Separation of silicon and iron in copper slag by carbothermic reduction-alkaline leaching process

Abstract

Approximately 2.0–3.0 t of copper slag (CS) containing 35%–45% iron is generated for every ton of copper produced during the pyrometallurgical process from copper concentrate. Therefore, the recovery of iron from CS utilizes a valuable metal and alleviates the environmental stress caused by stockpile. In this paper, a new method has been developed to realize the enrichment of iron in CS through the selective removal of silica. The thermodynamic analyses and experimental results show that the iron in CS can be fully reduced into metallic iron by carbothermic reduction at 1473 K for 60 min. The silica was converted into free quartz solid solution (QSS) and cristobalite solid solution (CSS). QSS and CSS are readily soluble, whereas metallic iron is insoluble, in NaOH solution. Under optimal leaching conditions, a residue containing 87.32% iron is obtained by decreasing the silica content to 6.02% in the reduction roasted product. The zinc content in the residue is less than 0.05%. This study lays the foundation for the development of a new method to comprehensively extract silicon and iron in CS while avoiding the generation of secondary tailing.