Zinc carbonate recovery from brass melting slag

Abstract

Brass melting slag (20.38 wt.% Zn) was leached in sulfuric acid with concentration of (50 + 80) g/l H2SO4, leaching temperature of (30 + 60) °C for (30 + 120) min. The optimized conditions for 94.16% Zn extraction from brass melting slag were found as 70 g/l H2SO4, room temperature and 90 min. The leaching solution was purified by removal of Fe through Fe(OH)3 precipitation when adding ZnO to adjust pH value of 5. The solution was continuously cemented by Zn metal at 60 °C for 60 min to obtain Cu metal with high purity of 99 wt.% Cu. The purified solution with 37.64 g/l Zn was modified by Na2C03 to have pH value of about 6 and precipitation of ZnC03 (94.14 %).