Heap leaching is a low-cost technology used in industrial mining to recover precious metals such as gold and uranium, along with several other highly sought after metals like copper, from their primary resources (ores and minerals). For many decades, there has been a growing demand for heap leaching due to its environmental benefits. …
Heap leaching is a firm extractive metallurgical technology facilitating the economical processing of different kinds of low-grade ores that are otherwise not exploited.
Heap leaching is the most important method of hydrometallurgical copper extraction. Copper-containing ore material (which may be agglomerated) is built into flat-topped …
Abstract and Figures. Leaching of copper from a Jordanian copper ore has been studied using a stirred batch reactor with hydrochloric acid as the main lixiviant, under the following conditions ...
This paper outlines a comprehensive, cost-effective testing program for the acid-ferric sulfate heap leaching of oxide, supergene and primary copper ores. It is based on …
Economically-significant quantities of gold, silver, copper, and uranium are currently extracted using heap leaching technology, and the technology is being explored also for nickel, zinc, PGMs, rare earths, as well as electronic circuit boards and nitrate minerals. Design of heap leach operations, to this day, relies more on experience …
Copper ore is excavated from the ground, crushed and then spread in uniform layers on a pad. A slow trickle of sulfuric acid is distributed over the pile, where it percolates to the bottom and a …
Microbial communities and activities in multi-lift bioleaching heap of copper sulfide ore were investigated at Monywa copper mine, Myanmar. The high-t…
115 Heap leaching is now largely applied to recover copper from oxidized ores. However it is not yet applied in central Africa. Laboratory tests have been carried out in order to study the feasability of the process to valorize the coppercobalt oxidized ores from Katanga, DR Congo. Laboratory percolation tests studied the main parameters such as flow-rate, acid …
As the grade of copper ore continues to decrease, researchers are constantly looking for methods that can effectively leach low-grade copper ore. In the 1970s, in order to improve the leaching effect of low-grade minerals and increase the leaching rate, researchers first proposed heap leaching to leach low-grade ore.
Heap leaching of gold and silver ores is conducted at approximately 120 mines worldwide. Heap leaching is one of several alternative process methods for treating precious metal ores, and is selected primarily to take advantage of its low capital cost relative to other methods. Thirty-seven different heap leach operations with a total …
The composition of copper ore samples was analyzed with the use of fluorescence and chemical methods. Table 1 shows the content of the main valuable …
Number and distribution of the commercial heap bioleaching plants and examples for the main industrial applications are shown in Figure 3 and Table 1, respectively. ...
M/S Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), India generates large amounts of lean sulfide ores of copper. The current production of lean copper ores in India is 0.55 million tons with ∼0.3% average copper content. Heap-bioleaching of the lean copper ores in 15 and 30 ton scales was undertaken at IMMT, Bhubaneswar. The leaching study showed …
Heap leaching & SX-EW is a method of extracting pure copper from oxide ore by placing the crushed ore on a pad in a heap and spraying the leaching solution, sulphuric acid, over the heap. The acid trickles through the heap and dissolves the copper mineral into solution. The leach solution collects at the bottom of the pad in a collection pond.
The difference between heap and dump leaching is mostly related to scale, and is driven by the copper content of the ore (Petersen, 2016, Marsden, 2008). Ores with relatively high copper grades are leached in heaps: the ore is crushed, agglomerated, stacked in lifts generally less than 10 m high, and irrigated for periods of less than 18 …
An industrial practice of heap bioleaching of secondary copper sulfide ore that began with only water irrigation without the addition of sulfuric acid was successfully implemented and introduced in this manuscript.
The composition of copper ore samples was analyzed with the use of fluorescence and chemical methods. Table 1 shows the content of the main valuable component—copper—as well as metals with the …
Ore-containing copper oxides or secondary copper sulfides are easily treated by heap leaching or heap bioleaching technologies, respectively. The use of heap leaching for …
Garcia and Jorgensen (1997) recommended the need for agglomeration of ore with binder, if the ore contains more than 10–15% −74 μm (200#) fines. The two key factors for any heap leaching operation are copper recovery and acid consumption. For heap leaching operations, the use of cost effective binders for agglomeration is being considered ...
Heap leaching is used extensively for the processing of low-grade copper and gold ores. If the ore has low permeability, it may lead to underperformance or even project failure. …
Heap leaching is an extraction process by which chemicals (usually sulfuric acid) are used to extract the economic element from ore which has been mined and placed in piles on the surface. Heap leaching is generally economically feasible only for oxide ore deposits. Oxidation of sulfide deposits occurs during the geological process called weathering. …
This chapter compiles basic knowledge and most recent developments regarding bioleaching of copper ores and concentrates. It is divided in two parts, the fundamentals and the practical aspects of ...
During in-situ leaching, rather than physically mining and removing overburden to reach copper deposits, chemicals are introduced into ore bodies using injection wells.
These processes have been applied to heap and tank leaching, nowadays termed biomining, but increasing concerns about the social acceptance of mining has also seen the re-emergence of in situ leaching and quest for broader applicability beyond uranium and copper.
Copper processing is a complicated process that begins with mining of the ore (less than 1% copper) and ends with sheets of 99.99% pure copper called cathodes, which will ultimately be made into products for everyday use. The most common types of ore, copper oxide and copper sulfide, undergo two different processes, hydrometallurgy and …
This paper outlines a comprehensive, cost-effective testing program for the acid-ferric sulfate heap leaching of oxide, supergene and primary copper ores. It is based on extensive experience in copper heap leaching and uses the many technological advances in the field developed over the past several decades. The approach described …
Atmospheric leaching of copper sulphides is carried out in challenging conditions of elevated. temperature, low pH and high chloride ion concentrations. In addition, the reacto rs need to ...
Leaching processes can be defined as the selective removal and/or extraction of metallic values from a mineral, causing a suitable solvent of the leaching agent to percolate into and through a mass of heap or mineral containing the metallic values [ 1 ]. Leaching is of great importance in the field of metallurgy since it is frequently …
Heap leaching of ore may involve mesophilic or thermophilic (high temperature) microorganisms, i.e., archaea, depending on the mineral species present and the physical chemistry of the leach environment.
