Intensification of copper leaching from heaps using biological oxidation

Abstract

The article presents the results of experiments intended to leach copper from ore heaps of complex mineral composition biochemically. The processing of such heaps is complicated due to the presence of oxidized copper minerals among significant fragments of sulfide minerals and iron-calcium silicates. This factor does not allow to perform standard sulfuric acid leaching effectively without the use of additional oxidation catalysts, or to apply beneficiation methods for that kind of raw materials. Use of A. Ferrooxidans bacteria adapted to the composition of the copper dump, as a bio-catalytic agent, significantly accelerates the leaching process and increases the copper recovery degree into the productive solution.

Keywords

• hydrometallurgy
• copper
• leaching
• biochemistry
• ferrooxidans bacteria