New pathway for utilization of jarosite, an industrial waste of zinc hydrometallurgy

Generated by zinc hydrometallurgical production and containing several toxic species, jarosite has been little used or beneficiated to date. Utilization of can save mining resources producing valuable products, reduce potential hazards from disposal. To avoid high energy consumption as in the roasting steps current process, hydrometallurgy various an original process aimed at zinc-iron alloys industrial waste. The designed consists three main steps: (i) leaching sulfuric acid solutions yielding Fe(III) Zn(II) species; (ii) reduction Fe(II) upon addition blende; (iii) electrodeposition alloy recovered acidic Fe-Zn solution. Care was also taken limit amount alkali be added maintaining pH a narrow range; moreover, no specific additives were employed. have investigated most suitable conditions for yields identified. Among impurities minerals solution, copper ions had removed preferential prior deposition Zn-Fe alloys. Nevertheless, these results indicated need divided cell galvanic interference this last operation Fe(II)/Fe(III) couple, which found faradaic yield 69% first minutes 30% after 30 min.