Kinetic Study of Leaching of Low-Grade Copper Oxide Ore in Sulfuric Acid

Subject Areas :

mohsen moosavi nezhad ¹ , reza irankhah ²

1 - Department of Metallurgy and Materials, Faculty of Engineering, , University of Gonabad
2 - ceramic department

Received: 2023-08-12 Accepted : 2023-11-26 Published : 2025-01-01

Keywords: Copper Leaching Sulfuric Acid Kinetic Ore.,

Abstract :

In this research, the leaching process of low-grade copper oxide ore in dilute sulfuric acid in the temperature range of 25-55 ℃ was studied from a kinetic’s point of view. The effect of temperature and liquid to solid ratio on dissolution rate was investigated. Shrinking core model (SCM) was used to investigate the reaction mechanism and to extraction of kinetic equations governing the process. The results show that increasing the liquid to solid ratio up to 8 ml/g increases the efficiency of the copper dissolution process, but its further increase will not affect the process efficiency. Maximum copper recovery equal to 95 wt% was achieved after one hour of leaching in 1 M sulfuric acid at 55 ℃, stirring speed of 350 rpm and liquid to solid ratio of 8 ml/g. The results also show that Mathematical model of dissolution rate, can be described by Gumpertz equation. Kinetic studies indicate that the reaction is controlled by simultaneous diffusion in the liquid boundary layer (liquid film) and in the ash layer (solid products layer). The activation energy of 12.5 kJ/mol was obtained for the process.

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