A method of leaching copper from a copper sulfide ore which includes adding a potential adjustment agent for lowering a potential of a leaching solution obtained after leaching copper from the copper sulfide ore by using iodide ion and iron (III) ion, the leaching solution being stored in a tank for storing the leaching solution.

The system may include a secondary irrigation feature that determines a percent of overlap of each of a plurality of submodules in a first lift over each of a plurality of submodules in a second lift and adjusts at least one of leaching operations or a leaching model based on the total tonnage weighted average of metal in the second lift. The method may further comprise determining an acid gap based on a difference between total acid given and total acid consumption; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the acid gap. The method may further comprise determining a percentage of compacted material based on the material that is compacted and irrigated divided by the material that is irrigated; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the percentage of compacted material.

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

A method of improving metal leach kinetics and recovery during atmospheric or substantially atmospheric leaching of a metal sulfide is disclosed. In some embodiments, the method may comprise the step of processing a metal sulfide concentrate in a reductive activation circuit 220 that operates at a first redox potential, to produce a reductively-activated metal sulfide concentrate. The method may further comprise the step of subsequently processing the activated metal sulfide concentrate in an oxidative leach circuit 240 to extract metal values. In some disclosed embodiments, reductive activation steps and/or oxidative dissolution steps may employ mechano-chemical and/or physico-chemical processing of particles or agglomerates thereof. Reductive activation may be made prior to heap leaching or bio-leaching operations to improve metal extraction. Systems for practicing the aforementioned methods are also disclosed.

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

The present invention provides a method of converting copper containing material to blister copper comprising: (a) providing copper containing material comprising copper sulfides and iron sulfides, whereby the copper containing material comprises at least 35 wt % copper of the total weight of the copper containing material; (b) reacting the copper containing material in a furnace with an oxygen containing gas, in the absence of flux, to effect oxidation of iron sulfide and copper sulfide, and controlling injection of the oxygen containing gas and the temperature so that the resulting converter slag is in a molten phase to obtain blister copper and converter slag.

The present invention relates to a method for the biological recovery of metals in electric and electronic waste, which comprises a) inoculating a series of iron-oxidizing microorganisms and a mineral medium or fertilizers into an immobilized biomass column; b) performing a stage of biological oxidation of the iron II ions present in said mineral medium or fertilizers to iron III ions; c) irrigating a liquid phase into leaching columns that house an electrical material or one or more printed circuit boards from which metals are to be recovered, the iron III ions being reduced to iron II oxidizing the metals, and separating the metals by means of the dissolution thereof; and d) extracting the metals from the solution. The invention operates under a cyclic process that allows the iron II solution being re-circulated to the biomass column.

The processes can comprise feeding a furnace with a raw material. These materials can contain impurities and valuable metals (base metals, precious metals, platinum group metals, minor metals). The processes can allow the volatilization of arsenic and indium contained therein. Before volatilizing the material, composition of the material is optionally modified so as to obtain a ratio % S/(% (Cu/2)+% Ni+% Co) of about 0.5 to about 2. The processes can comprise feeding a melting device with the depleted material, and with a source of carbon in order to obtain a multi-layer product and an off gas. Before melting the depleted material, the depleted material composition is optionally modified so as to obtain a ratio % S/(% (Cu/2)+% Ni+% Co) of about 0.5 to about 2. Thus, it is possible to recover Cu, Ni and Co as well as several other metals, including In, Ge, Pb, Bi, precious metals and platinum group metals.