An Alternative Process for Leaching Chalcopyrite Concentrate in Nitrate-Acid-Seawater Media with Oxidant Recovery

Self Cite

Although the main cause of hydrometallurgical plant closures is the depletion of oxidized copper minerals reserves, the lack of new hydrometallurgy projects also contributes to these closures. One solution is to be able to process copper sulphide ores hydrometallurgically. However, it is widely known that sulphide copper ores—and chalcopyrite in particular—have very slow dissolution kinetics in traditional leaching systems. An alternative to improve the extraction of copper from sulphide ores is the use of a pretreatment process. Several investigations were developed evaluating the effects of pretreatment, mainly in the extraction of copper from chalcopyrite in chloride media. This study presents a review of various pretreatment methods prior to heap leaching to aid in the dissolution of copper from sulphide ores. Different variables of pretreatment that affect the extraction of copper were identified, including the type of salts used in agglomeration, curing time, and curing temperatures. Successful cases such as the implementation of the CuproChlor® process (use of calcium chloride), and various pilot studies using sodium chloride and temperature, show that pretreatment is an alternative that aids in the dissolution of copper from sulphide ores.

Section: Effect Of Nitrate Additionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pretreatment of Copper Sulphide Ores Prior to Heap Leaching: A Review

Neira

Pizarro

Quezada

et al. 2021

Self Cite

“…Castellón et al [22] authored a submission entitled "An Alternative Process for Leaching Chalcopyrite Concentrate in Nitrate-Acid-Seawater Media with Oxidant Recovery". An alternative copper concentrate leaching process using sodium nitrate and sulfuric acid diluted in seawater followed by gas scrubbing to recover the sodium nitrate was evaluated.…”

Section: Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Mineral Processing and Hydrometallurgy

Anderson¹,

Cui²

2021

“…Different researches have been performed in acidic sulfuric media to accelerate the kinetics of chalcopyrite leaching. Recent researches have studied the chalcopyrite leaching in sulfuric acid with the presence of chloride and nitrate ions [15,16]. Copper extraction increases in the presence of both ions [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent researches have studied the chalcopyrite leaching in sulfuric acid with the presence of chloride and nitrate ions [15,16]. Copper extraction increases in the presence of both ions [15,16]. However, the use of chloride could be limited by environmental problems that are related to high solubility of metallic chlorides and high costs of solvent extraction and electrowinning processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrometallurgical Recovery of Cu and Zn from a Complex Sulfide Mineral by Fe3+/H2SO4 Leaching in the Presence of Carbon-Based Materials

Álvarez

Fidalgo

Gascó

et al. 2021

Chalcopyrite, the main ore of copper, is refractory in sulfuric media with slow dissolution. The most commonly employed hydrometallurgical process for the oxidation of chalcopyrite and copper extraction is the sulfuric acid ferric sulfate system The main objective of the present work is to study the use of cheap carbon-based materials in the leaching of copper and zinc from a sulfide complex mineral from Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB). The addition effect of commercial charcoal (VC) and two magnetic biochars (BM and HM) that were obtained by pyrolysis of biomass wastes was compared to that of commercial activated carbon (AC). The experimental results performed in this work have shown that the presence of carbon-based materials significantly influences the kinetics of chalcopyrite leaching in the sulfuric acid ferric sulfate media at 90 °C. The amount of copper and zinc extracted from IPB without the addition of carbon-based material was 63 and 72%, respectively. The highest amount of extracted zinc (>90%) was obtained with the addition of VC and AC in IPB/carbon-based material ratio of 1/0.25 w/w. Moreover, it is possible to recover more than 80% of copper with the addition of VC in a ratio 1/0.25 w/w. Moreover, an optimization of the properties of the carbon-based material for its potential application as catalyst in the leaching of metals from sulfide is necessary.