Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

Lead electrolytic refining is the key process of crude lead purification. The higher the lead ion concentration in the electrolyte, the greater the specific resistance, the higher the DC power consumption, and the higher the production cost. On the premise of not affecting the chemical composition of lead electrolyte, through theoretical analysis, this paper useed insoluble graphite anode electrowinning method instead of traditional sulfuric acid precipitation method to reduce the concentration of lead ions in electrolyte. The results show that under the conditions of current intensity of 11000A, single cell electrolyte circulation of 50L/min and electrowinning time of 120h, the concentration of lead ions in the electrolyte decreases by 14.9g/L, and the quality of lead precipitation by electrowinning is better than the conventional electrolysis of lead, in which the grade of antimony impurity elements decreases significantly. Compared with the traditional sulfuric acid precipitation method, the cost of lead removal by insoluble graphite anode electrodeposition method is reduced by about 451 yuan/t.