Recovery of Metallic values from Industrial Brass Dross

Studies were undertaken for the recovery of metallic values from a sample of industrial brass containing studies with sulphuric acid indicated that much of the copper and zinc remained undissolved in the form of metallics. Wet grinding of the sample liberated the adhering oxide coatings and facilitated the separation of metallics by simple panning operation; which amounted to 55% of the original sample and analysed 56.16% copper and 37.7% zinc. The slime analyzing 3.09% total copper and 34.5% total zinc was leached with dilute sulphuric acid in which 70% of the zinc dissolved. An overall recovery of 95.4% of zinc and 94.1% of copper was obtained.