Leaching Of The Low-grade Refractory Copper-Cobalt Ore Of Zambia

Copper is non-ferrous metal which related very closely to human. while cobalt is important strategic resource. With the development of economy, there is an increasing demand for copper and cobalt in our country, however, the grade of copper ore in China declined year by year, and cobalt resource is seriously inadequate, so the enhancement of leaching efficiency for the copper and cobalt ore is particularly important.This paper takes Zambian low-grade refractory copper-cobalt ore as the study objects, and studies the leaching processes of the ore by using sulfuric acid and bacterial leaching methods. The effects of various factors on the two different leaching processes were carried out in detail, and the best leaching conditions were obtained. Through the cultivation of bacteria for the copper-cobalt ore, one kind of excellent high temperature bacteria which have strong tolerance to copper and cobalt was obtained.Mineralogy research of Zambian copper-cobalt ore shows that the little content of sulfides in the mineral. The metals in the ore mainly exist in form of oxide. Copper mainly exists in the form of CuO, while cobalt exists in the form of Co2O3. The content of copper and cobalt in the ore are low, the Cu content is1.27%and the Co content is0.071%.The acid leaching experiment of copper-cobalt ore was conducted, the optimum acid leaching conditions of copper-cobalt ore are as followed, the ore particle size less than75microns is70%, leaching temperature is65℃, the initial amount of acid is73.6kg/t ore, leaching time is4h, the original pulp concentration is30%, stirring intensity is500r·min-1Under these optimized conditions, the leaching efficiency of copper and cobalt are74.34%and43.33%respectively. A substantial increase in copper and cobalt leaching rate, compared with the live conditions, leaching rate of Cu improved14.34%and cobalt also has a very good recovery.The bacteriaL leaching experiment of copper-cobalt ore was conducted, the optimum acid leaching conditions of copper-cobalt ore are as followed, the initial amount of acid is 73.6kg/t ore, leaching temperature is65℃, the original pulp concentration is25%, leaching time is4h. Under these optimized conditions, the leaching efficiency of copper and cobalt are84.58%and54.90%respectively. Compared with non-bacterial conditions, leaching rate increased by10.24%of copper and increased by11.57%of cobalt. Effect is very significant.Cultivate a suiTable high-temperature low-grade copper and cobalt ore leaching bacteria----YCH506. Providing businesses with a production of bacteria.