Location
Innovation Lab Atrium
Start Date
4-3-2025 2:00 PM
End Date
4-3-2025 3:30 PM
Presentation Date
3 April 2025, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Meeting Name
2025 - Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference
Department(s)
Materials Science and Engineering
Document Type
Poster
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
event
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2025 The Authors, All rights reserved
Included in
Apr 3rd, 2:00 PM
Apr 3rd, 3:30 PM
Physical Characterization of Copper Anode Slimes
Innovation Lab Atrium
Comments
Advisor: Michael S. Moats
Abstract:
Copper anode slimes (CAS) are formed during copper electrorefining and contain critical materials: platinum group metals and tellurium (Te). Currently, only 29% of Te is recovered from CAS despite its growing demand for use in CdTe photovoltaic cells. A factor in the low recovery of Te is a wide range of composition variation in CAS. This variation derives from the original copper source – e.g. mineral concentrates or recycled scrap. Industrial CAS from anodes generated from concentrates or scrap have been physically characterized. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to identify the primary crystalline phases, structure, and composition differences. Results show the same primary crystalline phases were lead sulfate (PbSO4), barite (BaSO4), and CuAgSe. CAS from concentrates have higher contents of silver, bismuth, and arsenic. Structurally, the CAS from concentrates or scrap are similar with the expectation of nickel oxide particles generated from concentrate originated anodes.