Water balance in chloride heap leach
A technology of chloride and high chloride, which is applied in the direction of improving process efficiency, can solve problems such as limiting economic feasibility, and achieve the effect of improving copper recovery rate
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[0092] An integrated pilot plant incorporating 9 sieve beds and a solvent extraction unit was set up to replicate the application of the method of the invention on a pilot scale. The plant is designed to process a variety of low-grade chalcopyrite ores using a dynamic "racetrack" type heap leaching operation. This is a stack containing multiple sectors where new sectors are stacked and older mostly leached sectors are removed from the pad which is then reused.
[0093] Each sieve bed has a cross-sectional area of 4 m 2 , the operating height is 7.5m, the total height is 10m and contains about 40T of ore. The sieve beds were operated to simulate a commercial operation with 9 zones. The process is dynamic in that leach residue is periodically removed from the leached sieve beds and replaced with fresh ore in the empty sieve beds.
[0094] Three separate stages of operation were performed. The compositional ranges of the major copper sulfide minerals and gangue minerals con...
Embodiment 2
[0117] Embodiment 2: Washing efficiency curve and the rate of recovery of copper and chloride
[0118] Copper Recovery Rate: Figure 10 The results presented in show the copper recovery and PLS (or flush discharge solution) copper concentration profile as a function of time for the operation of two sieve beds in Phase I of the pilot plant operation 1 (Ore A; 0.5% Cu and 60% CSR chalcopyrite) and sieve bed 5 (Ore B; 0.65% Cu and 75% CSR chalcopyrite) in stage II.
[0119] In sieve bed 1 of stage I, the rinse solution or raffinate contained 5 g / L copper. The results showed a copper recovery of 59% at the end of the leaching cycle for the treated ore sample. The leached residue is drained and then washed with water to recover entrained dissolved copper. Copper displacement from residual ore by water washing increases copper recovery up to 70%, e.g. Figure 10 shown.
[0120] In the sieve bed 5 of stage II, the flushing solution or raffinate contained 0.5 g / L copper. The res...
Embodiment 3
[0127] Example 3: Accumulation of impurities
[0128] Washing is believed to retain chloride and improve copper recovery by a small amount. On the negative side, potentially unwanted species produced by the reaction of the acid with the gangue minerals will also remain in the process.
[0129] The reaction of gangue minerals with acid will lead to the dissolution of metals such as Ca, Si, Al, Mg, Fe and K. These dissolved materials will accumulate in solution until they reach a concentration such that the mass of dissolved material in the washed ore after leaching is equal to the mass of dissolved material minus the mass of any material re-precipitated after leaching.
[0130] The accumulation of impurities in the raffinate of the pilot plant under closed loop operation with scrubbing is shown in Figure 13 middle. The concentrations of aluminum and magnesium (dissolved by acid dissolution of gangue mineral silicates such as biotite and chlorite) increase significantly with...
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