Electrowinning of copper
AssigneeAnumin Pty. Ltd.
InventorsAlan James Parker, Winfield Earle Waghorne, Dion Ewing Giles, John Howard Sharp, Robert Alexander, David Michael Muir
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Abstract
Copper is processed via solutions of copper salts, both cupric and cuprous, in acidified aqueous solutions containing organic nitriles. Methods of producting solutions of cuprous salts include reduction of cupric salts and oxidation of copper and copper sulphides. Solutions of cuprous salts are thermally or electrochemically disproportionated to produce copper and solutions of cupric salts.
Claims9
A method of preparing copper cathodes by electrochemical disproportionation of a homogeneous solution containing cuprous sulfate, water, a nitrile selected from the group consisting of acetonitrile, 2-hydroxycyanoethane and mixtures thereof, and sulfuric acid, comprising electrolysing the solution between inert anodes and copper cathodes in a cell, removing the anolyte containing cupric sulfate from the vicinity of the electrodes, replacing the removed anolyte by more of the said homogeneous solution and thus generating cathodic copper.
A method of winning copper from cuprous sulfate solutions described herein as cuprous electrowinning, which comprises the electrochemical disproportionation of homogeneous solutions containing cuprous sulfate, water, an organic nitrile selected from the class consisting of acetonitrile, 2-hydroxycyanoethane and mixtures thereof, and sulfuric acid, by electrolysing these solutions between inert anodes and copper cathodes in a cell, removing the anolyte containing cupric sulfate from the vicinity of the electrodes, transferring the removed anolyte to a reduction vessel where the cupric sulfate content of the anolyte is reduced to cuprous sulfate and returning the resulting reduced cuprous sulfate solution to the cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.