Abstract: In order to improve the technology of extracting noble metals from the copper anode slime， the technological mineralogy investigation of the anode slime was studied by XRD， SEM and optical microscope. The results showed that the particle size in the anode slime which was less than 38μm accounted for 7853%， the particle size ranged from 38 to 45μm accounted for 935%， and that of more than 45μm accounted for 1212%. The main elements were Ni， Cu， Se， Ag， Au. The main phases were gold and its alloys， silver and its compounds， copper and its compounds， nickel oxide， barium sulfate， and pyrite etc.. The gold and silver were major noble metals， individual small particles of gold was aurum lead alloy， and silver existed in forms of silver selenide and eukairite. Copper and nickel were major base metals， copper existed in native copper， copper sulphate， copper selenide and eukairite. Nickel was mainly nickel oxide. The anode slime of the copper was formed with copper sulphate as the matrix， and the native copper often coated with the nickel oxide.

Key words: copper anode slime, technological mineralogy, gold and silver, noble metals, phases