Cledwyn T. Mangunda, Olga Kuipa
Cupels are generated by mines during the fire assaying of precious group metals. The cupels contain lead which is a known environmental hazard hence the need to recover it. This work illustrates how leaching and electrowinning processes can be combined to produce a hybrid lead recovery process. Bench scale tests were conducted for the hybrid leaching and electrowinning process using Methane Sulfonic Acid (MSA) as a leaching solvent at a concentration of 200g MSA per litre of water. A glass electrowinning cell fitted with a 9cm × 4cm pure lead cathode and 9cm × 4cm graphite anode with inter electrode gap of 15cm and a magnetic stirrer bar was used. Lead laden cupels (containing 30g lead) were subjected to simultaneous leaching and electrowinning and lead recovery after a period of 80 minutes was found to be 98%. The hybrid process was found to require about 20% less solvent than that required for the conventional leaching process which requires multiple stages to reduce the concentration of the solute in the raffinate to the same extent.
@article{5e9633ea-b149-4849-8a61-9206bfe8a2df,
title={Recovery of Lead from Lead Laden Cupels},
author={Cledwyn T. Mangunda and Olga Kuipa},
year={2026},
language={en}
}TY - JOUR TI - Recovery of Lead from Lead Laden Cupels AU - Cledwyn T. Mangunda AU - Olga Kuipa PY - 2026 LA - en ER -
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