Selective room-temperature leaching of copper from mechanically activated copper smelter slag

Herein, the room-temperature sulfuric acid leaching of copper smelter slag powder in the presence of potassium dichromate was investigated, resulting in the selective extraction of copper with its separation from zinc and iron. To enhance the extraction of copper, mechanical activation in the planetary ball mill and attritor was used. The Taguchi method was applied to determine the optimal conditions for both mechanical activation and leaching. For mechanical activation in the attritor, a rotation speed of 1200 rpm, ball-to-powder ratio of 40 and milling time of 75 min were ideal. Under these conditions, the specific surface area (SBET) could be increased from 1.7 m2/g, for the starting slag, to 59.4 m2/g. According to ANOVA, the most important factor is the rotation speed. For comparison, the slag was subjected also to planetary ball milling using the same conditions and a specific surface area of 116 m2/g was obtained. Leaching conditions that maximize copper recovery and, independently, copper selectivity, were also found. The maximum copper recovery was 87.3%, while the maximum copper selectivity was 97.9%. The most influential parameters in leaching were the concentration of K2Cr2O7 and the liquid-to-solid ratio. The copper selectivity is attributed to better solubility of chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) in comparison with zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4) and fayalite (FeSiO4) containing the other metals. This study provides a statistical approach for planning the experiments of pretreatment and leaching to efficiently recover valuable metals from secondary raw resources in an environmentally interesting fashion by using low concentrations of leaching agents and mechanical pretreatment.