Dissolution kinetics of malachite in ammonia/ammonium sulphate solution

The dissolution kinetics of malachite was investigated in ammonia/ammonium sulphate solution. The effects of ammonia and ammonium sulphate concentration, pH, leaching time, reaction temperature, and particle size were determined. The results show that the optimum leaching conditions for malachite ore with a copper extraction more than 96.8% are ammonia/ammonium concentration 3.0 mol/L NH4OH + 1.5 mol/L (NH4)2SO4, liquid-to-solid ratio 25:1 mL/g, leaching time 120 min, stirring speed 500 r/min, reaction temperature 25 °C and particle size finer than 0.045 mm. The dissolution process of malachite with an activation energy of 26.75 kJ/mol is controlled by the interface transfer and diffusion across the product layer. A semi-empirical rate equation is obtained to describe the leaching process and the reaction orders with respect to concentration of ammonia and ammonium sulphate are 2.983 0 and 0.941 1, respectively.