a b s t r a c tChemical composition and liberation are critical attributes in characterizing a resource stock for beneficiation investigations. Though end-of-life printed circuit board is recognized as a valuable secondary resource stock, no procedural standard exists for the determination of its chemical composition, nor for the À75 lm fines generated during its comminution. The effect of the digestion procedure on the final assays in wet spectroscopic analyses was assessed in this work. Liberation was also explored against literature background. Determination of assays of all constituent elements in printed circuit board comminution fines was found to require comparison of data from more than one digestion condition, while composite particles still persist at the fines sizes, though very few. The discussion reflects how these impact the beneficiation investigations.

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Highlights • This article will show that the quick leach model, also called the water-starved system, limits silica solubilisation and its subsequent polymerisation during manganese extraction from ferromanganese slags. • It will further illustrate that the silica content in the residue is dependent on the acid concentration used during acid digestion. It will also show that dissolved silica in the pregnant leach solution is dependent on the quantity of water used. • Furthermore, a method for silica gel recovery from ferromanganese slag will be presented, as well as the silica gel analysis, in order to confirm the theory presented in this article. • The silica and calcium sulphate-rich residue can be used as an addition to Portland cement or as a gypsum replacement.

Electrowinning circuits normally use a number of additives in the electrolyte to promote smooth, compact deposits. These cathodes have the best levels of purity. When electrowinning is coupled to a solvent extraction operation, it is important to minimize the amount of surface-active additives used, as their presence tends to increase phase-disengagement times. In the present work the effects of Magnafloc 333 and chloride concentration were studied with the aim of minimizing the amounts currently being added, while producing an acceptable copper cathode morphology. Magnafloc 333 is a non-ionic polyacrylamide that promotes the plating of smooth, dense copper deposits with minimal impurities. Chloride is added to promote the growth of dense, fine-grained, low-impurity copper deposits on the cathode. A Hull cell was used for the test work. Optimum Magnafloc 333 and chloride concentrations for a synthetic plant electrolyte were found to be 0.01 g/L and 0.025 g/L, respectively. These concentrations were then used to plate laboratory-scale copper cathodes from synthetic and plant electrolytes. Scanning electron microscopy was used to analyse the morphology of the cathodes plated. Many polyhedral crystals were deposited from the synthetic electrolytes, but deposits from the plant electrolytes tended to be spherical, with a large degree of porosity at the lower Magnafloc 333 concentration of 0.01 g/L. Polyhedral deposits were associated with high-quality, smooth plated cathodes.