Chalcopyrites

Copper occasionally occurs native, and is found in many minerals such as cuprite, malachite, azurite, chalcopyrite, and bornite. 

Copper. Copper is economically extracted by smelting of a chalcopyrite concentrate. A copper electrowinning process was developed commercially in 1912 for the treatment of lean ores. It is also suitable for treatment of copper oxide or sulfate obtained by roasting of the concentrate. 

Some of the most important metal sulfides are pyrite [1309-36-0] EeS2 chalcopyrite [1308-56-1J, CuEeS2 pyrrhotite [1310-50-5] Ee sphalerite [12169-28-7] ZnS galena [12179-39-4] PbS arsenopyrite [1303-18-0] 2 pentlandite [53809-86-2] (Fe,Ni)2Sg. Sulfide deposits often occur in... 

Another process, which also generates elemental sulfur as a by-product, has been patented by Envirotech Research Center in Salt Lake City (29). In the Electroslurry process, a ball mill finely grinds a chalcopyrite concentrate, which reacts with an acidic copper sulfate solution for iron removal. The Hquor is electrolyzed and the iron is oxidized to the ferric form. This latter step leaches copper from the copper sulfide for deposition on the cathode. Elemental sulfur is recovered at the same time. 

Sulfide Ores ores. In the Zairian ores, cobalt sulfide as carroUite is mixed with chalcopyrite and chalcocite [21112-20-9]. For processing, the ore is finely ground and the sulfides are separated by flotation (qv) using frothers. The resulting products are leached with dilute sulfuric acid to give a copper—cobalt concentrate that is then used as a charge in an electrolytic cell to remove the copper. Because the electrolyte becomes enriched with cobalt, solution from the copper circuit is added to maintain a desirable copper concentration level. After several more steps to remove copper, iron, and aluminum, the solution is treated with milk of lime to precipitate the cobalt as the hydroxide. 

Copper ore minerals maybe classified as primary, secondary, oxidized, and native copper. Primaryrninerals were concentrated in ore bodies by hydrothermal processes secondary minerals formed when copper sulfide deposits exposed at the surface were leached by weathering and groundwater, and the copper reprecipitated near the water table (see Metallurgy, extractive). The important copper minerals are Hsted in Table 1. Of the sulfide ores, bornite, chalcopyrite, and tetrahedrite—teimantite are primary minerals and coveUite, chalcocite, and digenite are more commonly secondary minerals. The oxide minerals, such as chrysocoUa, malachite, and azurite, were formed by oxidation of surface sulfides. Native copper is usually found in the oxidized zone. However, the principal native copper deposits in Michigan are considered primary (5). 

The production of copper from sulphide minerals is accomplished with a preliminary partial roast of die sulphides before reaction widr air in the liquid state, known as mattes, to form copper metal (conversion). The principal sources of copper are minerals such as chalcopyrite, CuFeSa and bornite CuaFeSa, and hence the conversion process must accomplish the preferential oxidation of non, in the form of FeO, before the copper metal appears. As mentioned before, tire FeO-SiOa liquid system is practically Raoultian, and so it is relatively easy to calculate the amount of iron oxidation which can be canned out to form this liquid slag as a function of the FeO/SiOa ratio before copper oxidation occurs. The liquid slag has a maximum mole fraction of FeO at the matte blowing temperatures of about 0.3, at solid silica saturation. 

Geif, m. silver-bearing pyrites, -erz, -kupfer, n. chalcopyrite. 

Kupferkies, m. copper pyrites (chalcopyrite). — bunter —, bornite. 

Chalcopyrite, CuFeS2, is an important source of copper. A typical chal-copyrite ore contains about 0.75% Cu. What volume of sulfur dioxide at 25°C and 1.00 atm pressure is produced when one boxcar load (4.00 X 103 ft3) of chalcopyrite ore (d = 2.6 g/cm3) is roasted Assume all the sulfur in the ore is converted to S02 and no other source of sulfur is present. 

This element occurs in nature in the uncombined state as native copper and in the combined state as various oxides, sulfides, and carbonates. The chief mineral is chalcopyrite, CuFeS2, from which the element is extracted by roasting (heating in air) followed by reduction. The roasting reaction can be written... 

Cesium. 23 chemistry. 95 heal of vaporization, 305 properties. 94 Chain reaction, 419 Chalcocitc, 46 Chalcopyrite, 408 Charge... 

Fig. 7-13. An example of a semiquantitati e application of the curved-crystal x-ray spectrometer used by Adler and Axelrod. By using chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) as a standard, the proper atomic ratios of copper to iron were obtained for bornite (Cu5FeS4) and cubanite (CuFe2S3). The Cu/Fe weight ratios in these minerals are 1.14 (chalcopyrite), 5.69 (bornite), and 0.57 (cubanite). (Courtesy of Adler and Axelrod, Norelco Reptr., 3, 65.)...

Ni is found in many ores in combination with S, As Sb, the chief sources being the minerals chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and pentlandite. Ni ores are of two types, sulfide and oxide, the former accounting for two-thirds of the world s consumption. Sulfide ores are refined by flotation and roasting to sintered Ni oxide, and either sold as such or reduced to metal, which is cast into anodes and refined electrolytically or by the carbonyl (Mond) process. Oxide ores are treated by hydrometallurgjcal refining, eg, leaching with ammonia. Much secondary Ni is recovered from scrap (Refs 6 7) 1... 

FIGURE 16.10 Three important copper ores (from left to right) chalcopyrite, CuFeS, malachite, CuC03-Cu(0H)2 and chalcocite, Cu2S. 

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