The leaching of kure region complex copper sulphide ores by anodic oxidation method

In nature, copper ores can be present in the form of sulfur, oxides, carbonates and hydrates. It is mostly found in the form of sulphides in nature. The production of copper from sulphide ores is mostly carried out by pyrometallurgical methods. However, pyrometallurgical processes require high temperatures. This means more load and problem in terms of the environment. Hydro and electrometallurgical processes have attracted more attention in recent years due to reasons such as greater energy efficiency, less investment cost, more environmentalism and other elements extractin in extra with copper. In this study, anodic oxidation leaching process of Küre region complex copper sulfide ores on Black Sea were investigated. Concentrated copper ore was mechanically activated in the planetary mill at optimum conditions and samples were leached anodically under different conditions. In addition, solution concentration, temperature, leaching time, liquid/solid ratio, voltage and anode-cathode distance are the parameters in the anodic oxidation leaching process. The effects of the applied methods and parameters and optimum anodic leaching conditions were tried to be determined. The solutions were then analyzed by ICP and the copper extraction efficiency was calculated under different leaching conditions.