LEACHING OF MALACHITE ORE IN AMMONIUM SULFATE SOLUTIONS AND PRODUCTION OF COPPER OXIDE

Abstract Malachite ore is one of the most important of oxidized copper ores. Copper production can be performed by using this ore. In this work, the leaching kinetics of malachite in ammonium sulfate solutions was investigated, and metallic copper was recovered by a cementation method from the resulting actual leach solution. Copper (II) oxide was prepared by an isothermal oxidation method from the cement copper. In the leaching experiments, the effects of reaction temperature, particle size, and stirring speed on copper leaching from malachite ore were studied. In the cementation experiments, metallic zinc was used as the reductant metal to recover the copper from the solution. Thermal oxidation of cement copper was performed under isothermal conditions. It was found that the leaching rate increased with increasing stirring speed and temperature, and decreased with particle size. It was observed that the leaching reaction fit to diffusion through the product layer. The activation energy of the leaching process was determined to be 25.4 kJ/mol. It was determined that the copper content of the metallic product obtained by the cementation method increased up to 96%. It was found that copper oxide prepared from cement copper had a tenorite structure.