Investigate of Effective Factors on Extraction of Silver from Tailings of Lead Flotation Plant Using Thiourea Leaching

Abstract

In current paper, the effect of different factors on extraction of silver from tailings of lead flotation plant using thiourea leaching was studied. According to the mineralogical studies and chemical analysis taken from the tailings dam, the representative sample taken from there contained 30 ppm Ag and the minerals such as calcite, dolomite, barite, microcline, galena etc. In this research, the effects of iron(III) sulfate concentration, thiourea concentration, size and temperature onextraction of silver from Ravanj flotation plant tailings were analyzed using statistics design of experiment and DX7 software; and it was determined that iron(III) sulfate concentration and temperature were the most effective factors on the extraction of silver. The results showed that the best recovery obtained in particle size of 75 microns, 1 kg/m3 thiourea concentration and 1 kg/m3 iron(III) sulfate concentration in the temperature of 60˚C for 2 hours.