Purification of Silica from Tin Tailing by Acid Leaching Methods

Abstract

Tin mining will leave industrial waste in the form of tin tailings. Physically, the main content of tin tailing is sand that can hardly be utilized for agricultural purposes. Tailings contain only a small amount of nutrients and may contain toxic compounds. In this article we developed a method of purifying silica from tin tailings sand by acid leaching method. Silica is a material that can be used for various purposes such as in the process of thermal treatment, building construction, and bioengineering. Based on the results of XRF analysis, acid compounds can increase the purity of Si element in tin tailings and reduce metal elements. The x-ray diffraction patterns also confirmed that the dominant crystal phase in the purified sands was α-SiO2. The highest silica content was obtained on the use of nitric acid with silica concentration of 90.40%. Keywords—Tin, Tailing, Silica, Leaching