Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia:

E. B. Khazieva, Leading Engineer, e-mail: e.b.khazieva@urfu.ru
S. S. Naboychenko, Professor, Head of a Chair of Non-Ferrous Metals Metallurgy
V. A. Menshchikov, Leading Engineer

Ural State Polytechnical University, Ekaterinburg, Russia:
V. V. Sviridov, Professor

High-temperature autoclave oxidation leaching of sulfide zinc concentrates is accompanied by elemental sulfur forming, which covers and blocks the mineral surface. This leads to decrease of the ratio of leaching and formation of sulfur-sulfide pellets. Application of surface-active substances allows to decrease the wettability of minerals by elemental sulfur and remove the pellet formation. This paper is devoted to investigation of the influence of the surface-active substances on the wettability of zinc sulfide and autoclave leaching of zinc concentrates. For this purpose, there was tested the range of anionic and cationic surface-active substances with various chemical composition. There was offered the method of definition of selective wettability of minerals according to the relation of spreading coefficients, which allows to define the potential efficiency of surface-active substances. There was also considered the influence of two contract-active reagents on the indicators of autoclave leaching of zinc concentrate. The joint usage of stabilizers and dispergators allows to increase the extraction of zinc, and remove the pellet formation with lesser reagent consumption. The positive effect of mixture of surface-active substances is reached due to the increasing of the zinc sulfide wettability with solution and due to the colloid protection of sulfur particles as a result of solvate-adsorption and structural stabilization factors. There are offered the optimal compositions of mixtures of surface-active substances, making possible the extraction of 95% of zinc with the absence of pellet formation.

1. Naboychenko S. S., Ni L. P., Shneerson Ya. M., Chugaev L. V. Autoclave hydrometallurgy of non-ferrous metals. Ekaterinburg: UGTU–UPI, 2002. 940 p.
2. Halfyard J. E., Hawboldt K. Separation of elemental sulfur from hydrometallurgical residue: A review. Hydrometallurgy. 2011. Vol. 109, No. 1–2. pp. 80–89.
3. Bin Xu, Yongbin Yang, Qian Li, Tao Jiang, Guanghui Li. Stage leaching of a complex polymetallic sulfide concentrate: Focus on the extraction of Ag and Au. Hydrometallurgy. 2016. Vol. 159. pp. 87–94.
4. Lampinen M., Laari A., Turunen I. Kinetic model for direct leaching of zinc sulfide concentrates at high slurry and solute concentration. Hydrometallurgy. 2015. Vol. 153. pp. 160–169.
5. Boduen A. Ya., Ivanov B. S., Ukraintsev I. V. Copper concentration from sulfide ore: state-of-the art and prospects. Non-ferrous Мetals. 2015. No. 1. pp. 17–20. DOI: 10.17580/nfm.2015.01.04
6. Ivanov B. S., Boduen A. Ya., Yagudina Yu. R., Cheremisina O. V. Conditioning of low grade concentrates produced by autoclave oxidation leaching of copper-zinc ore. Non-ferrous Мetals. 2015. No. 1. pp. 21–24. DOI: 10.17580/nfm.2015.01.05
7. Xu Bin, Zhong Hong, Jiang Tao. An investigation of oxygen pressure acid leaching of Gacun complex Cu-Pb bulk concentrate. Rare metals. 2012. Vol. 31, No. 1. pp. 96–101.
8. Zhi-feng Xu, Qing-zheng Jiang, Cheng-yan Wang. Atmospheric oxygen-rich direct leaching behavior of zinc sulphide concentrate. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China. 2013. Vol. 23, No. 12. pp. 3780–3787.
9. Naftal M. N., Naboychenko S. S. Search of efficient SAS for autoclaveoxidation leaching of nickel-pyrrhotyne concentrates. Tsvetnye Metally. 2010. No. 6. pp. 56–62.
10. Tong L., Dreisinger D. B. Interfacial properties of liquid sulfur in the pressure leaching of nickel concentrate. Minerals Engineering. 2009. Vol. 22, No. 5. pp. 456–461.
11. Owusu G., Dreisinger D. B. Interfacial properties determinations in liquid sulfur, aqueous zinc sulfate and zinc sulfide systems. Hydrometallurgy. 1996. Vol. 43, No. 1–3. pp 207–218.
12. Piskunov V. M., Reznichenko V. V. About the influence of lignosulfonates on indicators of cementation purification of zinc solutions from mixtures. Collection of scientific proceedings of VNIItsvetmet. Ust-Kamenogorsk : VNIItsvetmet, 2006. pp. 56–58.
13. Drweesh M. A. Effect of surfactants on the removal of copper from waste water by cementation. Alexandria Engineering Journal. 2004. Vol. 43, No. 6. pp. 917–925.
14. Shulga N. V., Gomolko L. A., Krutko N. P. Dependence of composition and characteristics of lignosulfonates on the procedures of their recovery and purification. Zhurnal prikladnoy khimii. 2008. Vol. 81, No. 7. pp. 1164–1170.
15. Timrot D. L., Traktueva S. A., Alekseeva B. A. Surface tension of liquid sulfur. Teplofizika vysokikh temperatur. Vol. 21, No. 5. pp. 884–889.
16. Sviridov V. V., Sviridov A. V., Nikiforov A. F. Physics and chemical basis of microflotation processes. Ekaterinburg : UGTU–UPI, 2006. 578 p.