Recovery of copper from copper sulfide ores containing copper and iron

摘要

The invention provides a cyclic process for recovering copper from sulfide ores containing copper and iron which comprises reacting the sulfide ore with sulfur dioxide gas at a temperature of at least about 500 C. to form elemental sulfur, removing the elemental sulfur, reacting the residual solids with concentrated sulfuric acid at a temperature of about 180 to 500 C. to form copper sulfate and sulfur dioxide gas, recycling the sulfur dioxide gas for reaction with additional ore, roasting the remaining solids at a temperature of about 400 C. to 900 C., leaching the roasted solids with an aqueous solution to solubilize the copper sulfate and recovering copper from the solubilized copper sulfate. In another embodiment of the invention, the roasting step is eliminated by removing magnetite from the solids remaining after removal of the elemental sulfur.