Electrochemical Dissolution of Chalcopyrite Concentrates in Stirred Reactor in the Presence of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

In this work, a new stirred reactor was designed and then a comparative study of bioleaching using stirred reactor and shake flask was carried out to investigate the bioleaching performance of the new stirred reactor. Results showed that variations of redox potentials and acid consumptions during were similar in the two systems, and about 15 % more copper extraction can be obtained by stirred reactor. Bacterial concentration increased more sharply in the initial stage of bioleaching in stirred reactor. Analytical results showed that a worse passivation caused by larger amount of jarosite and elemental sulfur on the minerals surface leaded the lower copper extraction in shake flask. Electrochemical analysis revealed that the conductivity of bioleaching residues of shake flasks is lower than that of bioleaching residues of stirred reactor. Stirred reactor possesses significant advantages over shake flask in bioleaching of chalcopyrite concentrates can be caused mainly by better mass transfer effect, better air inflation effect and stronger shear force. Therefore, the stirred reactor can be used for both enlarge cultivation of bacteria and tank bioleaching of ores. Electrochemical measurements revealed that chalcopyrite dissolution was preferred to be a continuous reduction-oxidation pathway, in which chalcopyrite was initially reduced and then oxidized, and the initial reduction reaction was the rate-limiting step