The impact of chloride ions on chalcopyrite leaching: A multiscale and multimodal assessment

摘要: Understanding the variability of leaching kinetics is extremely challenging due to the nature of leaching processes. Common experimental setups, such as column leaching experiments, only allow for quantification of apparent leach kinetics at the macroscale (e.g. at the particle or column level), failing to capture grain-scale variability. In this paper, we study variability in leaching kinetics at the micro- and macroscale using a combination of 4D imaging and standard chemical measurements.The impact of chloride ions on leaching performance was evaluated using column leaching experiments. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) was combined with SEM/EDX to isolate chalcopyrite from pyrite dissolution. Using in-house algorithms, the leaching behaviour of hundreds of thousands of grains was quantified and tracked over time. Morphological changes at the agglomerate level were assessed, coupling porosity …