Direct oxidative pressure leaching of bismuth sulfide concentrate in methanesulfonic acid medium

Release time:2021-03-04

Impact Factor:3.338

DOI number:10.1016/j.hydromet.2020.105347

Journal:Hydrometallurgy

Key Words:Bismuth sulfide concentrate, Bismuth hydrometallurgy, Direct oxidative leaching, Methanesulfonic acid

Abstract:As the prevalent extraction technology of bismuth sulfide concentrate, the precipitation smelting process has disadvantages of SO2 emission and inefficient recovery of associated metals. Hydrometallurgical alternatives to traditional pyrometallurgical techniques have obtained continuously growing attention in recent years. In this paper, methanesulfonic acid (MSA) was proposed as the reaction medium to extract bismuth from bismuth sulfide concentrate under pressure leaching conditions. It was found that more than 95% of Bi could be leached out in 2.70 mol/L MSA + 28.6 g/L ferrous ion solution at 110 °C and 0.4 MPa oxygen pressure for 2 h. Cu and Fe from chalcopyrite and pyrite can be slightly leached out with ratio of 26.67% and 30.51%, respectively. Scheelite and molybdenite basically remained in the leaching residue. Galena was partially dissolved to generate lead ion and elemental sulfur, which could be further oxidized to sulfate as the leaching temperature and oxygen pressure raised, and then reacted with dissolved lead ion to form insoluble lead sulfate. The produced leaching residue was mainly composed of sulfur, lead sulphate, quartz, molybdenite, and unleached chalcopyrite and pyrite. Compared with the traditional FeCl3, HCl-NaClO3, HNO3system, the proposed MSA medium is proved to be biodegradable, low toxic, less volatile, and thus has broad application prospects in bismuth green hydrometallurgy.

Indexed by:Journal paper

Discipline:Engineering

Document Type:J

Volume:194

Page Number:105347

Translation or Not:no

Date of Publication:2020-04-22

Included Journals:SCI