Methods for recovering a metal value from a metal-bearing material are provided. The method comprises agglomerating the metal-bearing material with an agglomeration solution comprising a raffinate, an oxidant, and citric acid or salts thereof to form an agglomerated metal-bearing material; leaching the agglomerated metal-bearing material with a leaching solution comprising the raffinate and the citric acid or salts thereof to produce a pregnant leaching solution and a leached material; re-oxidizing the leached material with a curing solution comprising the raffinate and the oxidant; and recovering the metal value from the pregnant leach solution to produce the raffinate.

In a method for recovering a copper sulfide concentrate by froth flotation from an ore containing an iron sulfide, wet grinding of the ore with grinding media made of high chromium cast iron alloy having a chromium content of from 10 to 35% by weight is combined with an addition of hydrogen peroxide to the conditioned mineral pulp before or during flotation in order to improve concentrate grade and recovery of copper sulfides.

The invention relates to a process that allows electrolytic copper cathodes to be produced, using the pregnant leach solution (PLS) directly in the electrowinning, avoiding the step of mineral concentration by solvent extraction. Furthermore, this process has a modular structure and the full process can be mobilised depending on the requirements of the process itself. The invention also relates to the system that operates with the previously described process.

A process to significantly improve the copper chemical leaching process for primary and secondary minerals, using calcium chloride including the agglomeration, curing, and leaching with a high content of chloride, iron and copper stages. The mineral is then washed with a low concentration of copper and a high concentration of acid, where the impregnated copper is extracted from the pit and wherein a recirculated solution is used in the agglomeration stage.

A method of operating a copper or other metal value concentrator is disclosed. According to some embodiments, the method may comprise producing a final copper concentrate; periodically or continuously analyzing the produced final copper concentrate to obtain a grade value of the produced final copper concentrate; and diverting the produced final copper concentrate to a downstream smelting operation if/when the grade value of the produced final copper concentrate is at or above a minimum acceptable grade threshold; or, diverting the produced final copper concentrate to a downstream hydrometallurgical operation capable of producing copper cathode or other saleable copper product from the produced final copper concentrate, if/when the grade value of the produced final copper concentrate is below said minimum acceptable grade threshold. A copper concentrator capable of conducting the aforementioned method steps is also disclosed.

A process of extracting copper from copper sulphide minerals which is enhanced at solution potentials exceeding 700 mV SHE, in the absence of any microorganism, by contacting the minerals in a pre-treatment phase using an acid solution at a high chloride content containing dissolved copper.

A method of controlling the acid balance in a high chloride heap leach process tomaximise the copper dissolution in a cure step and to increase overall copper recovery which include an agglomeration stage in which acid and process solutions are combined with the ore prior to stacking to form a heap followed by a cure phase to leach a portion of the copper in the ore in the heap followed by an irrigated leach phase in which the remaining copper minerals are leached and copper is recovered from a pregnant leach solution by a solvent extraction step followed by an electrowinning step wherein the acid concentration in the pregnant leach solution which reports to the solvent extraction step is less than 10 g/L to allow effective copper recovery from the pregnant leach solution in the solvent extraction step.

The present disclosure provides a method of recovering copper, molybdenum, and a precious metal value from a metal-bearing material, the method comprising bulk flotation of the metal-bearing material to form a flotation product, wherein the metal-bearing material comprises a copper compound, a molybdenum compound, and at least one precious metal value, pressure oxidizing the flotation product to form a pressure oxidized discharge, separating the pressure oxidized discharge to form a separated liquid and separated solid, extracting molybdenum, via a molybdenum solution extraction, from the separated liquid to form a molybdenum-containing stream and a copper-containing stream, extracting copper, via a copper solution extraction, from the copper-containing stream, and extracting the precious metal value, via a cyanide leaching process, from the separated solid.

A method for recovery of precious metals from copper anode slime may include leaching a leach liquor out of the copper anode slime by mixing the copper anode slime with a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid, separating silver from the leach liquor by forming a silver chloride precipitate in the leach liquor by mixing a supersaturated sodium chloride solution with the leach liquor at room temperature and obtaining a first filtrate by filtering the silver chloride precipitate out of the leach liquor. Copper may be separated from the first filtrate by forming a copper hydroxide precipitate in the first filtrate by adjusting pH of the first filtrate at 9 and obtaining a second filtrate by filtering the copper hydroxide precipitate out of the first filtrate. Metallic selenium may be recovered from the second filtrate by reducing the metallic selenium via a chemical reduction utilizing L-ascorbic acid (LAA) as a reducing agent.

A system and method for recovering a metal value from a metal-bearing material is provided. The method includes agglomerating the metal-bearing material with an agglomeration solution, which contains a raffinate and hydrogen peroxide, to form an agglomerated metal-bearing material. The method further includes leaching the agglomerated metal-bearing material with a leaching solution, which contains the raffinate and citric acid, to produce a pregnant leaching solution. The method further includes recovering the metal value from the pregnant leaching solution to produce the raffinate.