Technology of Obtaining Metallic Silver from Waste Copper Tailings

The article studies the production of metallic silver from leaching solutions of rough copper concentrate from dump tailings. To obtain a productive solution, the concentrate was sintered with alkali at a temperature of 300 ℃ and the sinter was leached in water with a silicon recovery of 60%. The cake was directed to copper and silver leaching with a solution of sulfuric acid with the addition of halite at a temperature of 90 ℃, L:S = 4:1. As a result, a productive solution was obtained with the content of: Ag-3.6 mg/l, Cu - 5.9 g/l, pH- 3.1, which was used to conduct studies on the sorption / desorption of silver with an ion exchange resin brand Lewatit MonoPlus TP 214 produced by Lanxess concern (Germany). The electrolytic deposition of silver was carried out using a titanium cathode, a lead anode equipped with an ion exchange membrane. The electrolysis was carried out at a current density of 40–60 A/m2, a temperature of 35–40 ℃, a solution flow rate of 0.5 l/h, and an electrolysis cell voltage of 3–4.5 V. Cathode deposit with 97.5% silver recovery sent for melting at 1000 ℃. The resulting metal corresponds to the brand SrM75.