Clean hydrometallurgical route to recover zinc, silver, lead, copper, cadmium and iron from hazardous jarosite residues produced during zinc hydrometallurgy

► The extraction fractions of various valuable metals during NH 4Cl leaching are very high. The sintered residue was leached in 6 mol L −1 aqueous NH 4Cl solution at 105 °C, followed by filtration. The leaching extraction of Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd and Ag are more than 95%. ► The process can detoxified the hazardous elements such as Pb, As, Cd thoroughly. Then the NH 4Cl leaching residue were leached again in 30 wt% aqueous NaOH solution for 1 h at 160 °C, and about 94% of As and 73% of Si were removed from the residue. ► The final residue contains about 55 wt% Fe, and have the potential to be used as iron concentrate. A hydrometallurgical process for treating the hazardous jarosite residue from zinc hydrometallurgy was proposed, for not only detoxifying the residue, but also recovering the contained valuable metal components. The jarosite was initially activated and decomposed by sintering at 650 °C for 1 h. The sintered residue was leached in 6 mol L −1 aqueous NH 4Cl solution at 105 °C, followed by filtration. The leaching extraction of Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd and Ag are more than 95%. During reduction with Zn powder, more than 93% of Pb, Cu, Ag and Cd can be simultaneously recovered. Then the NH 4Cl leaching residue were leached again in 30 wt% aqueous NaOH solution for 1 h at 160 °C, and about 94% of As and 73% of Si were removed from the residue. The final residue was almost completely detoxified, and contains about 55 wt% Fe, which can be used as an iron concentration.