| Summary: | The aim of study was to research the procedures of copper, lead and zinc leaching from CuPbZn complex sulphide concentrate during the intervention of mechanical activation.Mechanical activation belongs to innovative procedures, which intensifies technological processes by means of creation of new surfaces and making defective structure of solid phase. Mechanical impact on the solid phase is a suitable procedure to ensure the mobility of its structure elements and to accumulate the mechanical energy that is later used in following processes of leaching.This paper deals with the intensification of the chloride and thiourea leaching of copper, lead and zinc from a CuPbZn complex concentrate of Hodrua-Hámre (Slovak deposit) by using the mechanical activation in an attritor. Ferric chloride and thiourea were used as leaching reagents. The leaching of the concentrate with ferric chloride solution afforded 23 % recovery of Cu, 99 % of Pb and 28 % of Zn. 9 % recovery of Cu, 17 % of Pb and 3 % of Zn were achieved by the leaching with thiourea. Thus results showed that the extraction of Cu, Zn and also Pb in the case of thiourea leaching was low. The use of milling in the attritor as an innovation method of pretreatment leads to the structural degradation and increasing the surface area of the investigated concentrate from the original value of 0.18 m2g-1 to the maximum value of 4.67 m2g-1. This fact manifested itself in the subsequent process of extraction of Cu, Pb and Zn into the chloride and thiourea solutions. Our results indicate more effective leaching of pretreated concentrate in the chloride medium with recoveries of 84 % Zn and 100 % Pb. In thiourea, the recoveries for Zn and Pb were low, however 99 % Cu can be recovered. In regard to the economy, the extraction of Cu, Pb and Zn was studied in this work with the aspect of minimal energy consumption during milling. The maximum recoveries of non-ferrous metals in the solutions of ferric chloride and thiourea were found with the minimal grinding energy of 403 kWht-1. A favourable kinetics of the process was observed for Pb in the case of chloride leaching. The results show that the mechanical activation essentially influences the copper, lead and zinc leaching kinetics, which is a favourable effect for the economy of the leaching process.The application of mechanical activation has grown in the framework of laboratory research. The Institute of Geotechnics of SAV has also achieved significant theoretical results in the study of mechanical activation of sulphides and their reactivity in different solid-phase reactions with the effect on industrial applications. The Institute has developed a technology of mechanochemical leaching (process MELT) which was successfuly tested in a pilot plant unit.
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