In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method for leaching copper from a oxidised copper ore, wherein at least 5% of the copper present in the oxidised copper ore is an oxidised copper compound, the method comprising the method steps of: applying an aqueous solution of a curing agent to the oxidised copper ore, producing a cured ore; forming a leach solution by applying an ammoniacal solution that has an ammonium carbonate content of less than 20 g/L to the cured ore, producing a pregnant leach solution containing copper; and passing the pregnant leach solution to a means for recovering copper.

THIS invention relates to a method and heap for recovering metal values from ore in a heap leach process. The method includes the steps of depositing and stacking crushed ore 16 on an impermeable pad 12 to form a heap, and enclosing the heap with a substantially impermeable coating 18 to both gas and liquid; to form a sealed heap. The sealed heap is irrigated with a leachant added inside the top of the heap, allowing the leachant to percolate through the heap and removing leachant at the base of the heap, either for recirculation or subsequent processing. Oxygen containing gas is added to the base of the sealed heap.

The present invention relates to compositions and processes for the extraction of metals from solid material using non-aqueous solvents and oxidisers. The processes and compositions of the present invention are useful for selectively extracting metals from solid material, particularly electronic waste material.

A method and apparatus are presented for recovering a target metal from a feed material. The method includes: contacting the feed material with a lixiviant adapted to leach target metal from a feed material feed stream in a leaching circuit having a plurality of leaching vessels V1, V2, Vn in series, establishing a countercurrent flow in the leaching circuit by delivering feed material feed stream to leaching vessel V1 and moving the feed material feed stream through the leaching circuit in a first direction toward leaching vessel Vn and delivering the lixiviant to the leaching vessel Vn and moving the lixiviant through the leaching circuit in a second direction toward leaching vessel V1, determining, by a controller, a reagent consumption rate for each of the leaching vessels V1, V2, Vn so as to validate performance, minimize left over reagent discharged from leaching vessel V1 and maximize target metal recovery from leaching vessel Vn and recovering the target metal from the lixiviant.

The present disclosure is related to carbonation and selective ammonia leaching for the recovery of minor metals.

A method of recovering copper from a feed material includes steps of: leaching the feed material with a lixiviant adapted to leach the copper from a feed material feed stream in a leaching circuit having a plurality of leaching vessels V.sub.1, V.sub.n in series, establishing a countercurrent flow in the leaching circuit, simultaneously grinding the feed material in the feed material feed stream during the leaching in at least one of the plurality of leaching vessels and recovering the copper from the lixiviant.