Abstract
Natural specimens of chalcopyrite, covellite, chalcocite, digenite, bornite, and pyrite were sulfated with hot concentrated sulfuric acid. The variables studied included acid temperature (180 to 260°C), sulfuric acid concentration (75 to 96%), reaction time (0.3 to 4 hours), oxygen partial pressure (0 to 1 atm), and degree of rabbling. The effect of these variables on the formation of SOS, Sn, CuSOi FeSO, and Fea(S04)s was determined. Chalcopyrite was by far the most reactive of the sulfides studied; ovrer 99% copper sulfation was attained after 1 hour at 190°C in excess concentrated sulfuric acid. The other sulfides, in order of decreasing reactivity, were covellite, pyrite, bronite, chalcocite, and digenite. This laboratory investigation has provided many of the technical parameters of a hydrometallurgical process by which copper sulfide flotation concentrates may be taken into solution.
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References
H. Morgan, U.S. Patent No. 1,895,811, 1933, “Process for Treating Ores.”
Snurnikov, A. P., et al., “Chemism and Kinetics of the Action of Non Ferrous Metal Sulfides with Sulfuric Acid,” Izv. Vyssh. Ucheb. Zaved., Tsvet. Met., 1969, Vol. 12, No. 5, pp. 26–31.
Fairlie, A. M., Sulfuric Acid Manufacture, American Chemical Society Monograph Series, Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1936, p. 308.
Additional information
J. D. Prater, P. B. Queneau, and T. J. Hudson are associated with the Research Dept., Metal Mining Div., Kennecott Copper Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Prater, J.D., Queneau, P.B. & Hudson, T.J. The Sulfation of Copper-Iron Sulfides with Concentrated Sulfuric Acid. JOM 22, 23–27 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03355675
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03355675