Sherritt-Cominco process

The Sherritt-Cominco process was developed as an alternative to smelting of sulfide concentrates. The key feature of the Sherritt-Cominco process is the removal of iron before the leaching of copper. The concentrate is thermally activated and leached with sulfuric acid to dissolve iron. Iron is precipitated as jarosite. The leach residue is pressure leached with oxygen in acid solution to convert copper sulfides to copper sulfates. The solution is purified by the coprecipitation of Te, As, Bi, Sb, Pb, and Se with Fe2C>3. The electrolyte contains 30 g L 1 Cu and 140 g L 1 sulfuric... 

A pressure leaching system to handle copper sulfide called the Sherritt-Cominco (SC) copper process was developed by these two Canadian firms. Pilot-plant testing was completed in 1976 (29), but commercial appHcation of this technology has not been achieved. 

Sherritt-Cominco A process for extracting copper from chalcopyrite, CuFeS2. The ore is reduced with hydrogen, the iron leached out with sulfuric acid, the residual Cu5FeS4 dissolved in concentrated sulfuric acid, and the copper isolated by electrowinning or hydrogen reduction. Pilot testing was complete in 1976. 

The Sherritt-Cominco hydrometallurgical process makes the method applicable to chalcopyrite (CuFeSi) ores [49]. After thermal rearrangement and reduction of the concentrate with hydrogen it is leached first with sulfuric acid to dissolve out the iron [50] (Eq. 13.49). 

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