Comparison on the leaching kinetics of chalcocite and pyrite with or without bacteria

The acid leaching, ferric leaching, and bioleaching of chalcocite and pyrite minerals were conducted in two sets of 3L stirred reactors. The dissolution rates of copper and iron were correlated with leaching conditions. In the acid leaching process, the dissolution rate of chalcocite was around 40wt.% while that of pyrite was less than 4%. In the ferric leaching process with high ferric concentration, only 10 wt.% of iron in pyrite was leached out at the same retention time though the copper recovery over 60 wt.% in chalcocite. For the bioleaching process, the chalcocite leaching rate was highly increased, nearly 90 wt.% of copper was leached out, and the iron dissolution of pyrite exceeded 70 wt.%. For the two minerals, the bioleaching shows the highest leaching rate compared with the acid leaching or ferric leaching. In uncontrolled bioleaching process, pyrite could be dissolved effectively. The experimental data were fitted to the shrinking core and particle model. The results show that in all the leaching tests, the chalcocite leaching was mainly controlled by diffusion, while for the pyrite leaching, chemical reaction is the main rate-determining step.