Potential Contribution to the Supply of Silver by the Recycling of Industrial Residues from Zn, Pb and Cu Plants

Abstract

The focus of recycling processes for industrial residues from lead, zinc and copper industry in the past was mainly on the recovery of the base metals. Silver, gold or also PGMs are well-known valuable side elements in the corresponding ores and with this significant contents can be found in some of the residues but were not recovered in the past. Therefore, the recovery of for instance silver is highly interesting, beside the above described base metals to contribute to the overall economy of a potential recycling process, although they occur in much smaller quantities in materials like tailings, sludge, slags or dusts. As an example, the annually produced and mainly dumped amount of zinc leach residues contains roughly 500 tons of silver beside lead, zinc and others. Therefore, the present paper tries to answer how recycling of such industrial residues can contribute for example to the supply of silver or also other precious metals.