Recovery Of Metals/Materials From Pyrometallurgical Slags

Slags are produced massively as a by product of the pyrometallurgical processes in the ferrous and non-ferrous industries. Therefore, large tonnages of slags have been historically accumulated during plant operation time. Currently slags are frequently used as base material in a wide spectrum of applications such as, road and harbour construction and railway ballast. However, there are some minor valuable components, with an appreciable market value today, which can be also recovered and hence give an additional value to the global economical balance of the metallurgical process. Thus, the slags can be valorised by the price of their minor components such as; copper, molybdenum, vanadium, and some precious metals, and by the iron oxides and silica which are present in larger quantities or by their bulk properties as industrial minerals. Therefore, the present work shows some cases on slags processing, where a characterization and recovery of valuable elements and/or compounds have been done. The major and minor components of slags, the mineralogy and their influence on the chemical and physical slag stability are also discussed. The possibility to treat this stock piled by-product as a new resource, is considered with a brief economic analysis of the operation and investments costs involved.