Investigation of the possibility of copper recovery from the flotation tailings by acid leaching

The flotation tailings pond of the Bor Copper Mine poses a great ecological problem not only for the town of Bor but also for the surrounding soils and watercourses. Since the old flotation tailings contain about 0.2% of copper on the average, we investigated their leaching with sulphuric acid in th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of hazardous materials 2008-10, Vol.158 (1), p.23-34
Main Authors: Antonijević, M.M., Dimitrijević, M.D., Stevanović, Z.O., Serbula, S.M., Bogdanovic, G.D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids - chemistry
Applied sciences
Chemical engineering
Continental surface waters
Copper
COPPER (PURE)
Copper - isolation & purification
Dissolution
Ecosystem
Exact sciences and technology
Extraction
Ferric Compounds - chemistry
Ferric ions
Flotation
Flotation tailings pond
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Industrial Waste
Iron
Iron - chemistry
Kinetics
Land reclamation
Leaching
Mines
Mining
Natural water pollution
Other industrial wastes. Sewage sludge
Oxidizing agents
Particle Size
Pollution
Ponds
Recovering
Serbia
Soils
Solid-solid systems
Stirring
Sulfuric acid leaching
Sulfuric Acids - chemistry
Sulphuric acid
Tailings
Temperature
Wastes
Water treatment and pollution
Watercourses
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Summary:The flotation tailings pond of the Bor Copper Mine poses a great ecological problem not only for the town of Bor but also for the surrounding soils and watercourses. Since the old flotation tailings contain about 0.2% of copper on the average, we investigated their leaching with sulphuric acid in the absence and presence of an oxidant. The aim was to determine the leaching kinetics of copper and iron as affected by various factors such as: the pH value of the leach solution, stirring speed, pulp density, particle size, concentration of ferric ions, temperature and time for leaching. The average copper and iron recovery obtained was from 60% to 70% and from 2% to 3%, respectively. These results indicate that the old flotation tailings pond represents an important source of secondary raw material for the extraction of copper and that it should be valorized rather than land reclamation. At the end of the paper, a mechanism of dissolution of copper and iron minerals from the tailings was described.
ISSN:0304-3894
1873-3336
DOI:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2008.01.063