The mineralogical characterization of tellurium in copper anodes

A mineralogical study of a «normal» commercial copper anode and six tellurium-rich copper anodes from the CCR Refinery of the Noranda Copper Smelting and Refining Company was carried out to identify the tellurium carriers and their relative abundances. In all the anodes, the major tellurium carrier is the Cu₂Se-Cu₂Te phase which occurs as a constituent of complex inclusions at the copper grain boundaries. In tellurium-rich anodes, the molar tellurium content of the Cu₂Se-Cu₂Te phase can exceed that of selenium. Although >85 pct of the tellurium occurs as the Cu₂Se-Cu₂Te phase, minor amounts are present in Cu-Pb-As-Bi-Sb oxide, Cu-Bi-As oxide, and Cu-Te-As oxide phases which form part of the grain-boundary inclusions. About 1 pct of the tellurium content of silver-rich anodes occurs in various silver alloys, but gold tellurides were never detected. Surprising is the fact that 2 to 8 pct of the total tellurium content of the anodes occurs in solid solution in the copper-metal matrix, and presumably, this form of tellurium dissolves at the anode interface during electrorefining.