China Nonferrous Metallurgy

Lead anode slime is a high value-added material produced in the production process of electric lead, and comprehensive recovery of valuable metals in the lead anode slime is a growth point of the economic benefits for smelting enterprises. A smelter used traditional pyrotechnical process to treat lead anode slime, which had problems such as low crude silver production capacity, poor comprehensive recovery capacity, and unsatisfactory environmental protection. Later, the company invested in a crude silver production line and built a supporting antimony production line, and carried out technical transformation for the original bismuth production line. After the overall technological upgrading and transformation, the processing capacity of lead anode slime reaches 20000t/a, and the comprehensive recovery rate of valuable metals such as silver, gold, lead, bismuth, copper, and antimony is above 99.5%. The direct yields of the main metals silver, antimony, and bismuth reached 94%, 90%, and 85% respectively, reaching the industry-leading level. The processing cost of recycled metal has been drastically reduced, and the annual benefit has increased by more than 20 million yuan. This article introduces the upgraded process and gives a detailed description for the production operation.