Abstract
Kosovo ore deposits are located in the Trepca belt which extends for over 80 km. The concentrate produced by the flotation process of the Trepca metallurgical corporation contains a considerable quantity of valuable metals, such as Pb, Zn, Fe and minor accompanying metals such as Cd, Cu, As, Sb, Bi, Ag, Au, etc. The subject of this work was to assess the concentration of major and minor metals in lead and zinc concentrates of Trepca and to study the correlation coefficients between metals. Chemical determination of concentrates was performed by using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). In the content on lead concentrate samples, the following were found: Pb>Fe>Zn> Ag> As>Sb>Cd. In the content of zinc concentrate, the following were found: Zn>Fe>Pb>Ag>As>Cd. The program “Statistica ver. 6.0” has been used for calculations of basic statistical parameters, relationships between data and cluster analysis of R-mode. R-mode cluster analysis on lead concentrate samples showed that Pb has the closest linkages with Fe and they form one branch of the dendogram. On the zinc concentrate samples, Zn has the closest linkages with Fe and they form one branch of the dendogram.
Highlights
Lead and zinc ores in the western Balkans region are extracted and are smelted since ancient Roman times
The aim of the current work was to assess the concentration of major metals in Pb and Zn concentrates of ”Trepça” using Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and to perform correlations in the coefficients study between metals
Based on the statistical analysis of zinc concentrate samples, the results suggest a very strong Pearson correlation factor of Zn with Pb (0.83), which could be associated with sphalerite with galena as well as with the isomorphic enrichment of sphalerite and galena with A, Zn correlated with As (0.44) and Ag (0.19); Fe is correlated with Ag (0.13); Pb is correlated with Ag (0.31) and As (00.09) and As is correlated with Cd (0.64)
Summary
Lead and zinc ores in the western Balkans region are extracted and are smelted since ancient Roman times. These ores, along with base metals, may contain other metals (Cu, Ba, Ni, Bi, Cd), precious metals (Ag, Au) and the rare ones (In, Se, Te Ge, Ga, Ta, W, Va, etc.). The flotation process is based on physico-chemical virtues of each mineral phase and the laws of their interaction. The flotation process is the selective separation of useful compounds from others. It is distributed with air bubbles being sent in this aqua chemical environment. Selective extraction of minerals occurs when some of them attach to air bubbles and the rest
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