Leaching optimisation of oxide copper ore from Meskani mine

Abstract

In this research work, agitation leaching of malachite using sulphuric acid solution was investigated in mechanical agitation reactor taking particle size, sulphuric acid stoichiometric ratio, solid percent and temperature as effective parameters. Based on results, malachite and azurite were found to be the main minerals of the representative sample. Sulphuric acid concentration effect in three different amounts of 5%, 10% and 20% was examined. To find out maximum sulphuric acid consumption vs. particle size, bottle roll tests were conducted. Full factorial design (24) with three centre points was applied to determine optimum conditions for three studied responses including copper recovery, iron recovery and sulphuric acid recovery. The optimum leaching conditions were found to be as follows: particle size, 600 microns: sulphuric acid stoichiometric ratio, 4: solid percent, 45%: temperature, 25°C. Under these optimum conditions, copper recovery, iron recovery and sulphuric acid recovery were 83.84%, 99.64% and 2.96%, respectively.