摘要 |
The processes of the present disclosure can comprise feeding a furnace with a raw material chosen from a copper-containing material, a nickel-containing material, a cobalt-containing material and mixtures thereof. These materials can be quite complex and contain various levels of impurities and valuable metals (base metals, precious metals, platinum group metals, minor metals). The processes allow the volatilization of arsenic and indium contained therein, thereby obtaining a material at least partially depleted in at least one of arsenic and indium, wherein before volatilizing the material, composition of the material is optionally modified so as to obtain a ratio % S/(%(Cu/2)+%Ni+%Co) of about 0.5 to about 2. The processes can comprise feeding a melting device with the depleted material, and with a source of carbon in order to obtain a multi-layer product and an off gas, wherein before melting the depleted material, the depleted material composition is optionally modified so as to obtain a ratio % S/(% (Cu/2)+%Ni+%Co) of about 0.5 to about 2. While one of the main purposes of the processes of the present disclosure is to recover Cu, Ni and Co from complex materials, it also provides a means of recovering several other metals, including In, Ge, Pb, Bi, precious metals and platinum group metals. Cu, Ni, Co and other metals are conveniently recovered in different products from the processes (gaseous, dust, slag, matte, speiss and metal). |