Statistical and kinetic study for leaching of covellite in a chloride media

Abstract

Covellite is a relatively rare copper sulfide with slow dissolution kinetics. The present investigation used the surface optimization methodology to evaluate the effect of three independent variables (time, chloride concentration and sulfuric acid concentration) on the rate of extracting Cu from covellite. The effects of chloride concentration and temperature over time were also studied. An ANOVA indicated that the linear variables of time and chloride concentration have the greatest influence, this being highly representative (R2 = 0.9945). The highest copper extraction rate (71.23%) at room temperature, was obtained with a high chloride concentration (100 g/L), a low concentration of sulfuric acid (0.5 M), and a leaching period of 600 h. The dissolution is described by the model of the unreacted core, the rate of leaching of the covellite is controlled by the chemical surface reaction at temperatures between 50 and 90°C, with concentrations of 0.5 M of H2SO4, 100 g/L of chloride, and a leaching period of up to 6 hours, where an activation energy of 72.36 kJ/mol was obtaine.