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Investigation into the heap leaching of copper ore from the Disele deposit

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DOI: 10.1016/j.hydromet.2009.04.016

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Hydrometallurgy 98 (2009) 177–180

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Hydrometallurgy
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / h yd r o m e t

Investigation into the heap leaching of copper ore from the Disele deposit
Mbuyu Lwambiyi a, Kasonde Maweja b,⁎, Kitala Kongolo a, Nkulu M. Lwambiyi c, Mukulu Diyambi d
a
Department of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
b
DRL/Element Six Ltd (Pty), 1 Debid road, Nuffield, PO Box 561, Springs 1560, South Africa
c
Teal Metals Company, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
d
Department of Metallurgy, Boss Mining Company, Kakanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Heap leaching of malachite–atacamite ores with high silica gangue using sulphuric acid is reported. The base
Received 5 February 2009 metals were present in the ores in copper rich nodules with a network of fine strings rich in cobalt and
Received in revised form 22 April 2009 manganese along the quartz grain boundaries. It was observed that leaching of copper was quicker and the
Accepted 22 April 2009
corresponding recovery of copper was consistently higher when the ore particle was finer. The recovery of
Available online 3 May 2009
copper measured at different leaching times revealed that the efficiency of the process was better enhanced
Keywords:
by refinement of the ore particle size than by increasing the concentration of sulphuric acid in the lixiviant
Copper ore from 60 to 120 g/L. Iron contamination in the pregnant leach solution (PLS) subsequently increased as the
Siliceous gangue initial acid concentration in the lixiviant increased. The water loss during the heap leaching process was
Particle size higher when the ore particle size was finer and when the concentration of sulphuric acid in the lixiviant was
Sulphuric acid higher. Leaching residues typically contained 92% SiO2 and 4% muscovite.
Heap leaching © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Water loss

1. Introduction important factors in heap leaching as these determine the metal

Heap leaching is applied worldwide to extract copper from low grade
oxide and sulphide ores and from different plant residues (McMahon,
1964; Dopson et al., 2009; Bingöl et al., 2005; Rich, 2008; Helle et al.,
2005; Bouffard, 2008; Quast, 2000). The technique is currently being
developed at the Disele mine in Kakanda, South East of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, where it is applied to recover copper from
complex malachite–atacamite ores which have mainly siliceous gangue.
Crushed ore is usually heaped on an impermeable pad and sprayed
with the lixiviant solution that permeates and traverses the heap by
gravity. The pregnant leach solution (PLS) is collected at the basement
of the heap and re-circulated for spraying at the top until a prescribed
concentration of metal in solution is reached. This operation may last
for weeks in some cases. Many variables has been identified that
influence the process, e.g. pH of the lixiviant, height of the heap, ore
particle size distribution, spraying flow rate, irrigation technique,
permeability, porosity, aeration, impurities, valuable metals, accom-
panying metals, temperature of the PLS, solid-to-liquid ratio, etc…
(Young et al., 1999; Philibert et al., 2002; Mellado et al., 2009). Acid
consumption was considered as the main controlling economic factor
in heap leaching (Rich, 2008). The ore particle size and permeation of
the lixiviant due to clogging by clay or in-situ precipitation are also
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 83 365 0952.
E-mail address: mawejak@yahoo.fr (K. Maweja).
recovery over a given period of time. O'Gorman et al. (2004)
suggested that ore particles had to be agglomerated before heap
leaching in the case of high clay content or when fine crushing of the
ore was necessary. Investigation on the effects of chemical and
mineralogical changes of copper ores on sulphuric acid leaching
processes had shown that microscopic studies were appropriate and
gave a deep insight into the interaction between ore and solution
during heap leaching (Helle et al., 2005; Shayestehfar et al., 2008).
Padilla et al. (2008) suggested that the heap height and the
leaching time had the greatest effects when determining the most
optimal circuits. They suggested that the optimum, from the economic
perspective, does not necessarily represent maximum recovery, and
that the copper concentration of the outflow solution from the heap is
not a good indicator of maximum extraction. Generally metal recovery
decreases with increasing height of the ore heap, while concentration
of metal in the PLS increases (Wu et al., 2009; Lizama et al., 2005). It is
also generally thought that intermittent irrigation favours metal
dissolution. In such case, the solution is sprayed onto the surface of the
heap and allowed to percolate before application of fresh solution,
thus setting up an inverse capillary effect, which permits the leaching
of coarse ores (Pradhan et al., 2008).
The role of silica in acid leaching of the base metal ores has been
investigated (Apostolidis and Distin, 1978; Kothukov et al., 1988) and it
was reported that dissolution was not impeded by the formation of a
silica layer on the surface of the ore particles. However, it was shown that
in the case of siliceous minerals such as chrysocolla the crystallinity and
permeability of the ore particles became important factors in acid
leaching processes (Horlick et al., 1981).

0304-386X/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.hydromet.2009.04.016
 Author's personal copy
178 M. Lwambiyi et al. / Hydrometallurgy 98 (2009) 177–180
Fig. 1. Curves of particle size distribution of ores A, B and C.
The effect of ore particle size, concentration of sulphuric acid and
leaching time on the dissolution of copper from the heaps of
malachite–atacamite ores with high siliceous gangues, the concentra-
tion of copper and iron in the pregnant leach solution and the loss of
water during the process are investigated in this work. It is common
practice to investigate the effect of each of these factors separately by
varying only one of them while the others are kept constant or within
controlled ranges. This experimental approach, also adopted in the
present work, has the shortcoming of not depicting the dynamic
interactions between the above factors.
2. Materials and experiments
Copper ores from the Disele open pit mine were classified into three
particle size ranges. Ore A was prepared by removing part of the less
dense gangue particles from ores B and C using a gravity table. Ores B
and C were used as received from the mine. The heaps were built using
650 kg of ore arranged in a 2000 mm× 820 mm× 350 mm pad.
The minerals present and their distribution within the ore grains
have been identified by means of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD)
and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. XRD mea-
surements were performed with a PANalytical X'Pert Pro powder
diffractometer with X'Celerator detector and variable divergence —
and receiving slits with Fe filtered Cu-Kα radiation. The phases were
identified using X'Pert Highscore plus software. The Reference
Intensity Ratio method was used for semi-quantitative analysis as
not all crystal structures needed for the Rietveld method were
available. Amorphous phases, if present, were not taken into account
in the quantification.
Samples for scanning electron microscopy were cold mounted in
resin, mechanically polished using 1 µm diamond paste. Area and
point chemical analyses of different phases present in the ores and in
the leaching residues were carried out using EDX technique.
Three different concentrations of sulphuric acid were used for
leaching, i.e. 15 g/L, 60 g/L and 120 g/L H2SO4. The leaching was carried
out outdoors for a total duration of 6 days; the operating temperature
fluctuated within the range 25–32 °C. The solution contained in the 200 L
reservoir was continuously pumped and sprayed onto the top surface of
the heap at a constant flow rate of 13.7 L/min/m2 via a centrifugal pump.
Table 1
Average particle diameters, dm [mm], and chemical compositions of ores A, B and C.
Raw material Cu Co Ni Fe
A (dm = 3.7) 2.44 0.57 b0.01 1.26
B (dm = 11.5) 2.86 0.64 b0.01 1.61
C (dm = 17.8) 2.24 0.46 b0.01 1.36
The solution flowed continuously through the heap by gravity,
percolating and hence dissolving soluble metals. The PLS (outflow)
was returned to the reservoir. Samples of the PLS were collected from the
outflow channel at the basement of the heap and analysed by atomic
absorption spectroscopy every 30 min during the first 4 h, then every 2 h
during the following 4 days, finally every 3 h during the last two days.
Samples of the leaching residues were also collected, washed with water,
dried and prepared for XPD and SEM analysis. The leaching process was
monitored by determination of the copper, cobalt, iron and manganese
contents in the PLS as well as in the leaching solid residues at each time,
and by the quantification of the water loss. The total water loss consisted
of the evaporative water losses and the amount absorbed on the surface
of the ore particles. The reference level of liquid in the container was
determined 15 min after the circulation of fluid through the pump, heap
and channels was started. The liquid losses in the circuit were then
determined during heap leaching with respect to the reference level
initially measured in the container.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterisation of raw materials
The particle size distributions of the three ores A, B and C are shown in
Fig. 1. The weight averaged particle diameter and chemical compositions
of the three ores are given in Table 1. The total copper contents of the ores
were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The copper
fractions contained in the malachite form in the ores were determined
indirectly by gravimetric quantification of the CO2 produced by thermal
decomposition of the ore. The high silica contents in the gangues
together with the low CaO, MgO and zinc contents suggest that these
materials should be amenable to acid leaching with good performance as
the acid consumption is expected to be low.
X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the ores contained about
80% quartz. Copper was contained in the minerals malachite CuCO3 Cu
(OH)2 and atacamite Cu2Cl(OH)3. Iron was present as goethite FeO
(OH). Neither chrysocolla nor clay were detected by X-ray diffraction.
Scanning electron microscopy indicated that copper and cobalt
were contained in particles,75 to 200 µm in size, interconnected by
fine strings, about 3 µm in width, that were formed along the grain
boundaries between the large quartz particles. The fine webbing
strings were rich in cobalt, iron and manganese. The preferential
formation of these mineralised phases along the grain boundaries
rather than inside the quartz grains suggests that porosity of these
grains would not play a significant role in leaching this ore. It would
therefore be sufficient to grind the ores to ~ 200 µm to produce a large
available surface between mineralised particles and lixiviant for an
efficient leaching process, and hence to reduce the leaching time.
3.2. Leaching
The effect of ore particle size on heap leaching was investigated by
leaching the three ores using 60 g/L H2SO4 irrigated at 13.7 L/min/m2.
The leaching process was monitored by measuring the concentration
of Cu2+ in the PLS collected at the basement of the heaps. The result-
ing Cu2+ concentration in the PLS obtained after leaching the three
ores for 6 days were respectively 54, 34 and 18 g/L. The corresponding
copper recovery curves are plotted in Fig. 2.
Mn Zn Cu oxide Cu malachite CaO MgO Al2O3 SiO2
0.02 b 0.01 1.03 0.89 0.14 2.70 2.59 77
0.15 b 0.01 1.12 0.98 0.15 2.92 2.85 89
0.05 b 0.01 1.07 0.71 0.13 1.66 1.70 86
 Author's personal copy
M. Lwambiyi et al. / Hydrometallurgy 98 (2009) 177–180
Fig. 2. Copper recovery from the heaps of materials A, B and C leached with a lixiviant at
60 g/L H2SO4.
Three major observations were pointed out from the variation of the
Cu2+ concentration in the PLS and the corresponding recoveries
represented in Fig. 2. Firstly the concentration of Cu2+ in the PLS and
the recovery of copper from the ores increased with the leaching time,
and were systematically higher when the average ore particle diameter
was fine. The leaching kinetics was faster for the finer ore particle size
due to the larger available surface area of reaction formed in the heap.
This typical behaviour characterises heterogeneous kinetics where the
reaction rate increases when the surface area of reaction increases.
Secondly, the copper recovery trends from the three materials were
similar with N90%, 52% and 40% recovery achieved after 6 days leaching
for A, B and C respectively. Lastly, significant decrease in volume of liquid
was noticed all along the heap leaching process in open air. It is believed
that the spraying of the solution into small droplets at the top of the
heap, and the heat of reaction between the sulphuric acid and the
minerals are the main factors that contributed to the loss of liquid by
evaporation of water. An amount of liquid is also naturally absorbed on
the surface and in the pores of the ore particles. Unlike the loss of water
by evaporation, the amount of liquid absorbed by the ore particles
should not vary significantly during the leaching process because the
pores are filled and saturated with lixiviant solution during the initial
time of leaching and do not contribute much to further decrease of the
volume of the liquid observed in the container. Consequently, water was
added into the container to maintain the total volume of liquid in the
circuit at about 200 L. These additions of water led to variation in the
concentration of Cu2+ in the PLS due to dilution effects. The total water
loss during leaching was evaluated as the ratio of the total amount of
water added to maintain the volume of liquid in the circuit equal to 200 L
throughout the leaching process. These total water losses versus ore
particle size and acid concentration are shown in Fig. 3.
It is inferred from Fig. 3, that the volume fraction of liquid lost
increased as the concentration of sulphuric acid in the lixiviant inreased
Fig. 3. Total water losses after heap leaching of ores A, B and C with different lixiviants
for 6 days under atmospheric pressure.
179
Fig. 4. Copper recovery from ore A during leaching with three different starting
concentrations of sulphuric acid in the lixiviant solutions.
from 15 to 120 g/L. This is attributed to the reaction heat generated
between the acid and the minerals that contributed to the latent heat of
evaporation of water. It is also observed from the same figure that water
losses were higher when the ore particle size was finer. This is partly
attributed to the absorption of liquid on the surface of the ore particles.
The main effect of ore particle size on water loss comes from the higher
rate of evaporation through the larger interface formed between the
ambient air and the heap when the ore particles are smaller.
Fig. 2 shows that the copper recovery curves were becoming
asymptotic suggesting that lengthening the closed circuit leaching
time beyond 6 days would not substantially improve the process
efficiency. However, copper recovery from ores B and C remained
lower than 50% after leaching for 6 days using a lixiviant containing
initially 60 g/L sulphuric acid, and the corresponding leach residues
still contained more than 1.0 wt.% Cu.
The effect of sulphuric acid concentration in the lixiviant was then
investigated by leaching of the finest and coarsest materials, using three
different acid concentrations. The change of the concentration of Cu2+ in
the corresponding PLS showed that doubling the acid concentration of
the lixiviant from 60 to 120 g/L increased the concentration of copper in
the PLS from 54 to 66 g/L after leaching of ore A for 6 days. The
corresponding copper recoveries from material A are illustrated in Fig. 4,
while the recoveries from material C are shown in Fig. 5.
A copper recovery higher than 80% was achieved after leaching of
material A for 3 days with lixiviant containing 60 or 120 g/L. However, it
remained at approximately 10% when using the lixiviant at 15 g/L H2SO4.
The limited recovery in the last case is attributed to the limited amount of
acid reactant in solution. Comparing Fig. 4 with Fig. 5 shows that copper
is efficiently leached from the finer ores at any initial acid concentration
of the lixiviant. This particle size effect was clearly seen when the higher
initial acid concentrations were used, such as 60 and 120 g/L.
Fig. 5. Copper recovery from ore C during leaching with different initial sulphuric acid
concentrations in the leaching solutions.
 Author's personal copy
180 M. Lwambiyi et al. / Hydrometallurgy 98 (2009) 177–180
Table 2
Impurities in the pregnant leach solutions after 6 day treatment of ore A.
Starting acid concentration Fe [g/L] Mn [g/L] Co [g/L]
15 g/L H2SO4 26 8 0.9
60 g/L H2SO4 32 8 1.3
120 g/L H2SO4 45 8 1.9
The concentrations of cobalt, iron and manganese in the PLS,
obtained after 6 days, are given in Table 2. It shows that contamination
by iron, unlike manganese and cobalt, increased when the initial acid
concentration of the lixiviant increased. The cobalt concentrations are
high enough to justify the application of a different technique for the
recovery of this metal from the solutions. The possible reason
manganese and cobalt concentrations in the pregnant leach solutions
were unaffected by increasing of the acid concentration in the
lixiviants may be that these metals were quickly leached from ore
because of their presence in strings that were finer than the nodules
that contained the copper minerals. The iron contents in the PLS were
higher than the required 2.5 g/L limit for copper electrowinning.
Precipitation of iron with a saturated lime solution at a pH of 3.5–3.8
decreased the iron concentration in the PLS to less than 10 mg/L
without affecting the copper concentration. The X-ray diffraction
analysis showed that iron was present as lepidocrosite (FeOOH) in a
precipitate containing about 90% gypsum and no copper.
The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that leaching typical
residues contained more than 90% silica and 4% muscovite. The silica
content of the solid residues was confirmed using EDX technique.
4. Conclusion
The ores from the Disele deposit contains malachite–atacamite
minerals with a siliceous gangue. Copper, cobalt and manganese are
contained in two different phases. Nodules rich in copper, 75–200 µm
in size, in some zones of the ores are interconnected by fine strings,
5 µm in size, rich in cobalt and manganese that are formed along the
quartz grain boundaries.
It was observed that at initial concentrations of sulphuric acid in
the lixiviant comprised between 60 and 120 g/L H2SO4 the recovery of
copper upon heap leaching was more dependent on the ore average
particle size than on the acid content. The recovery of copper after
6 days dropped from 90% for an ore average particle size dm ~ 3.7 mm
to 40% when dm was 17.8 mm. The corresponding pregnant leach
solutions contained 63 and 40 g/L Cu2+.
The recovery of copper after leaching for 6 days was less than 30%
and the PLS contained less than 18 g/L Cu2+ when the ores were
leached using a lixiviant containing 15 g/L H2SO4, independently of
the ore average particle size. The leaching residues formed in this last
case still contained approximately 1.0 wt.% Cu.
Percolation of the PLS was fast in all runs. The crystalline structure
of the quartz present in the ore and the ore particle size ranges
considered in this work may have contributed to the good perme-
ability of the heaps. The absence of chrysocolla-type minerals,
alumina, calcite and clays also contributed to the good permeability
of the heaps with no precipitation evident.
Leaching typical residues formed after leaching of the fine ore
(average particle size dm ~ 3 mm) using lixiviant solutions at 60–120 g/L
H2SO4 contained 92% SiO2 and 4% muscovite. Copper, cobalt and
manganese contents in these residues were below the detection limit of
the X-ray diffraction and the EDX equipments used.
Iron concentration in the PLS obtained after leaching for 6 days
increased from 26 to 45 g/L as the initial acid concentration in the
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lixiviant increased from 15 to 120 g/L. These iron contents were
higher than the 2.5 g/L maximum required in copper electrowinning,
rendering a purification stage necessary. Precipitation of iron as
lepidocrosite by a lime saturated solution, in the pH range of 3.5–3.8,
reduced the iron content to 10 mg/L.
Significant water losses occurred during acid heap leaching of the
malachite–atacamite ores, resulting in 30 to 50% decrease of the total
volume of liquid. These water losses are mainly due to the evaporation
at the heap/air interface and in some proportion to the hydration of
the ore particles. The leaching heat of reaction constitutes a source of
latent enthalpy that contributes to the evaporative water loss. These
water losses increased when the initial concentration of acid in the
lixiviant increased and also when the heap was composed of finer ore
particles.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Nicholas J. Welham, Dr. C. Montross, Mpho
M. Malatjie and Siu Wah-Wai for their valuables comments on the
content as well as the presentation, and for editing the text of this
paper.
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