Leaching of chalcopyrite: An emphasis on effect of copper and iron ions

Many researchers found that the Fe 2+ together with less amount of Cu 2+ can accelerate the leaching of chalcopyrite. In this work, the leaching of chalcopyrite with Cu 2+ was investigated. The leaching residuals were examined by Raman spectroscopy. Based on the leaching experiments, the chemical equilibrium in solution was calculated using Visual MINTEQ. The results showed that the Fe in chalcopyrite lattice was replaced by Cu 2+ ; therefore, the chalcopyrite transformed into covellite. Furthermore, the formation of chalcocite occurred when Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ were added to the solution containing Cu 2+ . The copper extraction increased with a decrease of the initial redox potential (or the ratio of Fe 3+ /Fe 2+ ).