Recovery of Silver from Zinc Leach Residue by Flotation

Abstract

The study aims to recovery of silver minerals from zinc leach residue by flotation method with mixed collectors, namely, ammonium dibutyl dithiophosphate (ADD) and diethyl dithiocarbamate (DD). The effect of key parameters, i.e., grinding fineness, dosage of collectors and dosage of sodium chloride on the flotation performance was investigated. The results indicate that dosages of ADD and DD have both significant effects on the flotation performance, and sodium chloride plays an important role in the increase of the grade of silver, by eliminating the detrimental effect of Zn2+ in the pulp. The optimum conditions for flotation of silver from the material were identified as grinding fineness of 90%, dosage of ADD at 400 g/t, dosage of DD at 75 g/t and dosage of NaCl at 60 g/t; under such a condition, a sliver recovery of 76.92% with a concentrate grade of 2012.30 g/t was achieved, and the tailing from the flotation has a lower sliver grade of 17.30g/t, with only 15.04% of silver lost in the tailing.