High Antimony Lead Anode Mud To Deal With New Technology

In this paper, the components of antimony-rich lead anode slime and its traditional treatment technologies were summarized roundly. Simultaneously, the behaviors of antimony and arsenic in the process of various treatment technologies were discussed. A new technology of vacuum volatilization with numerous advantages over existing technologies was developed by our work. In influence of the treatment temperature, residual gas pressure and vacuum treatment time on separation effects were completely investigated.Firstly, the possibility of treating antimony-rich lead anode slime by vacuum volatilization was determined, according to the study of volatilization rate of pure antimony trioxide. Because most antimony in lead anode slime of the first factory is trivalent, volatilization ratio (Rv) of the lead anode slime is 74% (removal ratio (Rm) of antimony is above 95%) and productivity of precious lead is 18% after 2 hours' vacuum volatilization at 1023K and residual gas pressure of 100Pa. The produced precious lead contains 66.24% by weight of lead, 14.94% by weight of antimony and 12.84% by weight of silver. The condensate is so pure that it can be used as zero-grade (China standard) antimony trioxide. Furthermore, condensate of different morphologies can be gained at different cooling-temperature. Average radius of condensate powder produced with cooling of room temperature is less than 20um. Rv of lead anode slime of the other factory is not more than 30% because valence of part antimony in the lead anode slime is higher than trivalence. But Rv can reach 64% (Rm is above 98%) and productivity of precious lead is 32.46% after 1 hour's vacuum volatilization at the temperature of 1023K and residual gas pressure 150~600Pa when 3.5% by weight of polyethylene resin was added in the lead anode slime.The experimental results showed that vacuum technology for processing of antimony-rich lead anode slime obviously has numerous advantages over existing technologies.