Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia

Birich, Alexander; Friedrich, Bernd; Gronen, Lars; Katzmarzyk, Janet; Silin, Ivan; Wotruba, Hermann

doi:10.3390/met8020114

Open AccessArticle

Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia

by

Alexander Birich

^1,*

,

Bernd Friedrich

¹

,

Lars Gronen

²

,

Janet Katzmarzyk

³,

Ivan Silin

³

and

Hermann Wotruba

³

¹

Institute of Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling, RWTH-Aachen University, Intzestr. 3, 52056 Aachen, Germany

²

Institute of Applied Mineralogy and Economic Geology, RWTH-Aachen University, Wüllnerstr. 2, D-52062 Aachen, Germany

³

Unit of Mineral Processing, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstr. 4-20, D-52064 Aachen, Germany

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Metals 2018, 8(2), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/met8020114

Submission received: 27 October 2017 / Revised: 29 January 2018 / Accepted: 2 February 2018 / Published: 7 February 2018

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Abstract

Very often, the production of silver causes devastating environmental issues, because of the use of toxic reagents like cyanide and mercury. Due to severe environmental damage caused by humans in the last decades, the social awareness regarding the sustainable production processes is on the rise. Terms like “sustainable” and “green” in product descriptions are becoming more and more popular and producers are forced to satisfy the rising environmental awareness of their customers. Within this work, an alternative environmental sound silver recovery process was developed for a vein type silver ore from Mina Porka, Bolivia. A foregoing characterization of the input material reveals its mineral composition. In the following mineral processing, around 92.9% silver was concentrated by separating 59.5 wt. % of non-silver minerals. Nitric acid leaching of the generated concentrate enabled a silver recovery of up to 98%. The dissolved silver was then separated via copper cementation to generate a metallic silver product of >99% purity. Summarizing all process steps, a silver yield of 87% was achieved in lab scale. A final upscaling trial was conducted to prove the process’ robustness. Within this trial, almost 4 kg of metallic silver with a purity of higher than 99.5 wt. % was produced.

Keywords: green silver; sustainable production; QEMSCAN; flotation; cyanide free

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MDPI and ACS Style

Birich, A.; Friedrich, B.; Gronen, L.; Katzmarzyk, J.; Silin, I.; Wotruba, H. Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia. Metals 2018, 8, 114. https://doi.org/10.3390/met8020114

AMA Style

Birich A, Friedrich B, Gronen L, Katzmarzyk J, Silin I, Wotruba H. Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia. Metals. 2018; 8(2):114. https://doi.org/10.3390/met8020114

Chicago/Turabian Style

Birich, Alexander, Bernd Friedrich, Lars Gronen, Janet Katzmarzyk, Ivan Silin, and Hermann Wotruba. 2018. "Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia" Metals 8, no. 2: 114. https://doi.org/10.3390/met8020114

APA Style

Birich, A., Friedrich, B., Gronen, L., Katzmarzyk, J., Silin, I., & Wotruba, H. (2018). Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia. Metals, 8(2), 114. https://doi.org/10.3390/met8020114

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Alternative Silver Production by Environmental Sound Processing of a Sulfo Salt Silver Mineral Found in Bolivia

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