Abstract

Mixed copper ores are challenging to process, where the treatments are expensive, resulting in low recoveries, with products that are not commercially viable. The proposed research aims a sustainable method to recover copper from a mixture of oxides and sulfides minerals. The procedure involves three stages: (i) leaching with aqueous ammonia solutions at room temperature and varied pH, ammonia concentration, solid concentration, and particle size; (ii) PLS precipitation in copper sulfides by the addition of sulfur (or other copper sulfates) and SO2 (or additional sulfites or bisulfites); (iii) froth flotation to recover the value sulfide, considering a set of collectors and frothers. The outcomes obtained in this work were promising, achieving copper extraction of 70% in the leaching stage, precipitation of copper sulfides that surrounds 90%, and 75% of recovery by flotation.