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This method is an acid heap leaching method like that of the copper method in that it utilises sulfuric acid instead of cyanide solution to dissolve the target minerals from crushed ore. The amount of sulfuric acid required is much higher than for copper ores, as high as 1,000 kg of acid per tonne of ore, but 500 kg is more common.
The chelators bind the copper ions (and no other ions, ideally), the resulting complexes dissolve in the organic phase. This organic solvent is evaporated, leaving a residue of the copper complexes. The copper ions are liberated from the residue with sulfuric acid. The barred (denuded) sulfuric acid recycled back on to the heaps.
Biological substances can experience leaching themselves, [2] as well as be used for leaching as part of the solvent substance to recover heavy metals. [6] Many plants experience leaching of phenolics, carbohydrates, and amino acids, and can experience as much as 30% mass loss from leaching, [5] just from sources of water such as rain, dew, mist, and fog. [2]
Leading up to World War I, many new ideas for leaching processes were experimented. [4] This included using ammonia solutions for copper sulfides, and nitric acid for leaching sulfide ores. [4] Most of these ideas were phased out into obscurity due to the high cost of the leaching agents required. [4]
The beneficiation process for oxides involves extraction with sulfuric acid solutions followed by electrolysis. In parallel with the above method for "concentrated" sulfide and oxide ores, copper is recovered from mine tailings and heaps. A variety of methods are used including leaching with sulfuric acid, ammonia, ferric chloride.
In-situ leaching of copper was done by the Chinese by 907 AD, and perhaps as early as 177 BC. [4] Copper is usually leached using acid (sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid), then recovered from solution by solvent extraction electrowinning (SX-EW) or by chemical precipitation.
Leaching involves the use of aqueous solutions to extract metal from metal-bearing materials which are brought into contact with them. [3] In China in the 11th and 12th centuries, this technique was used to extract copper; this was used for much of the total copper production. [4]
In electrowinning, an electrical current is passed from an inert anode through a leach solution containing the dissolved metal ions so that the metal is recovered as it is reduced and deposited in an electroplating process onto the cathode. In electrorefining, the anode consists of the impure metal (e.g., copper) to be refined. The impure ...