SCALE UP METHODS FOR PREDICTION OF ACID CONSUMPTION IN COPPER HEAP LEACHING Graeme Miller Miller Metallurgical Services gmiller@millermet.

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AJ Parker CRC for Hydrometallurgy, Division of Mining and Minerals Process Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, AUSTRALIA
ABSTRACT The scale up and prediction of acid consumption in copper heap leaching has been on a generally ad hoc basis. No overall model for the scale up has been proposed despite the need being identified some years ago. Observations of overall acid consumption in commercial and test leaching is that it remains a constant over time and related only to the acid concentration in the applied solution. This indicates a first order reaction rate with acid and a zero order rate with gangue mineral concentration after fast leaching carbonate has been neutralised. A model for acid consumption has been developed that combines the knowledge of the rate in a column test with the residence time distribution of the solution. This is then used to predict the consumption rate in a commercial leach by taking the underlying consumption rate with the new known (or assumed) residence time in the heap. The benefits of the model are that it uncouples the acid consumption from the copper extraction and allows an independent calculation of the marginal economics of the leaching. With high acid consuming ores there will be a limit to the copper recovery when the cost of acid exceeds the copper income. The ability to identify this point and to vary the acid in irrigation to maximise the copper recovery and/or the project benefit is a key step in advancing the process understanding.