Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

In view of the problems of dispersion and low enrichment rate of valuable metals in the zinc leaching residue of a zinc hydrometallurgy plant by oxygen-enriched side-blown smelting-fuming process of pulverized coal, industrial tests were carried out to investigate the effects of temperature, pulverized coal rate, oxygen-enriched concentration, calcium-silicon ratio and reaction time on the metal volatilization rate and the direction of valuable metals in the side-blown smelting furnace and fuming furnace. The results show that under the optimum conditions of pulverized coal rate of 21%, oxygen concentration of 65%, furnace temperature of 1250℃ and time of 150min, the volatilization rates of lead and silver in side-blown smelting furnace are 90.3% and 86.5%, respectively. Lead and silver are mainly enriched in the dust of side-blown smelting furnace. Under the optimum conditions of pulverized coal rate of 13%, calcium-silicon ratio of 0.6 and blowing time of 120min, the zinc volatilization rate of side-blown smelting furnace reached 86.9%, and zinc is mainly enriched in fuming furnace dust.