Development of copper recovery process f

Sulfide copper mineral, typically Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), is one of the most common minerals for producing metallic copper via the pyrometallurgical process. Generally, flotation tailings are produced as a byproduct of flotation and still consist of un-recovered copper. In addition, it is expected that more tailings will be produced in the coming years due to the increased exploration of low-grade copper ores. Therefore, this research aims to develop a copper recovery process from flotation tailings using high-pressure leaching (HPL) followed by solvent extraction. Over 94.4% copper was dissolved from the sample (CuFeS2 as main copper mineral) by HPL in H2O media in the presence of pyrite, whereas the iron was co-dissolved with copper according to an equation given as FeS2 + 6H2O → Fe3+ + 3SO42- + 4H+. To avoid losing a relevant selection on the subsequent copper electrowinning, solvent extraction was conducted on the generated leach solution for improving copper concentration. The result showed that 91.3% copper was recovered in a stripped solution and 98.6% was removed under the optimal extraction conditions. As a result, 86.2% of copper was recovered from the concentrate of flotation tailings by a proposed HPL-solvent extraction process.