Leaching of Bornite Produced from the Sulfurization of Chalcopyrite

Abstract

The pyrometallurgical route accounts for 80 pct of world metallic copper production, because chalcopyrite, the most abundant copper sulfide, is refractory to hydrometallurgical treatment. However, pyrometallurgical routes are quite restrictive as far as copper concentrates are concerned mainly owing to limits on the concentration of impurities, such as fluorine, chlorine, and arsenic that can be tolerated. Such concentrates require innovative processing solutions because their market value is greatly reduced. A potential alternative is the transformation of chalcopyrite to a sulfide amenable to leaching, such as chalcocite, covellite, or bornite, through treatment in either aqueous or gaseous environments. In this study, the sulfurization of a chalcopyrite concentrate containing 78 pct CuFeS2 in the presence of gaseous sulfur was investigated, with the goal of demonstrating its conversion to the leachable phases, i.e., bornite and covellite. The concentrate was reacted with elemental sulfur in a tubular furnace at temperatures ranging from 573 K to 723 K (300 °C to 450 °C), followed by atmospheric leaching in an Fe(III)-bearing solution. The mineral phases in the sample were quantified using the Rietveld method, and it was shown that at temperatures below 673 K (400 °C) chalcopyrite was converted to covellite (41 pct) and pyrite (34 pct), whereas at temperatures above these, the reaction products were bornite (45 pct) and pyrite (31 pct). Leaching tests [6 hours at 353 K (80 °C)] showed significantly higher copper extraction rates after sulfurization (90 pct) than those using the raw chalcopyrite concentrate (15 pct).