Publication: Mineralogical characterization and preliminary leaching studies of mengapur copper ore
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Date
2009-05-01
Authors
Arnolous Rema, Aidil
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Abstract
Research entitled “Mineralogical Characterization and Preliminary Leaching Studies of Mengapur Copper Ore” has been carried out in this project using copper oxide ore from Mengapur copper mine. The study has been divided into two phases that is first phase is ore characterization where the aspect of geological and mineralogical studied will be focused and the second stage will be leaching process using bottle roll technique. Study of characterization show that the Mengapur deposit is skarn type deposit with copper oxide (cuprite and copper oxide) and iron ore (hematite) as the dominant mineral that is economic to mine. The XRF analysis revealed that the cuprite contain 2.56% Cu that is suitable and economic for leaching process where hematite content of 19.85% Fe. XRD analysis showed that copper oxide and iron oxide ore common along with pyrhotite as major mineral, along with chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. Experiments were conducted in order to determine the optimum condition of leaching by studying two different parameters that is various acid concentration and percent solid. The bottle roll experiment showed that copper could be extracted from copper ores through leaching mechanism. Copper extractions were 59.75% after 3 hours of leaching at room temperature, respectively. The data from this experiments will allows comparison of various leaching technique to select the suitable and economic leaching process for development. This will give basis information for development of Mengapur copper mine flow sheet for copper recovery.