Technology, in addition to supply and demand, is driving current advances in mineral processing. Over the past three decades, demand for various minerals has continued to rise, while the mineral processing sector has faced challenges such as the need for more sophisticated ore treatment, lower plant feed quality, and poorer plant performance due to mixing of ores with varying characteristics. Gravity separation has long been a cost-effective method for the mining industry, especially in the processing of precious metals. Copper anode slime contains significant amounts of gold, silver, and platinum group metals. In this study, we tested the functionality of a slime shaking table for recovering precious metal components by recycling barite particles from the copper anode slime. Additionally, we used several characterization methods, including backscattered electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and physical testing, to improve our understanding of the copper anode slime particle phases. This study highlights the challenges associated with recycling and processing secondary materials and demonstrates the complexity of physical separation methods for extracting barite particles from copper anode slime.

除了供需之外，技术正在推动矿物加工的当前进步。在过去的三十年里，对各种矿物的需求持续上升，而矿物加工行业面临着诸如需要更复杂的矿石处理、较低的工厂进料质量以及由于不同特性的矿石混合导致工厂性能较差等挑战. 长期以来，重力分离一直是采矿业的一种经济高效的方法，尤其是在贵金属加工方面。铜阳极泥含有大量的金、银和铂族金属。在这项研究中，我们测试了用于通过从铜阳极泥中回收重晶石颗粒来回收贵金属成分的泥摇床的功能。此外，我们使用了几种表征方法，包括背散射电子显微镜、能量色散 X 射线光谱、光学显微镜和物理测试，以提高我们对铜阳极泥颗粒相的理解。本研究强调了与回收和加工二次材料相关的挑战，并展示了从铜阳极泥中提取重晶石颗粒的物理分离方法的复杂性。