The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions

The presence of copper minerals with gold is known to lead to many challenges during the cyanidation of gold ores, such as high consumption of cyanide with low gold extraction and undesirable impacts on gold recovery during the downstream processes. An alternative selective leaching process for copp...

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Main Authors: Oraby, E, Eksteen, Jacques
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11476
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author Oraby, E
Eksteen, Jacques
author_facet Oraby, E
Eksteen, Jacques
author_sort Oraby, E
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The presence of copper minerals with gold is known to lead to many challenges during the cyanidation of gold ores, such as high consumption of cyanide with low gold extraction and undesirable impacts on gold recovery during the downstream processes. An alternative selective leaching process for copper minerals from copper–gold gravity concentrate (3.75% Cu, 11.6% Fe, 11.4%S and 0.213% Au) using alkaline glycine solutions was studied and evaluated. The lixiviant system containing glycine and peroxide showed that total copper dissolution of 98% was obtained in 48 h at ambient conditions and a pH of 10.5–11. The results show that 100% of chalcocite, cuprite, metallic copper, and about 80% of chalcopyrite in the concentrate were also dissolved. Pyrite remained intact during the leaching time and iron concentration in the final pregnant solution was found to be 12 mg/L when copper is solution is at 4745 mg/L, whilst the gold concentration was limited to 0.8 mg/L Au. QEMScan analysis indicated that unleached copper in the leach residue was mostly distributed amongst larger chalcopyrite grains and covellite.The effects of single versus two-stage leaching, pH, oxidant concentration, pulp density and glycine concentration on copper extraction rate and extent were explored
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-114762017-09-13T15:54:44Z The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions Oraby, E Eksteen, Jacques Glycine Selective leaching Gold Copper The presence of copper minerals with gold is known to lead to many challenges during the cyanidation of gold ores, such as high consumption of cyanide with low gold extraction and undesirable impacts on gold recovery during the downstream processes. An alternative selective leaching process for copper minerals from copper–gold gravity concentrate (3.75% Cu, 11.6% Fe, 11.4%S and 0.213% Au) using alkaline glycine solutions was studied and evaluated. The lixiviant system containing glycine and peroxide showed that total copper dissolution of 98% was obtained in 48 h at ambient conditions and a pH of 10.5–11. The results show that 100% of chalcocite, cuprite, metallic copper, and about 80% of chalcopyrite in the concentrate were also dissolved. Pyrite remained intact during the leaching time and iron concentration in the final pregnant solution was found to be 12 mg/L when copper is solution is at 4745 mg/L, whilst the gold concentration was limited to 0.8 mg/L Au. QEMScan analysis indicated that unleached copper in the leach residue was mostly distributed amongst larger chalcopyrite grains and covellite.The effects of single versus two-stage leaching, pH, oxidant concentration, pulp density and glycine concentration on copper extraction rate and extent were explored 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11476 10.1016/j.hydromet.2014.09.005 Elsevier restricted
spellingShingle Glycine
Selective leaching
Gold
Copper
Oraby, E
Eksteen, Jacques
The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions
title The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions
title_full The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions
title_fullStr The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions
title_full_unstemmed The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions
title_short The selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions
title_sort selective leaching of copper from a gold–copper concentrate in glycine solutions
topic Glycine
Selective leaching
Gold
Copper
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11476