9. Recycling

Antimony recycling is mainly linked to antimony-lead recycling, most of which comes from secondary lead smelters: these are produced by smelting together used battery plates, antifriction alloys and lead scraps with varying levels of antimony.

The mixture of these various elements is homogenized and refined in a small shaft furnace (1 to 5 m long, 1 to 2 m wide), a short rotary furnace (5 m long, 3.5 m in diameter) or a BSF (Bath Smelting Furnace). Decoking takes place by sulfidation, with impurities then oxidized by oxygen-enriched air [M 2 264] . The antimony follows the lead, and the...