From Mining Wastewater to Final Cathode Copper
Božić, Dragana
Marković, Radmila
Avramović, Ljiljana
Trifunović, Vanja
Stevanović, Zoran
Conić, Vesna
Bugarin, Mile
Global mining activities (mineral and metal production processes) produce several billion tons of solid inorganic wastes or by - products, including liquid waste. These waste materials have common characteristics; they contain a part of the sulfide and an increased part of the oxide mineralization of metals. During the more than one hundred years of copper ore mining activities in southeast Serbia, the mine drainage water has been released to the downstream without any treatment through tributaries of Danube River and has provided the negative environmental impact on the Danube. Acid Mine Water (AMD) are characterized by low pH due to the high content of residual sulphuric acid and heavy metals, such as Cu, Cd, Zn, Pb, Ni, Co, Mn, etc. In this paper real AMD sample from area of copper mining activities in southeast Serbia, was used for test operation. AMD was feed to the neutralization equipment and pH was set: for a first step on pH 4 and for a second step on pH 8. For the neutralization process, the experiment results revealed that two-step pH control neutralization and precipitation method was effective and recovered Fe and Cu separately in the sludge generated along the process. After neutralization, the obtained sludge was subjected to leaching, solvent extraction and re-extraction in order to obtain cathode copper.
engleski
2023
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Key words: Wastewater, Cathode Copper Mining activities.