A New Approach to the Determination of Silicon in Zinc, Lead-Bearing Materials and in Waste Using the ICP-OES Method

This work describes the implementation of the ICP-OES silicon determination method for zinc and lead-bearing materials and waste at the Mining and Metallurgical Works ZGH “Bolesław”. The proposed method was validated. On the basis of linearity tests, it was found that the course of the calibration curve is linear up to a silicon concentration of 100 mg/L, with the determined working range being 0.10–50%. Precision tests, on the basis of which the repeatability was checked, were carried out for nine types of real samples: zinc sulfides, zinc oxides, zinc-lead ore, lead sulfide and zinc-bearing waste. Real samples and six certified reference materials were tested using the ICP-OES radial position. The identified interferences of molybdenum, chromium and vanadium did not statistically significantly affect the measurement results.