2008 Volume 55 Issue 4 Pages 169-177
Generally speaking, wastewater generated during the metallurgical process for recovering precious metals, includes various precious metals such as Au, Pt, Pd, Ag, the concentration of which is about 10 mg/L, as well as other metals such as Cu, Fe, the concentration of which varies from several mg/L to more than 10,000 mg/L. However, the most of these valuable elements are not recovered, due to a relatively high processing cost as well as various technical problems. It should be noted that the concentration of metals in wastewater is as high as their concentration in ores. Taking into account these facts, authors are putting forward a new process, which consisting of neutralization/reduction, precipitation and fusion. The idea was to recover and recycle Au, Ag, Pd metals at a recovery higher than 90% as well as protecting the environment by saving the resources.
