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US 2023/0407435 A1Published application
Oxidative bioleaching of base metals
AssigneeBhp Chile Inc
InventorsClement Chilowa Chibwana, Cristian E. Mundaca
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Abstract
An oxidative bioleaching process for leaching a base metal from an ore that includes an ore agglomeration step, an ore stacking step wherein agglomerated ore is stacked to form a heap, a curing step, a rinse step, an inoculation step and a leach step, and wherein, during the ore agglomeration step, the ore is contacted with an acid solution containing nitrate or nitrite thereby to accelerate tthe leaching rate in the leach step.
Claims21
An oxidative bioleaching process for leaching a base metal from a heap of ore comprising:
- agglomerating ore to form agglomerated ore;
- stacking the agglomerated ore to form a heap;
- curing the agglomerated ore in the heap;
- rinsing the agglomerated ore in the agglomerated heap;
- and
- inoculating the agglomerated ore in the agglomerated heap;
- and
- leaching the agglomerated ore in the agglomerated heap;
- wherein, during the agglomerating step, the ore is contacted with an acidified solution and nitrate or nitrite, to create an oxidative environment prior to the inoculating and leaching steps.
6 more elements
21-30. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.