The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 1978
Filed:
Feb. 28, 1977
Milton E Wadsworth, Salt Lake City, UT (US);
Jan D Miller, Salt Lake City, UT (US);
John A Herbst, Park City, UT (US);
John L Kolbe, Clarksville, MD (US);
Howard Wayne Hayden, Columbia, MD (US);
Other;
Abstract
A process for hydrometallurgically recovering copper from concentrates of chalcopyrite and other sulfide and mixed sulfide ores utilizes the pretreatment step of fine grinding of the concentrates coupled with subsequent leaching steps. As a pretreatment for the copper-containing concentrates, the concentrates are ground, preferrably with an attritor-type grinding device, to reduce the particle size of the copper bearing concentrate to one micron or less in size. The finely ground copper concentrate is then leached in an acidified ferric sulfate solution to recover the copper contained therein. Following the leching step, a solid-liquid separation is effected. Elemental sulfur may be recovered, and iron removal is achieved by crystallization of iron salts. Ferrous ion is then oxidized to ferric ion for recycling to the leaching step.