Abstract
This paper describes the possibility of concentrating minor rare metals contained in cellular phones by applying a novel comminution and the combination of physical separation technologies, which were followed by metallurgical processes to extract them. We compared two kinds of comminution processes, conventional and novel, from the viewpoint of compositional separation and combined two kinds of physical separation categories, “Device Separation” and “Powder Separation” to achieve an effective concentration of rare metals. It was demonstrated that the novel comminution process could separate printed circuit board (PCB) from the body in the first stage and detach the installed electronic devices from the board in the second stage and that several kinds of rare metals could be concentrated by combining the novel comminution and “Device/Powder Separation”. The “Device” and “Powder” products concentrated are expected to be further treated by hydrometallurgical processes to extract rare metals and/or stocked as “Artificial Deposits” in accordance with the concept of “RtoS (Reserve to Stock)”.
