Treatment of Copper Converter Flue Dust for the Separation of Metallic/non-metallic Copper by Hydrometallurgical Processing

Abstract

A hydrometallurgical procedure for the separation of copper soluble species from metallic copper of a copper converter flue dust was studied. The high content of metallic copper in the starting material made unique a procedure of such characteristics for the treatment of this secondary copper resource. The procedure consists of leaching and solvent extraction operations. Leaching was carried out under atmospheric conditions using sulphuric acid. Under various experimental conditions the metallic copper fraction remains unattacked. The solubilized copper was separated/recovered by solvent extraction using LIX 860 or MOC-55TD oximes in Iberfluid (diluent). The loaded organic solutions can be stripped using typical spent electrolyte solutions (e.g. 25 g dm-3 Cu and 180 g dm-3 H2SO4). Results obtained showed the feasibility of the operation in the treatment of a converter dust with a high content of metallic copper.