Abstract
Carefully sized and characterized chalcopyrite concentrates were produced from eleven different geographical localities, and were subsequently leached in both ferric chloride-hydrochloric acid and ferric sulfate-sulfuric acid media. When the leaching rates were corrected for the amount of CuFeS2 in the particular sample, similar leaching rates (±50 pet) were observed for all eleven chalcopyrites under all experimental conditions. Furthermore, all the relatively pure chalcopyrites leached according to the same reaction and yielded >95 pet elemental sulfur as a sulfidic reaction product. In light of the current experimental observations, various reasons are offered for the order of magnitude variations in the chalcopyrite leaching rates often reported in the literature.
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