Musa Rizaj

Abstract:

The refining processes of precious and platinum group metals generate large volumes of aqueous residues that contain considerable concentration levels of copper (Cu), gold (Au), silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), Palladium (Pd), Iridium ( Ir ) and other platinum group metals. One possible treatment of these residues is their use in the production of secondary copper anodes (SCA) which in turn can be used in electrolytic refining processes to separate PM, PGM and other elements that these SCA contains. This work, which is part of a bigger study on separation of Au, Ag, Pt, Pd and Ir from anode slime gained from secondary copper, describes a compositional characterization of secondary copper anodes obtained from various aqueous residues. It was found that SCA contains Cu, PMs, PGM and some other recoverable metals such as nickel, selenium and tellurium. The composition of the secondary copper anodes differs from the composition of the primary Cu anode. Although SCA contains less precious metals and PGM compared to primary Cu anodes, they still have enough market economic value that justifies refining of these anodes and finding effective methods for extraction of these valuable metals from them. One of this method is electrolytic refining process that is based on differentiated behavior during electrolysis of each impurity found in this study.