An investigation of oxygen pressure acid leaching of Gacun complex Cu-Pb bulk concentrate

The treatment of the Gacun complex Cu-Pb bulk concentrate with high Zn, Ag, etc., by oxygen pressure acid leaching was studied. The primary copper and lead minerals in the concentrate are tetrahedrite and galena. The treatment of tetrahedrite was rarely studied, and most of silver occurred in the mineral too. The optimum operating parameters of oxygen pressure acid leaching were established by conditional tests. Under these parameters, the result of pilot scale test showed that the leaching percentages of copper and zinc were separately as high as 98.9 wt.% and 94.9 wt.%, while lead and silver were transformed into sulfate and sulfide precipitations, respectively. The copper and zinc in lixivium were reclaimed by extraction-electrowinning and purification-electrowinning, respectively, and the lead and silver in the residue were reclaimed separately by carbonate transformation-silicofluoric acid leaching and thiourea leaching.