JSC Uralintech (Yekaterinburg, Russia)

Е. А. Ryabukhin, Head of Refining Production, e.ryabukhin@pm-ural.com
V. А. Skomorokhov, Deputy Director of Production, sv@pm-ural.com

Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin (Yekaterinburg, Russia)

V. G. Lobanov, Associate Professor of the Department of Metallurgy of Nonferrous Metals, Candidate of Technical Sciences, v.g.lobanov@urfu.ru

The purpose of this work is to comprehensively verify the technology of two-stage processing of hydroxide precipitation of nitration (HPN) formed at the stage of rhodium refining during the treatment of chloride solutions with sodium nitrite. The raw material for refining platinum group metals (PGMs) at JSC Uralintech is the combined PGM concentrate produced at PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel. The main components of HPN formed during the processing of these raw materials are selenium, tellurium, copper, and lead. The total content of precious metals in this product reaches 0.8–1.5%, which implies the need for its processing. For the processing of HPN, a technological concept has been adopted that solves two tasks: the complete preservation of precious metals in the undissolved residue and the maximum possible removal of base metals into the solution. For these purposes, hydrate precipitates have been successively treated with an alkaline solution and a solution of complexones in the presence of a reducing agent, after which hydrochloric acid has been used to remove base metals. Granular aluminum has been used as a reducing agent in the first stage. Oxyethylidene diphosphonic acid has been used as a complexing agent during lead leaching. The results of an extensive test of the presented technology have shown the possibility of extracting 85% selenium, 74% tellurium, and 66% lead into the solution from HPN. The yield of the undissolved residue is 6.5%, while the content of the amount of precious metals in this product is more than 20%.

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