×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Copper Slag Tailings - How to extract Iron

Copper Slag Tailings - How to extract Iron

Copper Slag Tailings - How to extract Iron

(OP)
I have tailings that came from a copper extraction process.
It is in solid 2" or less in size.
We are curious if there is a way to make pig iron with this? And also how to get rid of the SiO2(silica).
I'm not sure if grinding this stuff up and using some kind of mag separation process would get rid of the excess silica or not. At rough 30% its kinda high.

Here are the lab results.
Ag          SILVER          < 0.10     OZ/TN LAB
Au          GOLD            < 0.004    OZ/TN LAB
Cu          COPPER          1.1        %     LAB
SiO2        SILICA          29.3%      %     LAB
Al203       ALUMINA         3.0        %     LAB
Fe          IRON            45.1       %     LAB
CaO         LIME            1.3        %     LAB
S           SULFUR          0.7        %     LAB
As          ARSENIC         0.019      %     LAB
Ba          BARIUM          0.064      %     LAB
Be          BERYLLIUM       < 0.001    %     LAB
Bi          BISMUTH         0.042      %     LAB
Cd          CADMIUM         0.004      %     LAB
Cl          CHLORIDE        0.007      %     LAB
Co          COBALT          0.017      %     LAB
Cr          CHROMIUM        0.045      %     LAB
F           FLOURIDE        0.109      %     LAB
Hg          MERCURY         < 0.1      %     LAB
K           POTASSIUM       0.746      %     LAB
MgO         MAGNESIA        1.354      %     LAB
Mn          MANGANESE       0.027      %     LAB
Mo          MOLYBDENUM      0.253      %     LAB
Na          SODIUM          0.231      %     LAB
Ni          NICKEL          0.005      %     LAB
P           PHOSPHORUS      0.029      %     LAB
Pb          LEAD            0.060      %     LAB
Sb          ANTIMONY        0.037      %     LAB
Se          SELENIUM        < 0.001    %     LAB
Sn          TIN             0.018      %     LAB
Te          TELLURIUM       < 0.001    %     LAB
Tl          THALLIUM        < 0.001    %     LAB
Zn          ZINC            0.340      %     LAB

I was thinking about using a blast furnace to reduce this stuff down to pig iron but coke is around $300/ton, limestone, & flux. I don't know if this stuff is even worth messing with. You can buy foundry grade pig iron for around $425-$435/ton.
Any idea's on how to reduce the silica & make pig iron with these tailings?

TIA

Nate

RE: Copper Slag Tailings - How to extract Iron

What form is the iron?  Is it magnetic?  Magnetic separation of iron is pretty simple.

RE: Copper Slag Tailings - How to extract Iron

Melt the silica: you will need about 1800deg C (3500def F)
rough guess it will cost you over $1000/ton!

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources