Methods and systems for leaching a metal-bearing material
AssigneeFreeport Minerals Corporation
InventorSarah Lyons
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Abstract
Methods for recovering a metal value from a metal-bearing material are provided. The method comprises agglomerating the metal-bearing material with an agglomeration solution comprising a raffinate, an oxidant, and citric acid or salts thereof to form an agglomerated metal-bearing material; leaching the agglomerated metal-bearing material with a leaching solution comprising the raffinate and the citric acid or salts thereof to produce a pregnant leaching solution and a leached material; re-oxidizing the leached material with a curing solution comprising the raffinate and the oxidant; and recovering the metal value from the pregnant leach solution to produce the raffinate.
Claims20
A method for treating a leach heap, comprising:
- curing the leach heap by applying a curing solution to the leach heap, wherein the curing solution comprises citric acid or salts thereof and an oxidant, and wherein the oxidant is hydrogen peroxide;
- and
- resting the leach heap in the curing solution for a period of time to form a cured leach heap;
- wherein the leach heap comprises precipitated iron hydroxide, ferrous (Fe2+) ions, and ferric (Fe3+) ions, and wherein the oxidant re-oxidizes ferrous (Fe2+) ions to ferric (Fe3+) ions, and wherein the citric acid dissolves the precipitated iron hydroxide into the curing solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.