| abstract |
An improvement in hydrometallurgical recovery of metals, i.e. copper, zinc, cadmium, germanium, indium, lead, silver, gold, antimony and bismuth from materials such as flue dust containing arsenic in which the metals are selectively separated in successive process steps for final recovery, the improvement comprising precipitating arsenic as an insoluble ferric-arsenic compound in the first processing step, carrying the insoluble arsenic compound through subsequent processing steps in which it is insoluble until the other metals have been recovered leaving the ferric-arsenic compound as the final residue which can be disposed of without violating pollution requirements or converted to soluble sodium arsenate and recovered from solution by crystallization. |