A number of chemical and physical processes occur atinterfaces where solids meet liquids. Among them is heap and in-situleaching, an important technological process to extract uranium, preciousmetals, nickel, copper and other compound. To understand the mainpeculiarities of these processes a general mathematical approach is developedand applied. Its key point is new conditions at the free (unknown)boundary between liquid and solid phases (pore space-solid skeleton).The developed model can be used to analyze the dependence of thedynamics of the free fluid-skeleton interface on the external parametersof the process, like temperature, pressure, reagent concentration andothers. Therefore, the overall behavior of the process can be controlledeither by the rate of chemical reaction on the free interface via reagentconcentration or by the velocity at which dissolved substances are transportedto or from the free surface.The special attention is paid to a plausible justification of upscalingfrom mesoscopic to macroscopic scales and its comparison with approachesusually used at the moment. Several examples illustrate the feasibilityof the models.
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