1000/1000
Hot
Most Recent
Chalcocite is the most abundant secondary copper sulfide globally, with the highest copper content, and is easily treated by conventional hydrometallurgical processes, making it a very profitable mineral for extraction. Among the various leaching processes to treat chalcocite, chloride media show better results and have a greater industrial boom. Chalcocite dissolution is a two-stage process, the second being much slower than the first. During the second stage, in the first instance, it is possible to oxidize the covellite in a wide range of chloride concentrations or redox potentials (up to 75% extraction of Cu). Subsequently, CuS2 is formed, which is to be oxidized. It is necessary to work at high concentrations of chloride (>2.5 mol/L) and/or increase the temperature to reach a redox potential of over 650 mV, which in turn decreases the thickness of the elemental sulfur layer on the mineral surface, facilitating chloride ions to generate a better porosity of this.
Experimental Parameters | Low | Medium | High |
---|---|---|---|
Time (h) | 4 | 8 | 12 |
Cl− concentration (g/L) | 20 | 50 | 100 |
H2SO4 (mol/L) | 0.5 | 1 | 2 |