First results of using mineral concentration methods for metal recover from technogenically contaminated soils with significant organic concentrations

The purpose of the article is to present the research results on the application of concentration methods to hazardous waste from the industrial site of the former Vostsibelement battery plant located in the town of Svirsk, Irkutsk region (Russia), which is the facility of accumulated environmental damage. The previous studies have identified significant contents of heavy metals and arsenic that exceed standard values by hundreds and thousands of times in the industrial site soils. This fact determines soil high hazard class – II and III. To reduce the hazard class and decrease the volume of hazardous waste it is proposed to use a recuperative approach, that means to recover some metals and arsenic in order to return them in economic circulation. A spiral concentrator, a shaking table and a centrifugal concentrator were used for gravity concentration of metals and arsenic. The best results were obtained using a shaking table. The latter made it possible to increase the lead content in the concentrate by 22 times as compared to the content in the original sample, arsenic content by 7.7 times, and iron content by 16.7 times. Magnetic concentration of the shaking table middlings made it possible to obtain a concentrate with a high content and recovery of iron, copper and zinc. Despite the fact that the soil waste contains a significant amount of organic matter unlike the case of ore processing, the possibility of successful metal recover and significant reduction of metal concentrations in soil is shown. The proposals for a further waste-recycling scheme are made on the basis of the data obtained.