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Hydrometallurgical Waste Production and Utilization
Published in Sehliselo Ndlovu, Geoffrey S. Simate, Elias Matinde, Waste Production and Utilization in the Metal Extraction Industry, 2017
Sehliselo Ndlovu, Geoffrey S. Simate, Elias Matinde
In this process, copper ore is mined, crushed, ground, concentrated, smelted and then refined. The process is applied to ores that contain copper minerals in the sulphide form such as chalcocite (Cu2S), chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) and covellite (CuS). In the smelting operation, the concentrate from the flotation process is fed to a smelter together with oxygen. In the smelter, copper and iron sulphide concentrates are oxidized at high temperature resulting in the production of impure molten metallic copper, a mixture of molten oxides (iron oxide, silica, alumina, calcium oxide and magnesium oxide, etc.) and the emission of gaseous sulphur dioxide. The gaseous sulphide is used in the production of sulphuric acid while there is also numerous potential application of the generated slag; readers are referred to Chapter 6 for more details.
Textural and geochemical distinction between supergene and hypogene Cu sulfide phases at the Mammoth copper deposit, Queensland, Australia
Published in Adam Piestrzyński, Mineral Deposits at the Beginning of the 21st Century, 2001
D.J. Clark, J.B. Gemmell, M. Norman, A.M. Hespe
Cu mineralisation consists of chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite. It is hosted within breccias that plunge SW, a trend parallel to the intersection of two major faults (MF & PF in Fig. 1). Within the brecciated ore zones, sulfides are zoned from chalcopyrite at depth to bornite and chalcocite up dip. Petrological and geochemical investigations were undertaken to determine the sulfide, sulphosalt and oxide mineralogy, textures and paragenesis of hypogene Cu mineralisation and its relationship to the supergene mineralisation.
An Analysis of Copper Concentrate from a Kupferschiefer-type Ore from Legnica-Glogow Copper Basin (SW Poland)
Published in Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, 2021
In Table A3 the mineral composition of the investigated concentrate is presented. The content of all sulfide minerals is about 33%. The sample contains copper sulfide minerals as chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite with digenite/djurleite and covellite. Moreover, among the sulfide minerals, the concentrate contains relatively high contents of pyrite with marcasite, galena and sphalerite. Assuming that the content of all sulfides is 100%, the content of non-copper-bearing sulfides in the concentrate is about 30%. The main gangue minerals occurring in the concentrate are clay minerals with micas, calcium and magnesium carbonates and quartz with a content about 46%. The presence of quite high contents of gangues and non-copper-bearing sulfides, equal to 67%, is one of the main reasons for the dilution of the concentrate, which significantly lowers the copper grade in the concentrate.
Chemical and Mineral Analysis of Flotation Tailings from Stratiform Copper Ore from Lubin Concentrator Plant (SW Poland)
Published in Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, 2019
The principal copper-bearing sulfides are chalcocite, bornite, chalcopyrite, and covellite. Also, ore contains, besides sulfides, other metals like lead (galena), zinc (sphalerite) and iron (pyrite and marcasite), and a small amount of enargite and tennantite (Kucha 2007; Piestrzynski 2007). In each Concentrator Plant, the processed copper ore consists of different ratios of rock types. Therefore, technological flowsheets are modified to ore properties in a given area and plant. Final tailings produced by the three plants are characterized by different composition and properties.