable dosages, solid ratio, leaching duration and temperature were investigated. Optimal leaching efficiency was calculated according to silver recovery in acid-leachates. The obtained results showed that the optimal conditions for the leaching tests were as 30% solid concentration, 2 mmol/dm(3) HNO3 addition, 120 min leaching time at 60 degrees C temperature. As a result, dissolution efficiency for silver from the lead-zinc process tailings in Balya mines was calculated as 60.12%