JSC URALINTEKH (Yekaterinburg, Russia)
I. Е. Rudakov, Engineer of the Laboratory of Hydrometallurgical Processes, rydftjkd2002ru@mail.ru
Е. А. Ryabukhin, Head of Refining, e.ryabukhin@pm-ural.com
P. S. Potapov, Head of the Laboratory of Hydrometallurgical Processes, p.potapov@pm-ural.com
Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, (Yekaterinburg, Russia)
V. G. Lobanov, Associate Professor of the Department of Non-Ferrous Metals Metallurgy, Candidate of Technical Sciences, v.g.lobanov@urfu.ru
The study addresses the problem of processing mother liquors generated during precious metal refining, containing a total precious metal concentration of up to 4 g/dm3. In accordance with the current process regulations, these solutions are discharged after the recovery of precious metals. The aluminum cementation technology currently in use achieves the required degree of precious metal recovery but does not allow the reducing metal to be regenerated. Another drawback of this method is the excessive process duration, particularly for the precipitation of platinum and iridium. The aim of the study is to select an alternative cementation metal and optimize the process parameters to ensure that the residual concentration of each precious metal is below 1 mg/dm3. The object of the study is a mother liquor obtained after the precipitation of palladium chloramine. Comparative tests have been conducted under identical conditions using aluminum, zinc, copper, and iron as cementation metals. The experimental results have demonstrated that zinc is the preferred metal for precipitating precious metals from mother liquors. Applying low-voltage alternating current to zinc electrodes enables effective cleaning of the zinc plate surfaces and heating of the solutions, thereby ensuring the required degree of precious metal precipitation at a high rate. The effects of alternating current density and process duration on the residual metal concentrations during zinc cementation have been investigated. It has been established that cementation using zinc electrodes at a current density of 750 A/m2 for 120 min reduces the concentration of each precious metal in the solution to below 1 mg/dm3.
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