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Abstract
Copper retention due to chemical and physical interaction with reactive gangue has been studied during sulphuric acid
leaching of atacamite, chrysocolla and malachite, using a synthetic rock (57% quartz, 42% reactive gangue and 1% ore).
Smectite- and mordenite-rich gangues represent the highest copper retention whereas the lowest is found for kaolinites and illite.
During leaching, smectites show the largest change (increase) in volume; no volume change occurred for kaolinites, zeolite and
illite. Kaolinite-rich gangue forms barriers due to de-lamination demonstrated by acid accumulation at the top of the columns.
The X-ray diffraction patterns of smectite, illite and kaolinite in the residues demonstrate the diminution or complete loss of
basal crystal faces accompanied by the neo-formation of alunogen, meta-alunogen, coquimbite and goldichite. These new
phases contribute to a temporary reduction of permeability. For all the synthetic rocks assayed, the copper retention is directly
proportional to cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the starting materials, and corroborated by the CEC of Cu of the residues
determined without water elution prior to analysis.
This test used represents a predictive tool to evaluate the potential Cu retention and gangues with elevated CEC.
D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
HYDROM-02405; No of Pages 7
ARTICLE IN PRESS
to the element input not only from ore minerals but non-traditional chemical and mineralogical character-
also from the acid dissolution of gangue phases. Sol- ization in a short and severe acid leaching test. These
vent extraction of copper by organic solutions thus ore minerals, atacamite, chrysocolla and malachite,
takes place in a solution with a complex ionic charge, were selected for their importance for Chilean copper
as a result of the mineralogical and chemical changes deposits and availability of pure materials.
that occur in almost all the minerals submitted to the The criteria for selection of the gangue were the
leaching process. reactivity due to charge deficiencies per formula unit,
The extraction of copper from low grade oxide expandability, the cation adsorption and exchange
ores is considered to be an economical operation if capacities (CEC), the possibility of physical barrier
the efficiency of the extractive operations borders formation, relevance for Chilean exotic copper-ore
95%. This process is continuously being developed deposits, and on an experimental level, purity, homo-
to improve the removal of copper from a wide geneity and availability of the materials.
variety of ores; in many cases the ore is a micro-
scopically inseparable mixture of reactive gangue
minerals such as smectites (Mu+v+z+[(Alx Fey Mgz )2.00 2. Methods
(Si4.00 (u+v)Fev Alu )O10(OH)2], Elzeo and Murray,
1994), white micas (K2(Al, Fe)2(Mg, Fe)2(Si8)O20 2.1. Experimental setup
(OH)4, Newman, 1987), chlorites and zeolites. It
can also be present as microcrystalline Cu phases The short-term leach tests were carried out with a
or copper retained already in cation exchange sites strong solution of sulphuric acid (265 g/L) at ambient
prior to mining and processing. Gangue reactivity temperature (18 to 21 8C) in small columns (Fig. 1)
produces mainly acid consumption, loss of perme- using a synthetic rock composed of 57% quartz, 1%
ability, copper exchange and absorption and, finally, ore phase, and 42% reactive gangue. Synthetic rock
copper retention in the pad. To monitor these para- compositions used in this study represent extreme
meters a wide range of studies have been developed scenarios to demonstrate the interaction of ore and
to predict times of acid pre-treatment, selective phyllosilicate or zeolite gangue without the need for
chemical extraction, leachate recovery, acid con- concentrations steps, as would be required for the
sumption and evolution of permeability, copper ad- routine X-ray diffraction (XRD) control for phyllosi-
sorption and release of Si, Al, Ca, Mg and Na from licates. A blank series of 58% quartz and 42% reac-
some zeolites (Bartlett, 1992; Hutchinson and Elli- tive gangue acted as non-mineralized control for each
son, 1992; Fonseca et al., 1992; Zänker et al., 2002). gangue type. A pure quartz sample (99% quartz and
In recent years, many publications have addressed 1% ore mineral) was used to monitor complete ore
acid mine drainage or the release and retention of dissolution during leaching and the contribution of Si
elements in different types of rocks, sediments and from quartz to the leachate.
minerals (Dinelli and Tateo, 2002; Doula et al., The mixtures were compressed to the consistency
2002; White and Brantley, 1995, and literature of a semi-consolidated sediment at 40 ton/cm2.
cited therein). Quartz was added as binertQ as permeabilizer to
It is therefore considered important to establish an avoid the formation of instant hydraulic barriers for
analytical predictive link between the metallurgical smectite type gangues. Details of the preparation of
whole ore/rock approach and single phase mineralog- artificial mineralized rock and leaching setup have
ical studies, as this will permit one to observe and been published elsewhere (Kelm and Helle, 2003).
understand mineralogical changes in residues and The high sulphuric acid concentration of 265 g/L
copper retention by potentially reactive gangue phases permits one to obtain information about the removal
under acid conditions in a short-term experimental of ions from the gangue silicates within a very short
setup. period of time compared to bottle leachings using
This experimental study intends to semi-quantify mine acid concentrations. Ore minerals were obtained
the interaction between atacamite, malachite and from Chuquicamata Mine, CODELCO NORTE
chrysocolla with potentially reactive gangue using a (chrysocolla), Aldrich chemicals (malachite) and
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 1. Experimental laboratory columns. Smectites (SAZ and SWY) kaolinites (KGA-1 and KGA-2) and BL (blank). Line on glass marks
original filling level of columns. Note the volume increase for SAZ and SWY smectite.
purpose synthesized (atacamite/para-atacamite). A The mixtures (40 g of ore and gangue) were placed
summary of the mineralogy, cation exchange capac- in columns (4.4 cm diameter, 6.5 cm height) and the
ity (CEC) and specific surface area (BET) of the leaching process was carried out with 50 mL H2SO4
reactive gangue phases can be found in Table 1. (265 g/L). After approximately 4 h, an aliquot of 20
Further details of provenance and their character- mL of the leachate was taken for the analyses. Full
ization can be found in Kelm and Helle (2003), details on the experimental procedure are given in
Chipera and Bish (2001), and Clay Mineral Society Kelm and Helle (2003).
of America Webpage (2004). At ambient tempera-
ture, all materials have a high specific external 2.2. Determination of cation exchange capacity, cop-
surface area (BET after degassing at 70 8C) for per contents and mineralogical analyses
b 200 Tyler mesh size, and their CEC range from
0.6 to 132 cmol/kg. This provides ideal conditions Cation exchange capacities (CEC) of the starting
to study the copper retention with respect to cation materials and residues were carried out by ammonium
exchange capacity. acetate (Ca, Mg, Na and K) and di-ethylene-triamino
Table 1
Reactive gangue, mineralogy (XRD), cation exchange capacity (CEC) and specific surface area (BET) of the b200 Tyler mesh fraction
Reactive gangue Mineralogy by XRD CEC BET
(cmol/kg) (m2/g)
MORD mordenite (Chile) N95% mordenite, trace clinoptilolite 132 126
SAZ-1 montmorillonite (CMS Source clay) 98% smectite, trace quartz 118 147
SWY-1 montmorillonite (CMS Source clay) 75% smectites, 8% quartz, 17% feldspar and others 90 117
NAU-1 nontronite (CMS Special Clay) N80% smectite, 10–15% illite and quartz 71 97
BENT R bentonite rock (Chile) N90% smectite, trace Fe-oxides, vitreous matter 62 180
Imt-1 illite (CMS Special Clay) illite, b10% quartz and chlorite 18 97
KGA-1 kaolin (CMS Source clay) 96% kaolinite, 3% anatase, 1% quartz 12 141
KGA-2 kaolin (CMS Source clay) 96% kaolinite, 3% anatase, 1% other traces 0.6 180
CMS: Clay Mineral Society of America.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
pentaacetic acid (Cu and Zn) exchanges and analyzed ( ( Ca 0.12 Na 0.32 K0.05 )[ Al 3.01 Fe 3+
0.41Mn 0.1Mg 0.54Ti 0.2 ]
by AAS (Hitachi Z-8100). Total and soluble copper [Si7.98Al0.02O20](OH)4)) appeared to withstand short-
were determined by AAS following attacks by term sulphuric acid leaching. This is considered to be
HNO3 + H2SO4 + HCl (hot) and H2SO4 (20% cold), due to the comparatively lower interlayer charge (CMS
respectively. The presence of crystalline phases was Webpage, 2004) for this montmorillonite. Reduction of
detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD, Rigaku Dmax- basal reflections also has been found for illite and
C) using Ni-filtered Cu radiation at scanning speeds kaolinite gangues. Mordenite XRD traces did not
of 1 8/min. change after leaching, although major element analyses
of head and residues show a dealuminization (Kelm
and Helle, 2003). Amongst natural zeolites, mordenite
3. Results and discussion has one of the highest Si/Al ratios and thus improved
acid resistance (Tschernich, 1992). Neoformed species
During the leaching experiments smectite-rich are alunogen (Al2(SO4)3d 17H2O), meta-alunogen
gangue increased up to 75% in volume with for- (Al2(SO4)3d 12H2O); for nontronite gangues coquim-
mation of air–then acid–filled cavities due to the bite (Fe23+(SO4)3d 9(H2O)) formed and traces of gold-
rapid sealing effect of overlying smectite in the ichite (K,Fe3+(SO4)2d 4(H2O)) were detected in the
3+ 2+
column. No volume change occurred for illite case of illite (Mg0.09Ca0.06K1.37 )[ Al2.69 Fe0.76 Fe0.06
and mordenite (Ca,Na2,K2)Al2Si10O24d 7(H2O); for Mg0.43Ti0.06][Si6.77Al11.23O20](OH)4, CMS website,
kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) mixtures acid puddles 2004). The formation of the latter two minerals is due
formed on top of the columns. Fluid recovery to the increased availability of Fe and K, respectively,
was b 60% for expandable phases and reached up in the gangues. The described mineralogical changes of
to 80% for non-expandable mixtures. each gangue type were repeated for the three mineral-
Mineralogical changes in the residues were most no- ized and the blank series.
torious for the smectite group gangues. Nontronite ((M0.97 Total copper in the head and residue of the
(Si7,57Al0.01Fe0.42)[Al0.52Fe3.32Mg0.7O20](OH)4), pre- mineralized series shows similar efficiency of the
liminary formula CMS webpage, 2004), SAZ montmo- leaching process for the three mineral species inter-
rillonite((Ca 0.39Na0.36K0.02)(Al2.71Mg1.11Fe0.12Mn0.01 acting with all the gangues studied (Fig. 3). This is
Ti0.03)[Si8.00O20](OH4)) and the Chilean Bentonite not surprising, as all three ore phases are easily acid
lost most of their basal 001 reflections on the soluble and not occluded in this experimental de-
XRD charts (Fig. 2). Only the SWY montmorillonite sign. The highest copper retention is present in three
9000
counts/second
0
3 9 15 21 27
° 2 theta
Fig. 2. XRD patterns of heads (dark line) and residues (pale line) of smectites BENT-R, NAU, SWY and SAZ. Quartz (Q), coquimbite (coq),
alunogen (alun) and smectites (arrows). Broad arrow marks basal (001) smectite reflections.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0,600
0,500
0,400
% total Cu
0,300
0,200
0,100
0,000
KGA-1 Kaolinite
KGA-2 Kaolinite
SAZ Smectite
SWY Smectite
BENT Rock
NAU Nontronite
IMT Illite
MORD
Quartz
Fig. 3. Total copper in the head and residues of malachite (M), atacamite (A) and chysocolla (C) series.
smectite group gangues (SAZ, NAU, BENT R) and the complete dissolution of the ore phases during
mordenite. Lowest copper retention is found indis- the short-term leaching experiments.
tinctly for the high and low crystalline kaolinites The preferential copper retention in most of the
(KGA-1, KGA-2) and illite (Fig. 4). The 99% smectite gangues could be due to: (1) adsorption of
quartz and 1% copper mineral blank demonstrates Cu on montmorillonite and nontronite surface sites and
40
35
Cu retention (%)
30
25
20
15
10
0
KGA-1 Kaolinite
KGA-2 Kaolinite
SAZ Smectite
SWY Smectite
BENT Rock
NAU Nontronite
IMT Illite
MORD
Quartz
Fig. 4. Copper retention (%) in the residues of malachite, atacamite and chysocolla series.
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100
80
cmol/kg
60
40
20
0
SAZ Smectite
Smectite R
BENT Rock R
Nontronite R
Kaolinite R
Kaolinite R
IMT Illite R
MORD R
Quartz R
KGA-1
KGA-2
SWY
NAU
R
Fig. 5. Total CEC of the residues of blank (BL), malachite (M), atacamite (A) and chysocolla (C) series. CEC head calculated from CEC of
starting materials.