Cupric chloride leaching of copper sulfides

摘要

A continuous process for obtaining copper from a copper sulfide by: (a) contacting a first batch of the copper sulfide with a first lixiviant containing cupric chloride, and a minimum amount of ferrous chloride to leach copper; (b) separating the leach liquor from (a) from the undissolved solids and dividing the liquor into two portions; one portion of the liquor containing about the same amount of copper as is leached from the copper sulfide in (a) and (f); (c) cementing with iron the copper from the one portion of the liquor from (b); (d) recombining the portions of the liquor from (b); (e) oxidizing with oxygen the recombined portions from (d) to form a second lixiviant; the cuprous chloride therein being oxidized to cupric chloride and the iron therein, from cementing copper, being oxidized and precipitated; (f) contacting the copper sulfide solids from (b) with the second lixiviant from (e) to additionally leach the first batch of the copper sulfide; (g) recycling the leach liquor from (f) to (a) and using it as the first lixiviant in (a) for leaching copper from a second batch of the copper sulfide, whereby substantially all the cupric chloride in the first lixiviant is reduced to cuprous chloride in (a).