Bio-Heap Leaching of Primary Copper Sulfide Ore by JOGMEC

JOGMEC has been carrying out the study on primary copper sulfide ores leaching for recovering copper economically and efficiently by heap leaching. In our study, we have been using the primary copper sulfide ore produced in an IOCG deposit. The ore is characterized by high iron content and high acid consumption in leaching. For the optimization of the leaching, the conditions such as ore size, agglomeration, pH and irrigation rate of leaching solution were examined with column leach tests. The best result was over 80 % extraction of copper in 150 days with leaching solution of 1 M sulfuric acid and temperature of 45 °C. In this experiment, the fines of the ore sample were removed before putting it into the column to keep the permeability of the ore bed. In these column leach tests, the Fe2+/total-Fe ratio of PLS decreased gradually by the activity of naturally grown iron-oxidizing bacteria. The bacteria in PLS, which have the ability of iron-oxidizing and sulfur-oxidizing, were identified by next-generation sequencing as Acidithiobacillus caldus and Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans. We also carried out bench-scale tests with about 200 tons of the primary copper sulfide ores. Iron-oxidizing and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria were identified in the leaching solution as same with column leach tests. It is considered that the bacteria worked in the leaching solution and on the surface of the ores.