| An overview of the recovery of gold and silver from lead and silver slag was presented in this paper, including the physical and chemical properties of silver and lead slag, the content of valuable metals in the slag, the occurrence states of silver and gold, the reported recovery methods and their application and the recent research progress. Lead-silver slag has fine particle size, strong acidity and high soluble content. The minerals in the slag have undergone phase transformation from sulfide to oxide and exist in the form of reconstituted minerals, making the slag difficult to be concentrated. However, the slag has considerable economic value, due to the high content of copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver in it. At present, the main methods of recovering gold and silver from lead and silver slag are flotation, hydro-metallurgy, pyro-metallurgy, combined process of hydro and pyro-metallurgy, combined process of selecting and smelting. By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of each method, it was pointed out that flotation method is a simple process with low cost, but the resulting recovery of gold and silver is not satisfactory. The latter three methods, despite good industrial application, involve the complicated processes, leading to high costs. As for the combined process of selecting and smelting, it has the advantages of strong adaptability and easy continuous operation and high recovery rates, showing great potential for further development and wide application. |
