Dry cell treatment by mineral processing methods.

Work has been carried out to characterise dry battery scrap and establish a processing flowsheet. This was done using hammer mill grinding, size separation, magnetic separation and specific weight separation in water. Yields from each stage were characterised using chemical analysis and X-ray diffractometry. After size classification, 76.6% of the total amount of Zn was over 1.70 mm. This fraction was mainly Zn and some coarse pieces from the steel body, paper and plastics. This was submitted to magnetic separation followed by weight separation. A visual examination showed that during grinding, graphite was concentrated in the finer fractions. Concentration of Mn in the fractions over 6.35 mm was less than 2%, implying low contamination by the paste in this fraction. It is concluded that the processing techniques were very effective, with Zn recovery possible once the losses in grinding are minimised.
Work has been carried out to characterise dry battery scrap and establish a processing flowsheet. This was done using hammer mill grinding, size separation, magnetic separation and specific weight separation in water. Yields from each stage were characterised using chemical analysis and X-ray diffractometry. After size classification, 76.6% of the total amount of Zn was over 1.70 mm. This fraction was mainly Zn and some coarse pieces from the steel body, paper and plastics. This was submitted to magnetic separation followed by weight separation. A visual examination showed that during grinding, graphite was concentrated in the finer fractions. Concentration of Mn in the fractions over 6.35 mm was less than 2%, implying low contamination by the paste in this fraction. It is concluded that the processing techniques were very effective, with Zn recovery possible once the losses in grinding are minimised.