Method for ammoniacal leaching of copper from oxidised copper ores
AssigneeMetaleach Limited
InventorsMatthew Leslie Sutcliffe, Garry Mervyn Johnston, Nicholas James Welham
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Abstract
A method for leaching copper from an oxidized copper ore, wherein at least 5% of the copper present in the oxidized copper ore is an oxidized copper compound, the method comprising the method steps of: applying an aqueous solution of a curing agent to the oxidized copper ore to produce a cured ore; forming a leach solution by applying an ammoniacal solution that has an ammonium carbonate content of less than 5 g/L to the cured ore to produce a pregnant leach solution containing copper; and passing the pregnant leach solution to a means for recovering copper.
Claims15
A method for leaching copper from an oxidized copper ore, wherein at least 5% by weight of the copper present in the oxidized copper ore is in the form of an oxidized copper compound, the method comprising the method steps of:
- applying an aqueous solution of a curing agent to the oxidized copper ore;
- producing a cured ore;
- forming a leach solution by applying an ammoniacal solution that has an ammonium carbonate content of less than 0.75 g/L to the cured ore;
- producing a pregnant leach solution containing copper;
- and
- passing the pregnant leach solution to a means for recovering copper.
A method for leaching copper from an oxidized copper ore, wherein at least 5% by weight of the copper present in the oxidized copper ore is in the form of an oxidized copper compound, the method comprising the method steps of:
- applying an aqueous solution of a curing agent to the oxidized copper ore;
- producing a cured ore;
- forming a leach solution by applying an ammoniacal solution that has an ammonium carbonate content of less than 0.75 g/L to the cured ore, wherein the leach solution maintains a pH between 6 and 13;
- producing a pregnant leach solution;
- and
- passing the pregnant leach solution to a means for recovering copper.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.