INFLUENCE OF OXIDANT CONCENTRATION ON THE LEACHING OF FLOTATION TAILINGS IN ACIDIC MEDIUM

Abstract

The reprocessing of sulphide minerals in flotation tailings is an attractive option for sustainable mine waste management. Conventional mineral processing methods often encounter difficulties when processing tailings, mainly due to factors such as particle size and surface oxidation of minerals. In most cases, copper is extracted from such raw materials using leaching processes. The paper presents an investigation of the leaching of flotation tailings using 0.1 mol/dm³ H₂SO₄ solution in which ferric ions and hydrogen peroxide play the role of oxidants. The influence of oxidant concentration on the leaching of copper and iron was investigated. It was found that the addition of ferric ions influenced the leaching of copper, with approximately 79% of copper was leached with 5 g/dm³ of Fe(III) ions. It has also been shown that the concentration of hydrogen peroxide affects the leaching of copper and iron. The total copper extraction of 85.31% and iron extraction of 7.66% were achieved with 0.3 mol/dm³ H₂O₂ during 120 minutes of reaction time.