Study of Copper and Zinc Extraction from Underspoil Water

The subject of study was the Safyanovskaya Med company’s acidic underspoil water containing 0.17 g/liter of copper and 1.8 g/liter of zinc (pH 2.8–2.9). The goal was to study and develop a technology of cleaning water of impurities (copper, zinc, aluminum, iron, manganese), accompanied by extraction of copper and zinc in the form of commercial products. Copper extraction by cementation with metallic iron was studied. It was shown that this method could allow extracting 94–95% copper into a concentrate. The role of resolution processes of precipitated copper in cementation was established. To reduce the consumption of iron and to improve the quality of precipitated copper, it is proposed to carry out cementation in a washbox. The copper content in the concentrate was 27–28%, while the specific consumption of iron was 7.0–7.5 kg/kg of copper. During the studies of material composition of copper precipitate, the formation of cuprospinel, goethite, and bassanite phases and the precipitation of basic aluminum sulfates were detected. The extraction of zinc from the solution after copper removal was studied by precipitation with sodium sulfide. As a result, a concentrate was obtained with a zinc content of 49.6–50.9% with extraction of 99%. The process regularities for zinc concentrate dehydration were studied. By optimizing the crystallization conditions of the precipitate, a minimum final cake moisture content of 40–42% was reached. A process flow diagram for acidic underspoil water, including copper cementation and the precipitation of zinc sulfide, was developed. According to this diagram, the mother solution from zinc precipitation should be treated with lime until the pH reaches 10–10.5, followed by slurry settling. As a result, clean water of the following composition is obtained, mg/liter: 0.05 zinc, 0.01 copper, 0.02 aluminum, < 0.02 iron, 0.05 manganese. These values correspond to the quality of drinking water according to GOST R 51232-98.