Recovery of copper from a surface altered chalcopyrite contained ball mill spillage through bio-hydrometallurgical route
KOREAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, cilt.31, sa.3, ss.452-460, 2014 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 31 Sayı: 3
- Basım Tarihi: 2014
- Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s11814-013-0261-y
- Dergi Adı: KOREAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.452-460
- Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır
Özet
Bioleaching studies for chalcopyrite contained ball mill spillages are very scarce in the literature. We developed a process flow sheet for the recovery of copper metal from surface activated (600 A degrees C, 15 min) ball mill spillage through bio-hydrometallurgical processing route. Bioleaching of the activated sample using a mixed meso-acidophilic bacterial consortium predominantly A. ferrooxidans strains was found to be effective at a lixiviant flow rate of 1.5 L/h, enabling a maximum 72.36% copper recovery in 20 days. Mineralogical as well as morphological changes over the sample surface were seen to trigger the bioleaching efficiency of meso-acidophiles, thereby contributing towards an enhanced copper recovery from the ball mill spillage. The bio-leach liquor containing 1.84 g/L Cu was purified through solvent extraction using LIX 84I in kerosene prior to the recovery of copper metal by electrowinning. Purity of the copper produced through this process was 99.99%.