Feasibility of recovering metals from associated slags

The associated mineral ore accompanying Valuable Metal Compounds (VMC) have been usually treated in a smelting furnace ,such as Blast Furnace, Reverberatory, Blowing Furnace, hence the VMC were mostly concentrated into the molten associated slags and separated from liquid metals. So the associated slags become an important man-made resources (Table I), in which the VMC exist dispersively in various mineral phases with fine grain size1–4. Due to complex mineralogy and very fine mineral dissemination of the associated slags, it is difficult to recovery the VMC from the slags by metallurgical or mineral process conventionally . Based on several case studies in laboratory and practices in pilot plant on the associated slags , there occur a feasibility to recovery the VMC from the slags by a new process-Selective Precipitation Technique (SPT) on which three continuous steps are involved (in Figure 1).