Physicochemical and environmental characteristics of alkali leaching residue of wolframite and process for valuable metals recovery

Physicochemical and mineralogical characteristics of an alkali leaching residue of wolframite were studied by XRD,SEM−EDS,chemical phase analysis,mineral liberation analyzer(MLA),and TG−DSC methods.Batch leaching tests,toxicity characteristic leaching procedure(TCLP)tests and Chinese standard leaching tests(CSLT)were conducted to determine the environmental mobility of toxic elements.The results show that,due to the high contents of W,Fe,Mn,Sn,and Nb,the residue is with high resource value,but the content of a toxic element,As,is also high.The existing minerals of the investigated elements mainly occur as monomer particles,but it is difficult to extract these valuable metals by conventional acid leaching due to their mineral properties.The release of As increases over time in acidic environment.The leaching concentration of all investigated harmful elements through TCLP is within the limiting value,while the leaching concentration of As through CSLT exceeds the limiting value by more than 4 times,so the residue is classified as hazardous solid waste based on the Chinese standard.A process for valuable metals recovery from this residue was proposed.Preliminary experimental results indicated that the main valuable metals could be extracted effectively.

Tungsten and arsenic substance flow analysis of a hydrometallurgical process for tungsten extracting from wolframite

In this study,the metabolism of a hydrometallurgical process for tungsten extracting from wolframite was studied through substance flow analysis.The mass balance accounts,substance flow charts of tungsten and arsenic were established to evaluate the metabolism efficiency of the investigated system.The results showed that,the total tungsten resource efficiency of the system was 97.56%,and the tungsten recovery of unit process autoclaved alkali leaching,ion exchange,Mo removing,concentration and crystallization was 98.16%,98.94%,99.71%,99.89%,respectively.Meanwhile,for extracting 1 ton of tungsten into the qualified ammonium paratungstate,10.0414 kg of arsenic was carried into the system,with the generation of 7.2801 kg of arsenic in alkali leaching residue,1.5067 kg of tungsten in arsenic waste residue,and 1.2312 kg of tungsten in Mo residue.Besides,7.9 g of arsenic was discharged into nature environment with waste water,15.5 g of arsenic was entrained into the final APT.The distribution and transformation behaviors of arsenic during production were analyzed through phases change analysis,and some recommendations for improving the resource efficiency of tungsten and pollution control during production were also proposed based on the substance flow analysis in this study.