EAI International Conference for Research, Innovation and Development for Africa

Research Article

Processing of oxidised and sulphide copper ore mixtures: Preliminary study

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.20-6-2017.2270866,
        author={Michel Wa kalenga and Jessica Koketso},
        title={Processing of oxidised and sulphide copper ore mixtures: Preliminary study},
        proceedings={EAI International Conference for Research, Innovation and Development for Africa},
        publisher={EAI},
        proceedings_a={ACRID},
        year={2018},
        month={4},
        keywords={oxide and sulphide copper ore processing mixtures},
        doi={10.4108/eai.20-6-2017.2270866}
    }
    
  • Michel Wa kalenga
    Jessica Koketso
    Year: 2018
    Processing of oxidised and sulphide copper ore mixtures: Preliminary study
    ACRID
    EAI
    DOI: 10.4108/eai.20-6-2017.2270866
Michel Wa kalenga1,*, Jessica Koketso2
  • 1: University of Johannesburg/ Department of Metallurgy
  • 2: university of Johannesburg/ Department of Metallurgy
*Contact email: michelk@uj.ac.za

Abstract

The leaching of a copper oxide and sulphide copper ores have been largely reported. Many investigations on the leachability on different copper sulphide ores from different countries have been conducted and optima working conditions recommended. The present work present is a preliminary study on a mixture of sulphides and oxides copper ores from Kamoto mine in the Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Initially, oxides copper ores were mined at Kamoto and the leaching process was efficiently conducted. With the mine deepening a mixture of oxides and sulphides copper is mined. This rendered the leaching of the mixture becoming difficult thus the need to find new avenues of leaching. In this work, three categories of leaching tests were conducted. In category A, the oxide and sulphide ores were separately leached with sulphuric acid where the particle size influence was investigated and the best size identified as well as the optimum pH value. In category B, the sulphide ore was leached with sulphuric acid in conjunction with hydrogen peroxide. An improvement in copper and cobalt dissolution was noticeable. In category C, a mixture of oxide and sulphide ores, in different proportions; was dissolved with sulphuric acid with the addition of hydrogen peroxide. The best proportion was found and used to identify the optimum pH value with pH varied from 1.5 to 2.5.