Abstract:
The precipitation of Fe
3O
4 particles and the accompanied formation of Fe
3O
4-wrapped copper structure are the main obstacles to copper recovery from the molten slag during the pyrometallurgical smelting of copper concentrates. Herein, the commercial powdery pyrite or anthracite is replaced with pyrite–anthracite pellets as the reductants to remove a large amount of Fe
3O
4 particles in the molten slag, resulting in a deep fracture in the Fe
3O
4-wrapped copper microstructure and the full exposure of the copper matte cores. When 1wt% composite pellet is used as the reductant, the copper matte droplets are enlarged greatly from 25 μm to a size observable by the naked eye, with the copper content being enriched remarkably from 1.2wt% to 4.5wt%. Density functional theory calculation results imply that the formation of the Fe
3O
4-wrapped copper structure is due to the preferential adhesion of Cu
2S on the Fe
3O
4 particles. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy results all reveal that the high-efficiency conversion of Fe
3O
4 to FeO can decrease the volume fraction of the solid phase and promote the depolymerization of silicate network structure. As a consequence, the settling of copper matte droplets is enhanced due to the lowered slag viscosity, contributing to the high efficiency of copper–slag separation for copper recovery. The results provide new insights into the enhanced
in-situ enrichment of copper from molten slag.