Antimony and arsenic substance flow analysis in antimony pyrometallurgical process

Substance flow analysis was applied to an antimony pyrometallurgical system. By taking antimony and arsenic as the objective elements, the mass balance and substance flow charts based on the production system were established, and evaluating indicators such as the direct recovery rate, waste recovery rate, and resource efficiency were set up. The results show that the resource efficiency of antimony is 89.21%, and the recovery rates of antimony in volatilization smelting, reduction smelting, and refining are 78.79%, 91.00%, 96.06%, respectively. At the same time, for 1 t of antimony produced, 11.94 kg of arsenic is carried into the smelting system. Arsenic is a major impurity element in the smelting process. The distribution behavior of arsenic in the main process was analyzed. Based on the substance flow analysis, some recommendations for improving the resource efficiency of antimony and cleaner production were proposed.