Copper anode slime secondary resource
Heterogeneous residue generated during electrolytic refining of copper, containing feed-dependent mixtures of copper, precious metals, metalloids and other constituents. The studied Guixi-smelter material contained arsenic, antimony and bismuth together with copper, silver, selenium, tellurium, gold and lead. This owner denotes the refinery residue, not a mineral species, elemental copper, a standardized commodity, furnace flue dust, or the downstream copper autoclave slime already represented separately. Composition and processing behavior of the Guixi sample are not universal specifications. No criticality designation is inherited from its constituents.
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)
Abiotic acid-chloride mobilization from refinery residue
other
Laboratory sulfuric-acid/sodium-chloride treatment mobilized As, Sb, Bi and Cu from a characterized copper anode slime. The comparative leaching plots support added chloride improving antimony and bismuth mobilization under the tested conditions. This record accepts that bounded abiotic leaching observation; downstream product recovery is not established here. The reported liquid compositions do not close a feed-to-product mass balance.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
The material came from a Guixi smelter in southern China and was dried and crushed before beaker experiments with analytical-grade reagents and deionized water. Drying conditions, sample mass, vessel volume, stirring speed and biological or technical replicate counts were not specified. The selected leaching conditions were 4 mol/L H2SO4, 120 g/L NaCl, 70 degrees C, 2 h and 10 mL solution per gram of solid. The NaCl- and acid-concentration series in Figure 5a,b instead used 80 degrees C; these are separate test settings. Selective hydrolysis in Section 3.2.2 was conducted at 80 degrees C with NaOH adjustment to reported H+ concentrations of 0.8 g/L and then 0.2 g/L. These are acid-concentration settings, not pH values. The NaOH concentration and doses, precipitation time, liquid volumes and isolated solid masses were not supplied. No organism or microbial biomass was involved. This is a laboratory study of an industrial-origin feed, not evidence of industrial operation of the tested sequence.
The material came from a Guixi smelter in southern China and was dried and crushed before beaker experiments with analytical-grade reagents and deionized water. Drying conditions, sample mass, vessel volume, stirring speed and biological or technical replicate counts were not specified. The selected leaching conditions were 4 mol/L H2SO4, 120 g/L NaCl, 70 degrees C, 2 h and 10 mL solution per gram of solid. The NaCl- and acid-concentration series in Figure 5a,b instead used 80 degrees C; these are separate test settings. Selective hydrolysis in Section 3.2.2 was conducted at 80 degrees C with NaOH adjustment to reported H+ concentrations of 0.8 g/L and then 0.2 g/L. These are acid-concentration settings, not pH values. The NaOH concentration and doses, precipitation time, liquid volumes and isolated solid masses were not supplied. No organism or microbial biomass was involved. This is a laboratory study of an industrial-origin feed, not evidence of industrial operation of the tested sequence.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
zeng2023
Sections 2.1–2.2, 3.1 and Table 1 establish the real refinery residue and sample-specific chemical analysis. The authors report 21.43 wt% Cu, 5.805 wt% Sb, 2.868 wt% Bi and 5.569 wt% As in the tested solid. Figures 2–4 and Table 3 describe mixed phases; chemical phase-distribution percentages are fractions of the respective element, not bulk mineral abundances. The exact selective-dissolution scheme underlying Table 3 was not supplied. Neither individual EDS spots nor the complex bulk diffraction pattern establish pure mineral feedstocks or transferable species-specific extraction yields.
Support
Source:
zeng2023
Section 3.2.1 and Figure 5 compare acid-chloride leaching conditions, including the zero-added-NaCl arm of the concentration series. The reported trends support greater Sb and Bi mobilization with added chloride under the tested conditions. Chloride complexation and suppression of insoluble secondary phases are the authors' explanations, without direct dissolved-species identification. Increasing salt or acid beyond the selected settings did not uniformly improve release. These comparative laboratory observations do not demonstrate microbial extraction or a universal optimum.
Context_only
Source:
zeng2023
Section 3.2.2 and Table 4 report sequential hydrolysis, lower dissolved Sb and then Bi concentrations, and solid assays dominated by the corresponding element. The authors assign Sb4O5Cl2 at H+ 0.8 g/L and BiOCl at H+ 0.2 g/L, also labelled in the inspected graphical abstract. Full-size Figure 7 was not acquired after bounded public attempts, so its diffraction patterns are not independently verified here. These product assignments are retained as attributed context, not an accepted recovery mechanism or purity claim.
Partial
Source:
zeng2023
The abstract, Section 3.2.1 and conclusions report leaching efficiencies of 92.72% As, 99.98% Sb, 89.13% Bi and 90.31% Cu. Section 3.2.2 claims over 98% precipitation of Sb and Bi. These source-reported percentages are not adopted here as independently reconciled overall recoveries. Table 4 labels the initial liquid as containing 29,450 mg/L Sb and 28,050 mg/L Bi; those concentrations cannot be directly reconciled with Table 1 and the stated 10 mL/g leaching ratio without an unreported change of volume, composition or feed. The source does not resolve that relationship. NaOH addition also changes liquid volume, which is not reported, so concentration decreases alone cannot close the precipitation balance. The less-than-5 mg/L final Sb entry remains censored, not zero. No corrected yield is inferred.
Context_only
Source:
zeng2023
The Figure 6 caption and text describe a thermodynamic calculation at specified total Sb, Bi and chloride concentrations, not a measured precipitation experiment or proof of exclusive solution species. The subsequent arsenic stabilization and return of copper-bearing liquid to electrolysis are proposed downstream uses; their execution, copper product yield and environmental benefit were not demonstrated by this study. The broader industrial treatment discussion does not establish deployment of this laboratory route.
Sources & References
-
zeng2023: Zeng Y, Liao C, Liu F and Zhou X (2023). Occurrence Behaviors of As/Sb/Bi in Copper Anode Slime and Their Separation by Compound Leaching Followed by Stepwise Precipitation. ACS Omega 8(11):10022–10029. DOI 10.1021/acsomega.2c07251; PMID 36969429. Published online 10 March 2023, issue date 21 March 2023. Sections 2.1–2.2 and 3.1–3.2, Tables 1–4 and Figures 1–7.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c07251 (accessed 2026-10-16) -
pmc_original: PMC10034837, archived published article version 1 for Zeng et al. (2023). Complete original XML and Tables 1–4 inspected; original Figures 1–5 and graphical abstract recovered from complete CRC-verified entries of an interrupted public asset transfer and visually checked. Full-size Figures 6–7 were not acquired; their captions and accompanying text were read but not substituted for image inspection. This is the same experiment, not an independent replication.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10034837/ (accessed 2026-10-16)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-16T02:48:34.275892Z |
codex (GPT-6; codex) | CREATE | Added refinery-residue identity and bounded abiotic acid-chloride leaching evidence; retained accounting and figure-access limitations without adopting overall recovery. |
Record source: data/records/copper-anode-slime.yaml