Innovative oxidative system for leaching of Fe2+ from sphalerite concentrate

Abstract

Sphalerite is a sulfide zinc mineral, which also contains supporting metals such as iron, copper and lead. In this work, we dealt with the extraction of iron from sphalerite in a new oxidation system. Manganese dioxide was used as the primary oxidant, and KI was used as a secondary oxidizing agent with the aim of creating an I2/I- oxidation cycle in a sulfuric acid medium. The thoughtful characterization (XRD, SEM, EDS) of the initial sample, as well as the precipitate formed after leaching was done. During the leaching tests, process parameters were varied