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Comprehensive study on the extraction of zinc and indium and indium from zinc residue rich in zinc ferrite, A

Kashyap, Vivek
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Taylor, Patrick R.
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2021
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2021 - Mines Theses & Dissertations
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https://hdl.handle.net/11124/14248
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Abstract
The role of critical metals in sustainable future technological developments has surged the drive for technological improvement in extraction of critical metals such as indium and gallium. Gallium and indium are regarded as critical metals given their increasing demand and scarce availability. Gallium and indium occur as trace metals in zinc and bauxite ores and are globally produced as by-product from zinc and aluminium refineries. However, primary production of gallium and indium is zero in United States and thus, a viable process development is required in order to avoid a future supply-chain disruption. The global demands of indium and gallium have been predicted to witness a surge of about 2.5 and 8 times, respectively in next decade, owing mostly to their application in low carbon technology. Zinc residues are a potential source of indium, whereas gallium is mostly extracted from Bayer’s liquor. 90% of worldwide production of gallium is from Bayer’s liquor, whereas indium is also produced from lead and tin processing circuits. A potential problem in zinc residue treatment is the presence of zinc ferrite. Zinc ferrite is a very stable and refractory oxide, formed at high temperature and pressure during oxidative roasting of sphalerite concentrate. The current study explores a possible method for extraction of zinc and indium from a zinc residue rich in zinc ferrite via a low temperature reduction roasting of zinc ferrite followed by leaching and precipitation. Zinc residue contained about 22% zinc and 850 ppm indium, making it a potential source of extraction of these metals. The optimization of reduction roasting of zinc ferrite was performed to determine optimum conditions. Isoconversional kinetic analyses of reduction roasting of zinc ferrite was also performed in order to understand reaction control mechanisms. The optimization of reduction roasting was performed on pure zinc ferrite samples, which was further applied for decomposition of zinc ferrite present in zinc residues. The zinc residues contained 83% zinc ferrite, making it refractory to leaching. Zinc ferrite was completely decomposed at relatively low temperature, i.e., 600°C. The decomposition of zinc ferrite phase was found to have remarkable effect on leaching efficiency of zinc and indium. The roasting product obtained was subjected to leaching at various conditions. An extensive leaching study was carried out to study the leaching behavior of zinc and indium. Single step and multiple step leaching were performed to explore extraction of target elements. Multiple step leaching was proposed to facilitate high zinc and indium extraction as well as to enrich metal concentration in aqueous solution. A maximum indium concentration of 0.121 g/L was obtained from two-step leaching. The precipitation study revealed that about 99% indium precipitation can be achieved at relatively lower pH, producing a concentrate containing more than 8% indium. A preliminary economic analysis was also carried out to understand the barriers and possible ways for the commercial application of proposed method.
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