Green and efficient recovery of valuable metals from waste copper slag via co-modification with CaO and Na2O

Abstract

In this work, a novel carbon-free smelting reduction process is proposed to recover valuable metals from molten copper slag, in which secondary aluminum dross is used as the reductant via co-modification with CaO and Na2O additions. The influence of Na2O addition on the metal recovery and slag properties under different CaO/SiO2 ratios was investigated at 1550 °C. The results show that the modifier Na2O not only reduces the melting temperature of the slag, but also inhibits the precipitation of spinel and prevents the polymerization of aluminosilicate units to a certain extent by providing more O2-, which results in a relatively lower slag viscosity. These effects are more significant at the CaO/SiO2 of 0.9. The multiple strengthening mechanisms improve the kinetic conditions for smelting reduction, resulting in optimal results when the Na2O addition reaches 4 wt% at the CaO/SiO2 of 0.9, at which 99.1% of iron and 98.5% of copper in the slag can be recovered as the high-purity alloy. The leaching toxicity of the tailings is 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than the original slag, suggesting that they are clean sources for ceramic production. Furthermore, the assessment of the proposed process indicates that it is technically feasible even without an external energy supply, which indicates that the process is green, efficient, and cost-effective.