公开(公告)号：US20170204494A1

公开(公告)日：2017-07-20

申请号：US15327828

申请日：2015-07-21

申请人： FENIX HYDROMET AUSTRALASIA PTY LTD.

发明人： David Richard SHAW ,  Nickola Churnside MURRAY ,  David Bruce DREISINGER

IPC分类号： C22B3/42 ,  C22B15/00

CPC分类号： C22B3/42 ,  C22B15/0067 ,  Y02P10/234 ,  Y02P10/236

摘要： The invention provides processes that significantly reduce acid consumption while maintaining efficient leach recovery of copper from oxide and acid consuming ores. The invention provides a hydrometallurgical process that reduces acid required for leaching in the presence of a solid ion exchange media. The presence of the ion exchanger leads to copper extraction from solution into the ion exchange phase, the removal of the copper from solution shifts the dissolved copper equilibrium, enabling additional copper dissolution at weak acidities where normally the leaching equilibrium would be hindered. In select embodiments, the process is not reliant on an external neutralising agent to control pH but rather on the acid consuming characteristic of the ore being processed and a limit to the amount of acid added. At the pH at which the leach is controlled, iron (if present) is predominantly present as the ferrous ion, which has a lower affinity for the resin than copper.