Recycling of poly-metallic residues from metal industry - current status and future developments

Abstract

Within the last years it has become a mutual business to look at different residues, either dumped or continuously produced, trying to utilize them as secondary resources. Especially those from Zinc-, Lead- and Copper production are well known for carrying different valuable metals in parallel but also highly disturbing impurities. Therefore, as a matter of environmental considerations as well as economic issues, process development has to be carefully done to allow feasible treatment concepts. The paper gives an overview on characteristics, available amounts and possible routes for the treatment of such poly-metallic materials. Beside this it describes how present minor metals can contribute to an economic processing. Furthermore, the option for a “zero-waste” solution and with this a complete remediation of potential dumps is discussed. Finally, the paper draws an outlook on how a successful recycling of these residues could contribute to the base metals production in future.