Recycling of copper telluride from copper anode slime processing: Toward efficient recovery of tellurium and copper

Abstract

Copper telluride is a sort of solid waste generated from copper anode slime processing, from which the recovery of copper and particularly the high-value element of tellurium always encounter technical difficulties due to the complex physicochemical properties of tellurium. In this study, an efficient and compact process for copper telluride recycling has been developed. Efficient separation of tellurium and copper from copper telluride was achieved through a pressure oxidizing alkaline leaching process under the optimal conditions of 5 mol/L for NaOH concentration, 5:1 for liquid to solid ratio, 150 °C for temperature, 0.7 Mpa for system pressure, and 2 h for reaction time, by which over 95% of tellurium was selectively dissolved in the solution and copper was enriched in the solid phase mainly in the form of copper oxides. Tellurium was subsequently recovered as TeO2 by neutralization of the alkaline leaching solution with sulfuric acid to pH 4.5, delivering a TeO2 precipitation efficiency of over 95%. In general, the masses of tellurium and copper balanced well in both the liquid and solid phases for each step, and the overall recovery efficiencies of Te and Cu reached as high as approximately 91% and 98%, respectively.