Applied Mineralogy of Anthropogenic Accessory Minerals

Abstract

The term “accessory minerals” is applicable to an expanding range of mineral resources, including rare minerals of anthropogenic deposits and mineral metallurgical wastes. Typical accessory minerals of sedimentary rocks, metallurgical slags and calcines include sulphide minerals of iron, copper, and zinc. This work covers certain chemical transformations of accessory sulphides contained in the wastes of the metallurgical industry. Note that similar behaviors of sulphides may also be observed in the thermal processing of coal. It is shown that, in terms of thermodynamics, thermal processing of products containing precious metals enables application of various methods for generating artificial covellite with silver and gold content through the use of accessory sulphide minerals.