Measurement of Gold and Other Metals in Electronic and Automotive Waste Using Gamma Activation Analysis

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• 作者：James Tickner ; Ravindra Rajarao ; Bojan Lovric…
• 关键词：Electronic waste ; Automotive waste ; Gold ; Precious metals ; Toxic elements ; Gamma activation analysis
• 刊名：Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：December 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：2
• 期：4
• 页码：296-303
• 全文大小：1071KB
• 刊物类别：Metallic Materials; Sustainable Development; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering;
• 刊物主题：Sustainable Development; Metallic Materials;
• 出版者：Springer International Publishing
• ISSN：2199-3831
• 卷排序：2

文摘

CSIRO is developing the method of gamma activation analysis (GAA) for the rapid, non-destructive analysis of gold and other metals in mineral ores. Samples are irradiated with high-energy X-rays produced using a linear electron accelerator, resulting in activation of target elements. The gamma-rays emitted during the decays of the radioactive products of these activation reactions can be analyzed to determine the sample composition. Both the incident X-rays and emitted gamma-rays are sufficiently penetrating to allow large, heterogeneous samples to be analyzed directly without sampling or pre-treatment. We have recently conducted a preliminary study to investigate the application of the GAA method to the analysis of bulk electronic and automotive waste materials supplied by the SMaRT Centre at the University of New South Wales. The electronic waste gold contents vary from 80 to more than 800 parts-per-million (ppm), and silver contents range from 250–350 ppm; no gold or silver is observed in the automotive waste material. Consequently, the metal value of these waste materials is highly variable and can reach up to US$30,000 per tonne. Qualitative analysis demonstrates that the GAA method is capable of detecting a range of other economically and environmentally important elements in these samples, including copper, bromine, tin, lead, and tantalum. The speed and simplicity of the GAA method make it well suited to rapid waste characterization.